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Man, I've done more shoveling here in CT this year than in any previous year.
Something like 24 snow events/storms this year.
I've shoveled several thousand pounds of snow in the last few months, and now my fingers tend to curl more.
And I think I wore out something in my elbow, a tendon sheath or something ; damn, that hurts.
Sometimes, when drinking coffee with my left hand, I can barely lift it to my lips.
Well, crap!
Everything in my left arm works a little differently, now; I just spent 2 hours re-learning how to play my guitar.
Anybody else run into this kind of thing?

Every time I split firewood. Hands next day so sore I can't play, stiff and don't have the dexterity I should, and cold weather causes problems anyway. Too much salt will cause my hands to swell, I wake up and can barely move my fingers, so I avoid salt for the most part.

Fortunately I don't have to shovel snow though...this time just got a load of wood a couple of days ago, got an engine driven hydraulic splitter from a neighbor and did most of it, lots better but my legs are still sore 2 days later...Need to practice some and the hands are too cold...

Winter sucks, especially when you're an old fart...

Yeah, I split about 2 cords of wood every year; good exercise (I can't say that helps my guitar playing, either).
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That seems to be good advice about the salt.
I've gotten 'puffy fingers before; never made the connection.
It's not really enough to see the difference, but if you slowly make a fist, you can feel the difference.
I'll bet most people never even notice when their fingers get that way, unless they play an instrument which needs finger dexterity.
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I'll make an effort t to cut back on eating salty junk food when watching a movie on TV.

Even with the snowblower, I've done hours of shoveling (and snowraking) here this winter. I had to skip many days in a row of playing because of soreness. Elbows, shoulders and fingers all feeling the effects.

I noticed it a while back when doing carpenter work, I think what happens is you're exercising muscles in your hands you don't normally exercise, and as with any other workout like jogging or weight lifting, when you start you're using muscles you never use normally and they get stiff and sore the next day. The day you posted this or day before I split a pickup truck full of wood, mostly with a hydraulic splitter, and my legs were sore down the back for 2 days. The neighbor who loaned me the splitter uses an old chair with no back, which is great, but leaning to move wood around worked muscles in my legs I never use...

The thing about carpenter work was even after doing it for 10 years, I still had trouble playing. Working with my hands in an entirely different fashion than playing guitar seemed to make my hands stiffer and I didn't have the dexterity I've always had, I had trouble every time I got onstage the entire time I did remodeling work.

I noticed the salt thing long ago. I quit using salt mostly when I found out it's like sandpaper on your nerves, and mine were...rough around the edges, shall we say...to begin with so I quit salt. It helped, and once a year or so I decide for no particular reason I want some chips or an order of fries...my body tells me it's time for a little salt. It's required, but not in the amounts most Americans use it. I'll wake up the next day with my fingers so stiff and feeling swollen I can't make a fist.

Then I had to help try to take care of my father his last couple of years, his doctor had him on a no salt diet, and told me first thing the reason was that salt retains water and causes swelling, which is a problem diabetic's worst enemy. Between nerve damage and swelling, something like 40% of all the lower leg amputations in this country every year are directly related to diabetes.

Swelling can get out of hand and actually close off small blood vessels in the extremities, especially capillaries, which are already compromised in the case of diabetics, who like my father in most cases had eaten loads and loads of greasy foods for many years, and in his case refused to stop. Combine that with dead nerves from diabetes damage, you have a big problem...so that confirmed what I already suspected about salt long ago...