UKC

So, can anyone play guitar and hang off their fingerboard at the same time? 

...On a more serious note - does anyone do these two things (separately) and end up with injuries / issues with their elbows, and have they found a way of mitigating it?

I do some light fingerboard repeaters twice a week to keep up with not going to the gym to climb but I have found that doing that combined with playing guitar throughout the week seems to be causing an overuse type injury. Have just recently started some antagonistic stretching to see if that will help but wondered if anyone has been in the same boat and if they have any advice? 

Hmm.  So that's either limited arpeggios using an imaginative tuning whilst hanging from your left hand, or really turning up the gain and tapping Steve Vai-style while hanging from your right.  You might need two different guitars.

I have noticed recently, after going back to guitar after a very long break, that all that time spent on the wall has definitely made my fingers less flexible. 

Saw this and just had to find out.
The answer is yes. Managed a couple of bars of the RH part of Andy McKee's 'Drifting' before I pumped out.
I think I've answered that question enough now.

What kind of overuse type injury? How long ago did you start doing the repeaters? 

Or have three arms

I started playing guitar just before christmas. I'll play around 2hr a week in total .My fingers would sometimes feel a bick tweaky whilst playing, so I just stopped if they did. I'm finding I can gradually increase the amount of guitar I play, whilst still keeping the same climbing intensity without any little niggles.

I neither train hard enough or play guitar fast enough to offer an expert opinion... but I would say that I do have the sense that time spent climbing and left hand dexterity are in inverse proportion.  If I've been climbing a lot, then it really feels like my left hand is just running a bit slowly.

As for the first question - sure this this is exactly what Angus' intro to Thunderstruck is for?

Yes to both. Fingerboard at least three times a week. Practice guitar 1-2 hours a night most nights.

I don’t get problems with the fingerboard, but get neck/shoulder pan if I play my 335 too much. I think it’s either down to posture or the universe telling me I only need a Telecaster.

I've found having nails again after many years has led to a renaissance in my playing!

I played in a band for 10 years, practicing twice a week, gigging once or twice a month. I also climbed/trained/fingerboarded twice a week and climbed most weekends. I never had a problem, I must have built up a good tolerance against injuries over the years. I did take 9 months off climbing through a back injury and my playing/speed improved massively. Having a set off light strings helped take the load off when I was playing a lot, we played quite a lot of hour+ shows, fingers certainly knew they'd been through a gig after.

Just left elbow pain really, repeaters I have been doing since December with a few missed sessions here and there.

It seems the general consensus is there doesn't seem to be a correlation between playing guitar and fingerboarding causing any specific type of pain so perhaps I am just an anomaly and I need to give one of them up... now wheres my guitar... 😁

all fine here but it sounds like you are fairly new to guitar so give it a while, your fingers will adapt is my best guess.

Good thread, I've thought about this myself and I'm sure certain playing styles stress the same muscles/tendons as hangboarding. I think it all depends on the string gauge and style, intensity, attack, etc... How/what strings do you play?

I cycle between .13s and .12s and play SRV style blues, so lots of big bends, and a constant, heavy attack with the R hand. Even when playing a single note I rake across the other muted strings to "rough it up a bit". Sometimes I play every day, other times I don't play for a week. I think I'm the perfect candidate for carpel tunnel syndrome.

I've been playing like that for years but only hang boarding for 11 months. In that time I've had my first sight of carpel tunnel syndrome and elbow problems but which have gone away quickly with a drop in intensity (on the board) and good stretching - of the extensors in particular. 

Does that relate to your experience? I hope you don't have to give either up!

I used to play quite a bit, and found warning up my fingers before I started playing properly really helps the prevent tired quickly, and made me play more precisely too.

There will be loads of routines on YouTube but I used to do a up/down picked 1234 from low e to high e then back down again in reverse (4321) from 5th fret to 12th then back down again. 

Sounds a lot but you really fly through it once you get used to it, and it helps with stamina, dexterity and helps prevent fingers getting tweaked.

That's a good point, I don't normally warm up, should do in future. Good opportunity to practise scales too!

Edit: practise not practice, always gets me.

Just noticed the gauges you play are like cable car cables, that’s like the 8a of string gauges!

I’d defs want a warm up before jumping on them!

Must get a lovely tone...

Haha, please don't think I'm any good! I just have quite a heavy style and can't get the same resistance from 11s. 

The tone is amazing- a Strat (I have a beefed-up, modded Squire) and a nice clean channel, maybe just a hint of distortion and a tad spring reverb. Can't beat it!

I'm with lamgregp on the 1234 thing as it's a good exercise. On a different tack, does anyone have any experience of how fast you can go with alternate picking using different notes on every pick?

Your explanation seems to be spot on CTS could be an issue seeing that I sit behind a computer all day too so I am quite susceptible to it. In terms of string gauge I have no idea as im quite new to guitar so havent changed them just yet!