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- Stretching right before a practice session
can be really important for number one,
having the most productive practice session possible,
and number two, hopefully avoiding any injuries.
In this lesson, I'm gonna go through
some basic tips for building dexterity,
and I'm gonna show you some stretches
that you can do before you get into warming up and playing.
I have three little tips that I wanna give you
that you should think about doing as you practice.
The first one is to take time to warm up.
And we're gonna go over some warm-up exercises later,
but stretching is also kind of part of warming up.
And it's easy to kind of just sweep it aside and say,
"I really don't need to do this,"
but let me tell you.
I have heard some horror stories
of just weird injuries that people have gotten
because they just pick up the guitar and go right to some
more taxing playing instead of taking the time to warm up.
Tip number two is watch what you drink,
and by that, I mean drink a lot of water.
Stay hydrated.
That's really good for your soft tissue,
and it can really help you
to have a productive practice time.
Tip number three is watch how you're set up
and how you're holding the guitar.
If you're sore after a practice session,
you might wanna think about
changing the way you hold a guitar.
If you're holding it the casual method
like I'm doing right now,
and you have some soreness in your shoulder or your back,
you might wanna try the classical method
or you might wanna try standing up with the strap
or sitting down with the strap too.
Just listen to your body and if it's hurting or you're sore,
just change things up a little bit
and see if you can make it better.
Let's go through some stretches that I have for you.
I have four basic ones that you can choose from
to kinda kick off your practice session.
The first one just kind of stretches your forearm out.
And what you do is just take whatever arm you're stretching,
put your arm out like that, and then pull back on it
just a little bit with the other hand.
You don't want it to hurt.
You just want to feel the stretch.
All you're doing is basically limbering up
and getting some blood flowing in your arms.
And you can do this for 20 seconds, 30 seconds,
then switch to the other arm.
You don't want to do it too hard again.
If you feel any pain, just stop.
Go see a doctor.
But this is just a good way to kinda get the blood flowing,
get things loosened up.
And I would do that twice on each hand for 20 or 30 seconds.
That's stretch one.
Stretch two is very similar to stretch one.
You can kind of substitute these in and out for each other,
but what you wanna do is put your fingertips together
and then just push your hands out.
And you're kind of stretching both hands at once,
but it feels a little bit different
from stretch one that we did.
So this is a really good one if I don't have a lot of time
to warm up or stretch before a gig or for a practice session
because it stretches both hands at the same time.
But again, do that for 20 or 30 seconds.
Shake it out.
And then do it again.
It shouldn't hurt.
It should just feel a nice, little comfortable stretch.
Stretch number three stretches the top of your forearm.
So far I've been working on this area right here,
so we're gonna work on the tops now.
Make a fist, and then just pull it down a little bit.
Don't do it to where it hurts again,
but this is a really good stretch.
It feels a lot different than just pulling your hand down.
When you make that fist, it's a lot more effective stretch.
But again, just hold it for 20 or 30 seconds
to where it doesn't hurt, but you can feel the stretch.
And then just alternate to the other one.
I actually had tennis elbow pretty bad at one point,
and it's cleared up entirely.
And this is one stretch that I do almost every time
before I play, just because I'm paranoid of
that tennis elbow coming back, right?
The last little stretch that I have for you
is kind of more like a massage than a stretch.
And it feels really nice on your fingers,
and it gets your fingers ready to do some practicing.
All you do is take each individual finger
and kinda rotate it like this
and pull on it a little bit.
Often times, I'll get a crack in my knuckle from this.
I'm not trying to do that,
but I'm just trying to get the blood flowing
and limber them up a little bit
and get them ready for some practice, right?
Just do it a few times on each finger.
And you can do it on both hands or just one.
I tend to only do it on my fretting hand.
Those are just a couple of stretches that you can use
and incorporate in your daily practice time.
Pick a couple of them that you like
and don't skimp them, right?
Remember, it's important to warm up.
We'll talk more about warming up in the next lesson.
Hey, thanks for watching.
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