Anyone get shoulder pains from yoing too much and it depresses you because you have to rest for a day or two and can’t yo? Anyone have any tips to save your arm from falling off?
Also been noticing my yoyo finger giving a slight snap/crack on breakaways…never hurts, but am I slowly breaking my finger off with bad technique or is this normal?
my throw hand index got really dried and kept cracking (the skin), and it really hurt to yoyo, so i had to wear a Band-Aid when i yoyoed, but a friend said Vitamin E oil softens the skin and it didn’t hurt as much, so i applied a smal bit of oil on the Band-Aid, and that really helped. but a few months later, my hands are just fine!
When I first started I had to wear a bandaid, it was killing my finger. Now I don’t use a bandaid, but I also consistently use Zipline strings that are way softer than what I was using at the start.
i recently found MonkeyfingeR Vines don’t hurt my fingers at all.
Same thing here when using Tarzan vines -
But I prefer barbed wire
wouldn’t barbed wire tear up your fingers more? 
That really sucks 
I have a friend who has back issues who has to step away from yoing once in awhile and it’s a big bummer.
I also had a massive gout flare up late last year where I couldn’t put any pressure on my right foot so was u unable to throw for around a month which sucked.
Rain City Skills makes a yoyo called the Author…it’s really light and was made because the guy who made it had some shoulder problems and wanted a yo he could throw around without irritating his shoulder as much as heavier throws did.
It’s insane how much you feel a few extra grams when you’re throwing for hours at a time!
yysl plutonium are my faves… i was going through trials to see if there would be something else i liked… i’ve said it a bunch of times, lol… yysl plutonium are the fancy toilet paper of string man, soft as all get out.
i have chronic back and shoulder pain, and a bone spur in a disc that makes standing painful, a lot… there’s cats out here that have it a lot worse than i though. i switch a lot between responsive and unresponsive, and something like an ehknown, etc. (vs. anything unresponsive) that is overall lighter, larger in diameter and the center of mass distributed more, can be more forgiving on the old joints and bones, while still getting some good play out of it.
for those dry winters, like in the northeast from where i originated, when your hands get all dry and cracked. at night, get a nice clean pair of cotton socks, slather your hands in vaseline, and put the socks on your hands and go to bed. after a night or to they should be all good.
Pretty sure your knuckle shouldn’t be cracking when you throw, you may need to dial it down a bit. If you are over doing it you might get some shoulder pain, but it sounds like you past over doing it a while ago.
Unless you are throwing for big money, I would think about easing up and seeing if you can get to throwing without (chronic) pain.
My throw hand middle finger used to get sore (joints, not skin), so I started throwing so that the string coming from my middle finger drapes over my index finger. Hard to describe, but I’ve seen some pros do it as well. It really reduces the strain on your middle finger by distributing the force of the throw through your entire hand rather than yanking on your poor middle finger joint all the time.
I don’t even think about it anymore - it feels pretty horrible (not painful - just unnecessarily strenuous) to throw without doing this.
As far as the shoulder goes, I would just say give it a week off, and then ease up on your throw a bit while incorporating my little tip for your finger - who knows, your finger pain and shoulder pain could be closely related. A lot literally hinges on your elbow, so your fingers, forearms, upper arm, and shoulders can all refer pain to each other in some odd ways.
I get a bunch of pain in my elbow
Starting to get some elbow pain myself. Ive been pumping myself with ibuprofen,
Sounds like your finger might fall off… 
Rotater Cuff stretches and exercise… if your getting pain fron using a muscle consider rehabing and training properly.
Athletes don’t take 3 days off and go do the same thing that injured them. They rehad and train differently to avoid the problem.
We should all consider ourselves athletes and throwing our sport. If you need help or advice training /rehabing your neck/ shoulder feel free to message me. I am a chiropractor by day.
I haven’t experienced shoulder pain yet, but I have gotten yoyo elbow, as I call it (aka tennis elbow, lateral epicondylitis). I had to wear a compression sleeve for awhile. When I feel it begin to hurt, I step away from throwing for a day or two, put the sleeve back on, pick some lighter throws… As for the finger hurting from the string, I tape my index and middle finger for that very reason. I currently am using goat tape, but I have also used flexible sports tape. I tape the index to protect when removing string tension the old fashioned way. HTH. 
You could spread the love a little, while giving that side a break. Practice non-dominant hand loops for instance, or play with other skill toys.
Back when I got back into throwing, I was noticing soreness… It was me throwing daily and trying to throw hard for those long sleepers so I can have a fighting chance to learn a trick (half the time my throw was still crooked anyway and had the yoyo wobble out). As my form improved my arm got conditioned to it.
As for the finger, string used to hurt after extended play but since, my middle finger had toughened up.
A mechanic friend turned me on to Aquaphor for cracked hands and my dermatologist swears by it. Use it regularly before bed and hands stay buttery and strong. https://www.aquaphorus.com/body-care-products
I like Aquaphor, but it is just petrolatum, and can be had much cheaper in the form of any vaseline or knockoff thereof. Second the petrolatum/sock method. I seem to have stepped on a Horcrux a few years back, so my right foot is constantly dry and cracked. Sock and vaseline is the way and the light.
