Preventing RSI?

conJunk asks: "How do you protect against RSI? I try to practice good typing habits, but without the aid of wrist splints, I tend to get cold wrists. The splints are great, but they slow down my typing by a fair bit. What do you all do?"

Comments

Go by what you feel

[baryon351]

Go by what you feel when you're using a computer. If you feel something hurting, stop. right away. Then look at what you're doing and what could cause it, and try something different.

12 years ago I worked in a department that insisted on bucketloads of ergonomic tricks to make things easier for people. If we were just using mouse and plain keyboard, we were pushed to try trackballs, wristrests for mouse & keyboard, split keyboards, ergo chairs etc. That made for a culture of workers feeling free to say "this isn't working for me, let me try something different" and most people found their niche setup, using components they didn't know were available to them, or didn't know were an option in the workplace.

As it turns out I tried trackballs and found them cripplingly painful, and ergo chairs were comfy while I sat on them but locked my knees painfully into place. I'm most comfortable with plain old keyboard and mouse, and have been RSI free with that setup for 22 years. It's the best solution for me, and if that works for you too, don't be in too much hurry to change.

May sound daft but..

[Gaewyn L Knight]

This may sound stupid... but recent studies are showing that most people that get RSI actually get most of the damage from sleeping on their hands at night.

So...
#1 No hands under the pillow/head
#2 No hands between the legs to keep them warm
#3 If you ever have numb hands from cuddling your S.O. that's a no-no also

I changed my sleeping habits just that little bit and now no matter how much I abuse my wrists at work programming or playing Enemy Territory I have no more pain.

Re:May sound daft but..

[superpenguin]

This is quite important. I don't know about the claims of "most people" getting their RSI this way, but it is a factor.

I am a musician, and musicians, especially string players (I play cello) are notorious for wrist problems. Our problems tend to be more in the line of tendonitis than carpal tunnel (that's what the pianists get), but a lot of the general preventative measures are pretty much the same.

I've had wrist problems on and off for the past several years, and one of the string faculty at my college mentioned this sort of thing when I asked him about my wrist problems. He suggested wearing a brace at night, and it really does help. I actually use two different braces on a fairly regular basis. One is just a wide elastic band that wraps around the wrist. It provides a little support, and keeps me from extending my wrist too far (which is what gives me a lot of problems), but still provides a pretty good range of motion (enough that I can play with it). This one I wear quite frequently. Always when I play and frequently just for a little extra support. The other is more heavy duty and fits more like a fingerless glove with a wrist extension. This one has a metal insert that runs along the underside of the wrist and the palm. I use it whenever my wrist is really bothering me and I need to keep it relatively immobilized and also whenever I'm lifting weights or doing any other kind of heavy lifting. It's okay for mousing, but it limits the range of my thumbs, so it's no good for typing.

So I often wear one or the other when I sleep, and I have changed my sleeping habits a bit. I actually sleep with my hand under the pillow, but that's because my main concern is keeping that wrist straight, as my problem is tendonitis, not carpal tunnel.

As far as general ergonomic guidelines, I've also learned a good bit about that due to hurting myself by playing my instrument (I had a lot of back trouble a couple years back, which is mostly gone at this point, thanks to some changes I made). One of the main things to keep in mind is that any tension, especially in your spine, will spread to the rest of your body. One of the most common places for tension to start is in your lower back. The reason for this is that the human hip is not designed for a 90 degree angle between your torso and your upper leg. If you actually have that angle, it's because the last couple degrees are coming from your lower spine. This sort of static loading will kill your back. Unfortunately, most chairs aren't designed with this in mind. Your best bet for a chair is something with a relatively straight back and either a flat seat or one that tilts slightly forward rather than back. My chair of preference is an old swivel chair that my mom pulled out of a dumpster with the intent of reuphostering the seat. I stole it and used it as my computer chair for several years before college, and I still use it. During my undergrad, it was the only chair on campus that I ever found that was truly comfortable. It has a flat seat and an adjustable back (which I keep low for lumbar support) and can be adjusted to be pretty tall (which is important since I have very long legs).

Static loading on the lower back basically means that even though you don't look like it, you're actually hunched over forward. Obviously then, that tension travels up to the shoulders and neck, and if your shoulders aren't relaxed, your arms and hands can't be. So reduce static loading on your lower back and you're already helping yourself.

The other component to my ergonomic computer setup is a desk I built for myself. I designed it with my ugly chair in mind, so that the keyboard tray is just above my lap (although for long typing sessions, I still prefer to just pull the keyboard off and put it on my lap). One thing that departs from conventional wisdom, but that works pretty well for me is the fact that my monitors are fairly high. I built the desk primarily because I needed something that I could have my computer and my