Tennis elbow, wrist pain, sore forearm muscles

yammieoaks

Senior Member
I've been drumming 2 hours with my band every 1-2 weeks. Last week we started off with a song that I played 16th notes on the hit hats with, and jammed through it 2-3 times. Throughout the meaty part of my hand beneath my thumb got sore and stiff, and we soon moved onto another song. Afterwards, I felt tennis elbow, wrist pain and sore forearms.

Nothing is inflamed, just sore. I didn't stretch much before playing so that was my first mistake. But all in all, my wrists aren't great and my tennis elbow comes back each time I drum. I'm considering my age of 43 and thinking this may be the time to give up drumming because it's not and never has done any good for my wrists and elbow. Btw, I'm right handed and it's my left tennis elbow and right forearm, and both wrists that are in pain.

What to do? Give it up? Rest? Stretch a ton?
 
Oh man! I'm suffering through it right now! Got a pinched nerve in my right arm. What's been actually working is acupuncture and deep tissue massage. Drink lots of water, take ibuprofen (with food).

Speaking of food, oftentimes there can be an inflammatory food in our diet that causes things to swell up inside of us and cause such pinched off connections. So I'm thinking that all those trips through the In-n-Out burger are going to need to cease to eliminate the buildup of uric acid in my body.

Also, ergonomics. I have to lower my desk two inches, might as well "hang up" and do that now, haha!
 
Sounds to me like a little lack of conditioning. Kind of like just going out for a run every once and a while, the big muscle groups are OK, its the soft tissue and tendons you have to worry about, because your hips have weakened. The other thing(in addition to the ergonomics) is how you hold the stick, if you grip it tightly the rebound transfers the shock to your arms.
 
Sounds to me like a little lack of conditioning. Kind of like just going out for a run every once and a while, the big muscle groups are OK, its the soft tissue and tendons you have to worry about, because your hips have weakened. The other thing(in addition to the ergonomics) is how you hold the stick, if you grip it tightly the rebound transfers the shock to your arms.

Also, repetition of movement wears don't tendons and muscles.
 
If you still enjoy playing (minus the pain) - I don't think you should quit...

What you're seeing is really common - I see this a lot with players and you can usually turn it around with revised grip/technique...
 
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