[LionSlicer]

I've been playing for a little over 3 years, but I've recently joined a band and realized that I'm not so great :hehehe: Or at least not as great as I could be with three years under my belt.
My main concern is that during practice or jam sessions my fingering hand (left, as I am right-handed) cramps up and gets a similar feeling to when you work out and build lactic acid in your muscles. I assume this is because before I was in a band I would play a little and take a break and come back to it. My routine was very relaxed.
I've been doing various exercises and have been trying to play for longer periods of time.
So I have two questions:
1. Is there a way to build "hand endurance" quickly, or at a more accelerated rate? Do you have any practices for it?
2. Is there anything wrong with playing until it hurts? I don't believe I could damage anything just playing guitar... right?
My hands are quite feminine :angry:

 

[fretboard_dragon]

There is no fast shortcut to endurance...time and strict practice is the only solution. You just don't wake up tomorrow and run a marathon. Find certain exercises that focus on what you want to improve. start SLOWLY and build up the muscle memory....then improve on speed and endurance.
As far as playing until it hurts, well.....not generally considered a good thing. If you're hurting somewhere, your body's trying to tell you something...knock it off!!
Step back, take a break...massage your arm muscles, shake your hands around, and stop for a bit.

 

[tmacfan]

A great exercise wud be playing a pentatonic pattern repeating fast but one string apart,
ie. if ur first pattern is on the first string then the following pattern shud be on the third string, believe me builds endurance and enuff practice enables u to play arpeggios like Paul Gilbert.