A lot of good and interesting advice here which I certainly am going to experiment with.
When I started trying to play last night I noticed my left hand was still a little weak from the exhaustion it suffered on Saturday night. It kinda came too after an hour or so of playing. I suffer from a circulation condition known as raynaud's syndrome which is particuarly shit in winter as it's colder. This probably has something to do with struggling to warm up before a show. Also sometimes I just don't get the opportunity, because there just isn't anywhere to warm up! Different venues different circumstances and conditons, you never know what you are going to get some times.
As for tension, big stresses in my life, a gig is stressful never mind the other stuff. But recently went through two interviews to get a new job and thankfully got the job, but who knows, perhaps I haven't recovered yet fully, it was only last Monday after all.
The oils thing, probably a good idea, my joints "click" and crack as it is and I used to take cod liver oil. I have fish oil supplements I guess I could get back on so that's something I can totally address.
The hot water thing sounds good, sounds like something crazy I used to do when we played in the garage era stuck out in the freeing cold. I used to do this because of my raynaud's but stopped because my skin would soften on my hand and callus' could potentially break whilst the skin was soft.
Acupunture, I kno someone who had an injury to their foot and was told that they would be on cruches for over a year and have a limp for a while. Well they went to acupunture and the limp and cruches were history! I may look into this Van.
SC about the string guage, I see the method to installing heavier guage strings, but I honestly don't think that is the answer for me anyways, that's just going to make it harder to play if I get fatigued. I get that you are building strength by using heavier strings but, malmsteen doesn't need those 11's and he don't seem to have hand issues