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Cramp while playing


Rodulator
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Has anyone ever exerienced this?

I had a gig at the weekend and about half way into the first song this set in. Needless to say the next 30 mins were total agony. Normally after a 3 hour practice my wrist gets kind of tired especially in some parts of songs that have insane stretches but never that quickly or to the same magnitude.

Does anyone have tips on how to avoid this happening? I have since started hitting my power ball again a lot to try and strengthen my wrist fingers etc in the hopes that it will help in the long run.

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Add bananas, cranberry juice, and salted crisps to your diet. All are good for the circulation, so should have a preventative effect. I suffer from poor circulation and as a result, cramp in my calves when it`s cold, and without these, it`s much worse. Touch wood, not had a bout for a fair while.

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Sorry left hand cramp from a right handed player.

Yeah I think you might be correct to bring in strap length on this. I prefer to have it low as I can get away with then bring it up a little bit. This is mainly due to lots of ultra fast picking and having the guitar too high puts a wierd strain on my elbow on my right arm ( queue bad technique discussion ).

@Lozz196 I think you might be on to something here as I have recently started getting cramps in my calves as well.

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I used to suffer from this a lot when I started playing mad rock n roll on the double bass, keep hydrated, water or lucozade sport but more importantly warm your hands and arms up, try sweatbands if you like, warm up exercises or if you're really in a rush stick them under the air blower in the loo for a few minutes!

Bananas are supposed to be great too, potassium rich etc

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Yep. Got cramp in left hand (right handed pick player) during the last few songs of the second, and last, 1 hour set a couple of months back. Skipped dinner that day and intended to eat afterwards .... won't do that again. Fingers locked together and would hardly move. Couldn't do encore ... so we didnt do one.

Got it again, in a minor way in the middle of the first set a couple of weeks back. Got some non-diet coke and some peanuts at the interval and managed to survive second set.

I now pay more attention to diet before a gig and stretch my hands/fingers before and during sets. It's a bit of a worry though.

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Hi,

This happened to me many years ago. Was playing in a pub band at the time and my left hand would freeze up. I eventually started to take choclate bars to get some sugar which fixed it. Two years later I developed type 1 diabetes which is not normal when you are in your 40s.

Not saying that is what's happening with you but it's what happened to me. Hope it doesn't happen as it's a real pain.

Best wishes.

Doug

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+1

A gentle warm up and something sweet should help in the short-term (ie, on the night). Long term, you need to look at posture, strap height and your practice regime.

Another thing to look at is your set-up. Setting the strings higher than you need to means that you need to apply more pressure to the strings with your fingers; lowering the action means it'll be less effort to fret the string.

Cramping is also an early sign of tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome; if these symptoms persist against these measures, get it checked out!

Truckstop

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If you are playing a lot and intend to carry on that way, taking a break for a bit and adjustments to instrument setup/gig diet will all help but I would also go and see your Doctor asap, with CTS or Tendonitis it is best to have it looked at quickly, as simple treatments now, if required, can prevent a lot of issues further down the road.

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My guitar player suffers from cramp a lot and he makes sure that he drinks plenty of fluids that contains high sodium and potassium an hour or two before a performance. I think he drinks a combination of Lucozade and that bright blue drink that Coke does (I forget the name). It seems to really help since he began drinking that stuff over a year ago.

But, he did consult a doctor first to make sure it was just muscle cramp or perhaps CTS. Eating a banana or drinking a hydration beverage doesn't fix CTS and you can do further damage if you don't treat it medically before the injury becomes permanent.

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I've suffered the odd left hand cramp too, mainly during that long repitetive fast guitar solo part in Dazed and Confused ! our drummer suggested having a packet of ready salted crisps, but that just made playing it virtually impossible, i dropped nearly all the crisps :D.
Seriously it did help a bit for the rest of the rehearsal, but i found there was no substitute for practice and building up the stamina where it's needed. Oh and bananas and a low action.

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[quote name='bob_pickard' timestamp='1363673529' post='2015510']
Bananas are supposed to be great too, potassium rich etc
[/quote]

Mmm ... potassium!

best,
bert

[IMG]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r525/basstractor1/Homer-banana_zpsbe243ffb.jpg[/IMG]

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Did you have any trouble hearing yourself?

I've had my left hand lock up once on a sit-in due to that. For some inexplicable reason instinct told me that pressing the strings [i]really[/i] hard would make them louder... had a forearm like an iron bar for half an hour afterwards.

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[quote name='jjay69' timestamp='1363792835' post='2017731']
I've suffered the odd left hand cramp too, mainly during that long repitetive fast guitar solo part in Dazed and Confused ! our drummer suggested having a packet of ready salted crisps, but that just made playing it virtually impossible, i dropped nearly all the crisps :D.
[/quote]

PMSL!!! You've just made me choke on my glass of wine :lol:

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