I have two bad shoulders. It comes from years of working overhead. I work on energized powerlines and it is the only safe way to work. You really don't want 12,000 volts in your lap. Most linemen my age have had many different surgeries, knees, shoulders, fused disks in the spine, carpel tunnel, and of course hemorrhoids. I am very lucky, no surgeries. My shoulders used to bother me much more but we have been doing morning stretches with a Physical Therapist at work. It has helped very much. Most of the stretching focuses on the hands, wrists and shoulder/Do you get neck tension. I do tense up while playing and this morning I practiced for almost 3 hours. I try to take some ibuprofen about an hour before I play. My left shoulder and neck get pretty sore. I do some minimal stretching before and I take some short breaks and stretch my neck and rotate and stretch my shoulders. I watched FiddlerMan's video on how to hold the violin, I try to start that way but end up hunched and squeezing the violin with my chin as I raise my shoulder to crush the screeching blue vso! I don't care about some pain, it is so much fun! I played so long today my index finger on my left hand is still numb!

Dave

P.S.

I saw in AARP magazine, an over the counter product for ringing in the ears. I will see if I can find it online and post it here.