Recently I have increased my daily practice time. All has been good, but whenever I am done, my left wrist is always very stiff and painful to turn. Is this just the muscles getting stronger, or is this a sign to change something about my playing style?

I went through a stage of intense practice last year, and experienced the same thing - but it would usually hurt the next morning, at first I just thought I was sleeping awkwardly on my hand. I suddenly went from playing maybe an hour a day of relatively simple stuff to about four hours a day of necrophagist, my left wrist was not happy.

Your wrist will strengthen, but if you are in pain, you must stop playing until it stops hurting and loosens up (for me that would be 12-36 hours), and try not to get into the painful situation in the first place, you will get to know your safe limit. Over time you will get used to it and be able to practice for long periods, you just have to ease into it.

You need to warm up and stretch your muscles in your hands before you start playing, or it could become a problem. You wouldn't run a few miles without stretching, would you?

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Warming up is damn important...
Sometimes when I play alot after not playing a long time this happens, I totally agree with FatDanny's point on 'easing into it.' Guitar is a real damn physical activity, even if you're just sitting in your bedroom messing around! I find also that rubbing your arms at whatever spot you feel the strain at helps as well. In Petrucci's 'Rock Discipline' video he talks about taking some rest time at practice when you're between a certain time period to just relax and massage your muscles, wrist and fingers. I started doing this and I found it helped my technique by becoming more aware of my body as well as truly being relaxed.

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Sometimes though, it's just a matter of that, relaxing. You often don't think about it, especially in the beginning, but when you're playing new stuff that you find difficult you'll time and time again tense like a coil. Me, I upped my speed record by 40 bpm just by making sure that both hands were simply a bit more relaxed.

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Warm up first. Stretch and stuff. I use those grip builder things. They help.

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That's funny dude, I used to have a Gripmaster ages ago, I'd take it everywhere with me... I also had a DynaBee that I'd use to warm up in the car on the way to rehearsals. That thing was fun!

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I don't warm up much myself nowadays, though it sure helps.

But this sounds like you need a better playing position(higher/lower your guitar, try a different neck angle to change the way you grip the neck, reconsider your fretting positions(ie: fingers not curved enough, wrist pointing way too upwards, etc.).

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I had this problem. I went and bought a wrist brace that i could wear but still allow me to play guitar at the same time. Well after about a week of wear it the pain went away and i took the wrist brace off and never had the problem again. (im convinced i was sleeping on the thing in my sleep, that was some real hardcore pain as i remeber)

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Don't masturbate so much!!

Yea... worthless post. Plenty of advice listed above.

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The old saying, "no pain, no gain," is not the one to follow here. Some people will tell you to suck it up and be a man, but you can make things much worse. Proper warm-up and stretching will help a lot. Take a break for a few minutes to stretch your muscles and rub them a bit. You'll get more used to playing that much (and more), but it takes a while. Always warm-up with some slower stuff that takes more concentration and less automated speed playing. Then stretch. Then shred.

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