Sore inside of forearm, Help please

bluetrain

Sounds a bit similar problem that many long distant runners have that their skin rubs against the shirt or pants and then the skin starts to hurt very much after few hours. If I remember right some runners put tape on their nipples for example to make a kind of shield for the most irritated areas. Just to give you some thoughts. Maybe you could try to make the edge a bit less sharp with tape or something?

BluesBop Harry

Thanks for your suggestions,
The only thing I'm sure of now is that it has something to do with that guitar and the way I play it.
It's not the binding, actually it's pretty smooth in comparison to some others.
I think just maybe, the problem is the neck half of the guitar is much heavier than the body so the guitar naturally wants to fall down by the headstock, making the lower bout push against my arm constantly.
An hour or two is not a problem, passing five hours and I really feel it.
I formulated that theory by process of elimination, finding the differences between the guitar that gives me trouble and one, almost identical, that does not.
We'll see...

Anyway thanks

Chiefbigeasy

Hey Harry,

If you're still around and having this problem, take a look at the Abel armrest at Strings by Mail website. It's a little expensive at 75 bucks, but it's well-made and attaches to the guitar temporarily, or you can leave it attached for your convenience.

I started to have pain on my inner forearm because of a nerve issue and this pretty much solved. There's even a school of thought about this device that suggests that because it lifts your forearm off the soundboard of the guitar, it makes it sound better. After using it for a few weeks, I forgot that it's there and it's quite comfortable.

Have seen other arm rest attachments that actually are glued or stick to the guitar. I didn't really care to do that.

BluesBop Harry

Thanks man!
The discomfort went away after a while, fortunately... I'm not completely sure what did it in the end.
I tried everything... I even had to change my sleeping position which did wonders.

Trigger point massage seems to have been very helpful as well because my problem was probably the sum of various different factors.
I got a book by Clair Davies about self massage and still do it regularly in various parts of my arms, neck and shoulders when I feel tension is accumulating. Helps a lot.

I also forced myself to relax as much as possible and to make sure my biceps is resting over the lower bout. Warm up, don't skip rests, etc...

One thing that definitely did not help, and in fact made the problem worse, was doing those muscle stretches everyone prescripts for tendinitis and other muscle ailments. I stopped doing those and don't plan on ever trying them again.

Anyway, that arm rest does looks cool and I might try it to prevent that pain from ever coming back or even just to make long playing sessions more confortable.

Thanks again for the help

Jazzaferri

Is the pain localized to the contact point.

BluesBop Harry

@Jazzaferri,
This is a 6 year old thread... The pain has since subsided, thankfully.
And yes, it was localized to the contact point, at least at first.

It's going to sound weird and dumb but it all started from wearing one of those scratchy wool sweaters, it was my favourite and I wore it everyday.
After some time my skin became irritated from the friction while playing with that sweater on and I started to, subconsciously alter my playing position which led to tension in the muscles and eventually injury. The injury was then compounded by everyday tasks as lifting things, opening jars plus sleeping in awkward postures.

Thanks for your concern nonetheless, I appreciate you trying to help

Jazzaferri

Jeez, 6 years, how did it get to the recent discussions? Anyway, glad to hear you are over it.

anthon_74

That's the one drawback to playing gypsy jazz. The injuries. I get wrist issues, arm freeze, shoulder pain, neck pain... It goes on and on.

Chiefbigeasy

As to how this got on here after six years, I was looking through some old posts and noticed this one about pain in the forearm. I just happened to be having some problems myself and thought that this new armrest I purchased might be of interest to others. Check it out, if you get a chance. It's not a bad little device, whether you have or pain or not.

Buco

I'm sort of experimenting with different angles of picking attack and as I'm doing that, in certain positions my arm starts going numb.
I decided on one of John Pearse armrests as I actually like the look of it added to the guitar.
It's claimed to improve the sound by lifting the arm off the top but our technique already does that so I don't expect much there. For the flattop players though it probably works well to do just that.