wrist pains?

since summer has started ive had alot more time to practice, like 3 hours a day. its about my 6th week, and i picked up my guitar this morning and after about 20 minutes my wrist area began to hurt. i havent had wrist pains since like a year after i first started playing guitar. should i play through the pains cause my muscles need to be built up more? or should i stop playing for awhile?

I think you need to work on your posture when you're playing. Try to sit up straight instead of leaning over to see the chord; you should try this so you can eventually learn the chords and play them without the need of looking at your guitar.

Also, if you're playing new chords it might be because of that; and your wrist isn't used to such challenging positions.

But I don't reccommend enduring the pain if it's really bad, take a break and try again or if it doesn't get any better I'd try to find a different position to play.

Definitely take Jazz's advice. I would not try to push through the pains if it is the arms, wrist, or hands and is related to guitar, since you never know what might be causing them.
I decided to raise the height of my guitar when I stood and played, but noticed that it caused some sort of aching, and sharp pain when I would play rhythm's, in my shoulder. I dropped it back down to where it was, and took a short break, then came back and noticed that the pain was gone.
I also used to get a lot of wrist pains when I would play a few years back, and they were pretty painful, but as soon as my wrist started to hurt, I would do either basic basic chords and things, or take a break for a while.
Don't push it as you could cause Carpal Tunnel, which is worse than a 30 minute break in between playing.

Also if you are sitting down, you might want to try to play the guitar "classical" style, with the guitar resting between your legs and sort of tilting the neck upwards. I have to do this with my main guitar, since it is a V, but I do it with every other guitar as well, and notice it is much easier to play like this(for me), as it takes some pressure off of my wrist and arms.

Happens to me all the time normaly i just play thru it and its over by the next day

Case just reminded me of that too; your guitar could be too low! If you like playing while standing up I'd always play it where you hold the guitar while sitting down.

Whoever thought of the "it looks cool" thing deserves to be slapped - play how YOU want and in the best way that's most comfortable.


@ Mistaluke,

Definitely not the best way to think, even though you're a man and have your pride to endure pain - it's not always the best thing to do... it can definitely weaken the wrist if pushed too far. So just keep that in mind dude. Never want to see talent go to waste!

thanks for the advice:) fixing my posture seemed to make it better. when i stand up and play my guitar is usually pretty high cause i can barely reach when its down low. haha. the LAST thing that i want is Carpal Tunnel. my mom always jokes that we might have to buy finger insurance just in case something goes wront. haha :D