Arm pains after drumming

JackM

Junior Member
Hey guys

I'll cut to the chase: I've been experiencing some really nasty pains in my right arm for the past half hour, at the base of the tendons that control my fingers, about halfway down my forearm. It's more of a stinging pain than a muscle pain. I last drummed about three hours ago, and I felt fine then, but I can't imagine what else could be causing it.

I've been playing drums 5-6 hours every day for the past week. This is far more than normal, which is normally no more than an hour a day. My technique is good, I always play as relaxed as possible, and I'm quite a quiet/gentle player, at least by the standards of most drummers, and I always walk up with Stick Control before playing anything demanding.

Is this normal? Have I just played too much recently?

Thanks in advance

Jack
 
I've been playing drums 5-6 hours every day for the past week. This is far more than normal, which is normally no more than an hour a day.

5-6 hours is a crazy amount of time to practice for in one day! especially if you are doing that every day. were you tensing up at all? gripping too tightly?

obviously it's impossible for anybody on a forum to say what the problem is with any real authority, but i would advise seeing a doctor if it happens in the future because that doesn't sound healthy at all.
 
Take some NSAID's (ibuprofen is best) and ice your arm for the first 12 hours. After that, use heat and rest for a couple days. If it continues, see a doctor. Whatever you do, don't keep going at the pace you are on.

I experience problems when I play with 5A sticks at really fast tempos for long periods of time. I would describe my issues as more of a numbness, but it is spooky. I learned that if I switched to 7A's for the fast-tempo portions of the set list, I do much better.

I don't think it has a thing to do with lack of strength or endurance. I got the same feeling when I rode my mountain bike without a shock fork. The vibration seems to induce numbness. I am careful because I don't want to do permanent damage to my arms and neither do you.
 
5-6 hours is a crazy amount of time to practice for in one day! especially if you are doing that every day. were you tensing up at all? gripping too tightly?
Not really. I did work on speeding up my single stroke roll for a bit, during which it's kinda difficult to stay completely relaxed for, but other than that, nothing. I just bought Jojo Mayers DVD and I've been trying to do everything it says, so I'm playing as relaxed as possible

Thanks for the advice, I don't wanna deal myself any perminant damage, so I'll slow down for a few days.
I've just been really motivated recently, I've wanted to take advantage of it

Jack
 
Do you use the same grip all the time? Particularly if you use German regardless of which drum you're hitting. I saw a bit in a vid with Thomas Pridgen where he says he rolls his hands over all the time into variations of grips. That if he played one way exclusively, he would start to hurt.

OTOH, I have a friend who got bad tendonitis in his right elbow from rolling his hand all the way over to a sort of palm up position to reach over to his right. Usually just as a single stroke in the middle of something, he didn't play full on rudiments this way. It does give a different tone because of how loosely the stick is held, but he can't do it any more.
 
I would think 5-6 hours practicing a day for a week straight is going to cause problems in most drummers. When you work out at the gym, you can go every day, but they say you should alternate between upper body and lower body, in order to give your muscle groups a chance to heal in between. I'd suggest you take off every other day for that purpose, and make sure you are doing some serious stretching before, during and after practice.
 
Stretch the arms, maybe checkout YouTube for any suggestions. Also a too tight a grip on the sticks may be a factor in the discomfort.
 
I no longer have a full time job to go to and I combine practicing drums with just playing drums for fun 5-6 hours a day and more quite often. Being semi-retired (older guy) I take
a couple ibuprofen before each gig. It really helps.
 
I think the jump from 1 to 5-6 hrs a day is the problem. Try to practice on some foot stuff more , like splash open and close hihat , double pedal if you have one , independence stuff and grooves with your left hand on hihat (left handed). Like that , you "rest"your sore limb yet still practice.
 
I no longer have a full time job to go to and I combine practicing drums with just playing drums for fun 5-6 hours a day and more quite often. Being semi-retired (older guy) I take
a couple ibuprofen before each gig. It really helps.

oh don't get me wrong, i often play for long hours too, probably around 30/40 hours a week. i just think there is a difference between a gradual increase of playing time and suddenly changing! if you're body isn't used to it then i don't think it's a great idea is all.

edit; what drum4fun said.
if you were training you wouldn't just do bicep curls every day, you'd mix it up so you work out different muscle groups (in this case perhaps different limbs). and most importantly of all you rest well :)
 
Those are long practice sessions if you're not used to them. I practice even longer regularly, but there are several buts:

From practicing so much I've naturally had to adjust a lot of things, since after e.g. 8 hours of jazz independence, if your ride is in a bad place you'll feel it no matter how relaxed your technique is. It's a strenuous workout either way, like all those repetetive work stations where workers get all sorts of damages over time, but the pain will tell you what has to be done.

Since I sit in a playing position so much I make myself get up and stretch often. I also do my pad practice standing up so I don't end up sitting all day and I can do a few squats between each etude. It gets the blood flowing and since it gets the blood flowing it helps with everything.

There are tensions that are hard to figure. I play trad and for quite a while I used to hurt along the ligaments of my left pinky, which isn't really involved. I could never figure it out, it just stopped happening over time.

If one is not used to this amount of practice it is also lightly that things happen to our technique as we both get tired and get really emotional with the music. Small imperfections do add up if you repeat them thousands of times.

A great exercise for the hands is e.g. to take a full newspaper sheet and roll it up to a balll using just one hand. Repeat ten times for each hand. Then do some massage and all those stretches that computer people (should) do. Those balls are great as well. Another one would be closing your fists rapidly 100 times. Opening them fully in the same fashion is great to. I used to do those a lot in martial arts class. The Jojo Mayer hand clappping is good as well.
 
some great tips (i need a stress ball) thank you!
 
Great advice in here. The only thing I would add is that it's better to work in smaller bursts (40-50 minute sessions) and take a break. Also, are you taking time to warm up properly? I'm not talking about a few paradiddles and rolls for 5 minutes...try very slow, full strokes, on the snare drum...keep good posture during your warm up and good form in your hand position. Do the first page of stick control at eighth=60bpm. Watch the sticks! Don't watch TV... make sure your brain is connecting with the visual of what your hands are actually doing and can double-check that everything looks good.

Also, maybe check the position of your drums.
 
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I just got into a situation last year where I can play everyday for hours. I had a similar issue, and basically I was just getting sore from the additional practice. Eventually the pain went away, but I would literally have to stop playing for several days so I could heal up.
 
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