Imagine this

You pick up the guitar one day. Start playing your favourite song, and all of a sudden you feel this pain in your wrist. It's a sort of pain that distracts you from your playing. You think to yourself "I'll toughen it out it'll probably go away tomorrow", and continue to play some more. You continue to play like this day to day, and then you notice that the pain keeps getting worse. You wonder to yourself "Will this pain ever go away? I hope so." The problem is, this might not be just a pain that will go away. It might be a pain that will cause serious injuries such as tendonitis.

Tendonitis is a serious injury that causes inflammation of a tendon. When you over stretch your tendons it begins to tear which leads to swelling. This is very dangerous because tendons are hard to heal, and will unlikely heal to the original strength. A lot of times this pain is caused by not stretching before you play. Stretching plays a big role in guitar playing. When you stretch your hands, fingers, wrists, and arms you widen the range of motion of your joints. Which will also enable you to play more effortlessly, and faster. When you play without stretching you have limited joint movement. Which means that your hands and wrists won't be as flexible as if you were to stretch before playing.

Here are a few stretches that you can do before you play:

*Place the palm of your left hand to the inside of your fingers on your right hand. Push with your left hand so your fingers are going towards your forearms until you feel a burn in the wrist. Hold for 10-15 seconds. Now do the other hand. You can also do each finger individually. *Extend your left arm fully across your chest, and with your other arm pull your left arm towards your chest. Hold for 10-15 seconds. *With your left palm push the inside of your thumb towards your forearm, hold for 10 seconds. *Extend your arm behind your shoulder by holding your elbow with your other hand. Pull until you feel a burn. Hold for 10-15 seconds for each arm. *Thoroughly massage your hands and fingers individually. This is a crucial step. This will really relax your hands.

Not only should you stretch just before you play the guitar, but also any other time you get the chance. Guitar is not the only place that you can get an injury such as tendonitis. You can get it from exercise or physical work. Always stretch before doing a lot of movement that's involved in working and exercising. If you start to feel pain, STOP PLAYING. This is a danger sign to a minor or serious injury. Just give it a rest, and if the pain continues consult a doctor. Remember, it's all about having fun.