practicing/playing in a cool/cold room...

[curiousgeorge]

Well, it hasn't been the warmest outside lately, maybe 8 to 12 degrees celsius...I just moved into a basement apartment, so it's a bit cool down here...I practiced for 2 hours at least today, fully warming up with warm water, shaking my hands out, trills and Petrucci's Rock Discipline stretches...I found that even though I did all this and got through the practice, my fingers still feel cold, like they aren't warmed up, and they feel a bit stiff and not as limber as they could be...I figured my vigorous practice would offset the coolness of the room. It was weird because my hands and fingers were sweating, but they were still feeling cold and stiff. I had a similar experience auditioning for a band in a basement jam room. Even though I had been playing for over 3 hours straight that day, my hands felt like they were getting stiffer and colder...Anybody know what's going on here, or have any solutions? Thanks...

[paTz0r]

I used to have that problem when I played in my school's jazz band. It was a poor private school with almost no insulation. The band room was the coldest room in the whole school. What worked for me was to vigorously massage my fingers and hands between stretching exercises.

[newamerikangosp]

Well, anytime you are in a cold room, then your appendages that get very little blood will become cold. Being as your phlanges get very little blood to them they will always be cold, but that isn't neccesarily a "bad" thing, as long as the tendons, and muscles aren't "cold". If you were to have just picked up the guitar and did the most strenuous excercises, you would damage/tear something in most cases (even if they were small tears). I would suggest putting your hands in your pocket during downtime, or as pat said, massage them during downtime.

If you were to put a little bit of alchol (not the drinking kind, the kind you put on cuts and scratches) on your hand, it would make that little part of your hand cold. Thats because it evaporates quickly, and it "takes" the heat of your hand with it. Your cold hand might also be like that because it is sweating.