The TuneUp Program

Extrinsic wrist and finger extensors and intrinsic hand muscles

Most of the muscles that move the fingers are located in the forearm, hence their name : the extrinsic (outside) muscles of the hand. On the inside of your arm the flexors pull your fingers down onto the strings while, on the back of your arm, the extensors lift them away from the neck. These movements are elemental for every guitar player and much of the program deals with making them as efficient as possible.

The muscles in the hand itself allow our movements their precision and guitarists rely heavily on them. Placing your fingers on and off the fretboard is one thing but these intrinsic muscles point your fingers to the right place. Cramping is common in the hand and is inevitable when playing through the eventual fatigue that these muscles suffer when they are not used properly.

These two groups work together, the extrinsic muscles, apart from the thumb, provide nearly all of the force and the intrinsic muscles control the finer movements. If however one group doesn't do it's job then the other will be called on to compensate. The main problem relates to the position of the wrist, reducing the efficiency of the extrinsic muscles, making the smaller intrinsic muscles work harder.

The position of the wrist will affect the resting length of the muscles that control the hand.

The extrinsic hand muscles cross the wrist and at least one knuckle before attaching onto a finger. If the wrist is in a neutral position they can rest at their normal length. When you change the position of the wrist then the muscles that run up onto the fingers will have to change length as well, even if their not actually doing anything.

Due to phenomena called passive and active insufficiency muscles work better at an optimum length, it has to do with how the filaments in muscle fibres slide across each other to make them shorten. The further from that optimum length these muscles are taken due to the position of the wrist, the more work they’ll have to do for the same simple tasks that would be a breeze with the wrist neutral.

For example

You’re playing a barre chord and require pressure on the strings with the fingers of your left hand. The finger flexors, on the inside of your forearm provide the energy to do this. If you’re wrist is fully flexed then these muscles are already short and then you're asking them to shorten further to barre the chord. This is hard work and causes the muscle to fatigue earlier, increasing the tension in the arm and hand and the likelihood of cramp and overuse injuries.

By getting as close to possible to a neutral wrist position you can produce the same force with significantly less effort.

• With your wrist neutral close your fist - easy.
• Now flex your wrist as far as it will go and try to close your fist again.
• Fully extend your wrist and try to straighten your fingers - I told you.