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JWZ on Dealing with Wrist Pain
Kodi writes "Jamie Zawinski has put an interesting page on his site describing his fight with wrist pain. The most important thing is that you don't ignore it. Also check out the Typing Injury FAQ, which he links to. " Having had a scare a couple weeks ago, I can testify to the truth behind this - we've done some AskSlashdots about this before as well. Don't assume it'll fix itself.
Yeah my friends don't ignore it. I did and couldn't use my mouse for three months.
I'm now permanently affected with aches and pains most days.
The worst thing I did (and soemtimes still do) is to rest the weight of my arm on my wrist while mousing using the ball of my wrist as a kind of pivot (obviously for hours at a time).
Take care of yourselves now my friends. The day you start getting pins and needles in your face is the day to take a look at the way you position yourself! ('cos it's pretty scary)
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
...is to get a girlfriend.
(Will it be funny, offtopic, or flamebait? vote now! vote early!)
Dan
I actually find that my mouse is probably more helpful than harmful. The act of moving my hand from the keyboard to the mouse provides some variety which is important.
Consider this: the one time I really experienced wrist pain was after an all-nighter, cranking out a 30 page term paper.
I just don't have the same problem when I'm programming though. I tend to pause and think about things, often taking my hands off the keyboard when I do. I scroll around and browse different files with the mouse. In other words, giving my wrists a break is just part of my work.
Now, if I were to type in a large amount of source code from a book, verbatim, then I'd probably start feeling pain again.
For what it's worth, the Microsoft Natural Keyboard really is a pretty good design (aside from the extra "Win" keys... grr). But if you place your hands on it, your fingertips down to your elbows are in a straight line. If you keep this position, and vary your actions like I said above, you'll be alot less likely to have problems.
Best regards,
SEAL
Specifically that RIS I caused by people who use Keyboards and other systems with insufficient resistance. Notably RSI begins to show up at the same time journalists moved away from mechanical typwrites en masse. Something about he lack of resistance ecouraging/allowing bad hand posture?
Any comments on this? It may also have to do with increased typing speed. However, there have been typing pools since before WWII and RSI seems to be a more modern phenomenon.
I've had some problems with my hands while digging a long trench, but I think that was just old fashioned wear an tear, since they occured after only a few days of work digging.
ok so I probably over evangelise these keyboards, but I just love them :) the Kinesis Contour (kinesis-ergo.com). I've done a quick review of mine at base.yi.org which is maybe worth a read.
Anyway, they're superb for people with wrist injuries. Infact most of the manual is dedicated to how to reduce wrist injuries, and even has a section at the back with an intro written by Herman Miller Inc (those really comfy chairs that Rob and co have from hmstore.com) that goes indepth into workspace ergonomics and risk reduction etc.
I read a good article on repetitive motion
injury in bass player magazine a couple of
years back (They might have it archived @ www.bassplayer.com, but don't take my word for it). It just had a few points in general.. some of the things I picked up were, I bought a pair of
these elastic/molded gloves for $30 and I type with them when i get the pains.. i have to wear them for a while but they start to help.. apparently lower body temperature to the wrist because of bad circulation causes a lot of pains.
I cut down on my caffeine intake about 90%, started wearing the gloves, and regularly take breaks to flex my wrists & fingers.. sometimes dupping them in warm water for a few minutes..
it's helped a lot.. 2 years ago I got so bad that i couldn't type for more than a half hour @ a time.. now i'm great.
"And how can this be? For he is the
Does anyone out there have any preventative measures that don't cost a few hundred dollars? I'm a student right now and can't afford that kind of stuff.
Does anyone have any experience with the Kinesis keyboards? I currently use one of the old style Microsoft ergo keyboards, but the control key is killing me and the ESC key is too far away. Emacs likes the CTRL and ESC keys and I need them closer to home. I find myself constantly pivoting my left hand to do common actions like C-x C-f... that's not good.
Anyone want to comment on the Kinesis keyboards?
xwrits is break software. It reminds you to get up from your computer and take a break every so often. It monitors your typing and mouse usage.
Compared to similar programs for windows it's pretty crude. However, it's effective.
One of the most important things you can do to avoid/prevent/cure typing injuries is to make sure you take adequate breaks. This does not mean lunchtime--this means every 10-15 minutes you get up and stretch.
Programs like xwrits remind you it's time for a break.
Stretching is very important. Stretch your arms, your forearms, your neck, your back, etc., do it frequently. Don't be too aggressive--mild stretching is the best.
Stretching helps promote healing, and keeps muscles from tightening up. A good massage is also a reasonable preventative measure--work on shoulders and upper back problems as problems here are often are responsible for inefficient use of your fingers, wrists, and forearms.
I decided to try Hand-Eze gloves. They are fingerless gloves -- there is a picture at the link. They work for me. I have practically no problem now, and I don't even wear the gloves anymore.
Another thing I did was to start using my left hand for mousing. I'm right-handed so that took a bit of work. The only drawback now is that every time a new quake comes out I have to reconfigure the key bindings. :-)
Code is garbage in garbage out.
Languge is garbage in, non-sequitor out.
My mother was a secratary/typist for years, and eventually (after not typing for a few years), her wrists started hurting so much that she couldn't sleep at night. Nothing seemed to help so she opted for surgury, which at the time had the risk of, if the doctor screwed up, causing a complete loss of hand motion. Not something you'd want even if you don't type.
So do people still have surgury for CTS? And have the risks gone down?
I suspect the real problem was not the keyboard, but the mouse. Since the keyboard and the mouse sit side-by-side, lowering the keyboard meant lowering the mouse also. This forced my wrist to bend at an odd angle whenever I used the mouse, and indeed, it was after using the mouse almost exclusively for an hour (in a paint program) that I first noticed the pain.
The other wrist pain incident was just after Microsoft came out with their "middle-button wheel" mouse. I made heavy use of the wheel when I first got one of these things, and found that it led to wrist pain (perhaps because rapidly spinning the wheel with the middle finger is a rather unnatural motion). So I stopped rotating the wheel (back to scroll bars, alas!) and the pain went away.
I strongly urge anyone experiencing wrist pain from computer use to take the problem seriously and get it taken care of early. One of my coworkers has been out on disability for nearly three years now because he ignored his wrist pain.
I've been typing 10+ hours a day for more than 10 years (everything from a Laser128 to various PC keyboards, but never any of that new-age "ergonomic" crap!) and I have never experienced wrist pain.
What are you people doing?
Half those years included a lot of masturbation. Maybe you should work that into your therapy?
--
#19845
I tried a variety of things, from pain medication to wrapping my wrists in Ace bandages (sometimes with cold packs I kept in the freezer) to going to a sports medicine therapist and trying prescription pills. Ultimately, the single thing that made the most difference (besides cutting down on my acoustic guitar playing) was a $3 padded wrist rest that I bought at Walmart on a whim. Believe it or not, it really helps, and while my wrists are definitely weaker than they were before they started hurting, I can at least use them regularly without pain. You don't have to buy one of those $15-20 gel ones, either - mine is plain black, not terribly soft, and sits at the base of my keyboard. It annoyed the hell out of me for the first week or two, but I got used to it quickly, and really prefer it now. All geeks with wrist pain should get one.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
My thoughts on this are a bit odd, but... DON'T TOUCH TYPE.
:-) I simply know where the keys are. It's a memory thing. I've been typing on a computer since I was 7. You learn the keyboard that way. My touch-typist friends think I'm really odd, since my hands are flying all over the place when I type.
I think that this standard 5-finger technique is the cause of a lot of wrist stress related injuries.
Here's why:
The only time I have ever experienced serious wrist pain is when playing quake for hours on end, and literally not moving my wrists to any great extent. One hand on the keyboard, one on the mouse. The slightest mouse movement spins me around (I keep my sensitivity super high), so my wrist doesn't really move a lot.
I am not a touch typist. I learned to type through massive amounts of practice hunt-and-peck.. Just the way you would naturally learn. I also type 50-60 WPM.
I never get wrist pain even after hours upon hours of typing. Why? I think it's because the wrists are never immobile. It's like a form of very light exercise for the hands.
I see these touch typists who type for hours without lifting their hands at all. They don't even move them to think, because they're so used to the position of their wrists on the keyboard. I'm sorry, but that simply can't be healthy for your wrists. The strain you're putting on them in that position is just too severe, over a long period of time...
Anyway, yes, I probably could type faster if I unlearned the way I type, and learned the "correct" way. But hell, I don't need to type so damn fast that I risk my health, yeh?
---
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Even if you're under deadline pressure or otherwise typing in a frenzy, you should always keep your shoulders, arms, and hands relaxed when typing. It doesn't take a great deal of force or movement to type quickly, so don't overexert.
These injuries are not inevitable, even if you sit and type for long periods of time. In college, I majored in piano, and they repeatedly told us that RSI is preventable as long as you make sure you don't tense up when playing. The same applies to typing, or any fine motor activity.
I've had the problem myself, and yes you can work on it yourself. IANAD, and your milage may vary, but...
Thing one. Act early. I started to get tingly feelings in my fingers, they started to twitch a bit on their own, and it was a little painful to stretch them out fully. Does that sound familiar? If so - STOP. Right now.
Thing two. Get a wrist pad - it's the cheapest addition that might help you. DO NOT get a foam one - these are junk IMO. Get a GEL wristpad (about $15 at a computer store).
Thing three. READ THE FAQ. Understand it. Work on ergonimics. Rearrange your work area. Use bricks and boards if you have to - it doesn't have to look pretty.
Thing four. Take breaks. Do the stretches. Work on (gasp!) paper to figure out new things. Go for variety.
Thing five. Baby yourself. It sounds silly, but act like a baby - if you feel anything at all, stop. Do other stuff until it feels better. Work slower. Use the mouse. Get creative with your bash history - anything to avoid more keystrokes.
Thing six. If it doesn't get better, or already hurts a lot, go to a doctor - go to your councillors - go to your dean - go to your attached medical school. You're in school dammit - get creative! Get help!
That's my $.02. Don't spend it all in one place.
Good luck.
For typing, I keep about four inches or so away from the front edge of my desk. The weight of my hands rests on the bottom part of my palm, which allows me to arch my fingers (I have big hands) comfortably over the keyboard, while maintaining my usual typing pace (80wpm avg). When possible, I rest my elbows on armrests.
As for my mouse, I keep it and its pad very far away from the front of the desk. Basically, my arm rests flat on the desk almost to the elbow. I keep my mouse sensitivity turned way up so that I can reach any side of my desktop, even at high resolutions, by only moving my hand a few inches. Since my entire arm is supported, this position is quite comfy.
For FPS games however, I move the mouse forward a bit, so that about half of my fore-arm area is supported by the desk. This seems to be more effective for those trigger-reflex type games.
I'm interested in hearing what positions other people use to stay comfy.
Note: I don't use any ergo-stuff. I use the HP keyboard that came with my old 486 (still love it!), and a microsoft serial mouse (no wheel) for mousing.
The solution I recommend to my fellow emacs abusers is the Kinesis contoured keyboard: Kinesis Keyboards. If you look at that URL, the contoured keyboard is the model on the left. It has the control and alt keys moved into the center, under your thumbs, which is particularly good for using emacs.
What isn't so good is the teeny ESC key, and the CAPS LOC next to the A, but all of the keys are easily reprogrammable. I use the CAPS LOC as a second ESC.
And if you're really nervous about Emacs "chording" combinations, you can always try M-x viper. You can switch to a vi-like keystroke layout without abandoning emacs's power and flexibility.
...is buy a wrist pad for your keyboard AND mouse. A lot of people only buy a keyboard pad and don't realize their mouse hand is doing the exact same thing. I used to get pains after playing too much quake, but as soon as I got a pad the pain went away. It's cheap and effective.
:P
If you have a 3M mousepad that won't work with a wrist-rest, do what I do: clip it on top of a pad that _does_ have a rest
I've been affected by RSI for around 3 years now. Initially, it got to the point where I could not type, mouse, drive, or even rest properly.
The thing to keep in mind is that once you notice the symptoms, your only recourse is to rest. Problem with RSI is your muscles and tendons will hurt more when they're resting if you have RSI. Bizarre and scary, but true.
My situation was helped by a sympathetic manager and doctor. Without either one, I probably would have lost my job. People at worker's compensation will do almost anything to either get you back to work or pay you off so you're no longer a liability.
Do not make a self diagnosis. Go to a doctor. But it is good to be knowledgable about RSI in general. A good book I can recommend is "Repetitive Strain Injury" by Pascarelli. I must apologize to its co-author because only the main author's name stick in my mind. This book was written by a doctor and a patient of his. A very excellent book, it covers stretching exercises you should do while you're resting, as well as descriptions of the various forms of RSI. I am not affiliated in any way to this book.
My keyboard of choice is the IBM options split keyboard. It is physically split and allows "tenting." Tenting just means you can tilt the various sides so that the keyboard's surface may conform more to your hand's neutral position. I cannot use a mouse anymore and prefer a trackball. With the IBM keyboard, the trackball sits between the two pieces of keyboard so I can use either hand when mousing. Getting a trackball with large buttons is important so you don't have to stress one finger to repeatedly press a button--rather you can use several and reduce the strain required. Sadly, IBM stopped making the options keyboard (also marketed by Lexmark) due to insufficient demand. All these things may sound like I'm over-reacting but RSI develops from accumulated strain over the years and won't go away overnight.
One thing I also want to stress is once you have RSI you shouldn't exercies the affected parts of your body until your body has adequately healed itself otherwise you'll be in worse shape than before.
Once you have RSI, you should try anything that you think will help. Everyone's body is different in how it reacts to various stimuli. What works for others may not work for you; what doesn't work for others may work for you.
Bill Joy uses emacs now.
It's a funky little gyroscope thingy that you get going and then use the gyroscopic force as resistance for wrist excercises. It's fun, geeky and good for you!
They claim it "is particularity effective in the rehabilitation and prevention of repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis or 'tennis elbow'." Like I said, I can't speak from experience, but it is fun.
Greg
My method of avoiding RSI is simplicity itself. When my mom said `get your elbows off the dinner table', I ignored her. So now, I both eat and type with my elbows up on the table. The wrists are relaxed and in a natural-feeling position, and I have no pressure being applied to their insides like those who use wristpads. Of course, you have to push your monitor and keyboard back a foot or two, which no one around here except me seems to want to do ..
Go to any ol' pharmacy and look for something called HANDEZE. It's an eight-dollar "golf glove"-looking thing with no fingers, made out of medical-grade lycra.
It traps heat and causes friction, both of which increase circulation in the hand and to the fingers. It's no substitute for stretching and resting, but if you work in a room that can get cold sometimes, it can help reduce minor soreness.
(Why do I have one? Well, I'm a diabetic, and we usually have poor circulation. And any doctor will tell you that poor circulation increases the damage done by RSI -- for that matter, the Typing Injury FAQ will tell you that, too.)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I have a shoulder related RSI and bought a laptop with a touchpad and Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional. The keyboard has a very light action which helps and the touchpad is way better than using a mouse. The reason why I got a laptop is that speech recognition works best in a quiet environment[1] and I like to be able to move around, and also, sometimes my talking gets distracting for people around me; and there is also the privacy issue to consider. Moreover, once you trained your Dragon its quite an investment, so your play machine == work machine.
;) and all in all, I think I'm faster now than I was before I got ill, especially now that my hand has nearly healed up[3] and I can interleave a little typing with speaking where its handy.
I use the continuous speech program to write essays and letters etc., and for coding I use the discrete speech program together with XEmacs and lots of macros. I keep diffrent vocabularies for Perl, Java, LaTeX etc. Especially Lisp is great fun to code in with speech recognition!
This also works nicely with VNC[2], so, having to use Windows is bearable, esp since it can crash and my Linux desktops stays as it is. However, since I don't have MS Office installed, my laptop rarely if ever crashes.
I also mud with it (a great way of training your Dragon
Shariz
[1] Once your Dragon is trained, it works very well even if you have music on.
[2] VNC is great!
[3] I'm painfree, i.e its not keeping me awake at night anymore, _but_ if I overdo it I definitly feel it immediatly. I don't expect it to ever go away totally, but then I also think that typing a lot is unhealthy by definition -- a lot of people I know have problems, and I think that we need to get round to thinking that typing 8 hours+ a day is simply not on!
We're trying to save up to get one for her at home, too...
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
I got one of the wheelmice, and now I don't know what I'd do without the wheel. You're right, though -- using your middle finger to scroll the wheel is rather uncomfortable.
I found a position (without even trying, it just kinda happened) to hold the mouse that makes it a lot more comfortable. You need to hold it at an angle, like shown here:
http://silverlight.org/cray/wheelmouse.g if
I drew this in MS Paint, gimme a break =P
It may seem a little awkward to get used to at first -- and it probably is -- but once you get used to it, it's realy easy. Up and down motion can be achieved just by pushing and pulling with your fingertips, side-to-side with your thumb and ring finger, and scrolling can be done comfortably with your index finger.
If anybody else tries this and likes it (or already does this) I'd be interested in hearing about it. My email's cray@[domainGivenInURLAbove].org
--
"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
If you have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Chiropractic (spine popping) is very unlikely to help at all, since the problem lies in the wrist. If you have certain types of neck pain, then it can sometimes help, but you must also consider that, like any other medical procedure, it is not without risk. I have personally treated people who have suffered paralysis (fracture) and stroke (vertebral and carotid artery dissection) after chiropractic manipulation of the neck. Just make sure that you are formally diagnosed (including EMG/NCV) with a specific problem before you undergo any medical procedure that carries risk. Chiropractic has a place where appropriate, but I do not recommend using it for carpal tunnel syndrome since it will be all risk and no benefit.
The stuff below is one of my posts from a previous slashdot thread:
Is there a doctor out there (or anyone, for that matter) who can describe the symptoms of CTS?
Yes, as a neurosurgeon, I see a fair number of patients who suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, some of which eventually have surgery.
The simplest way to conceptualize carpal tunnel syndrome is to think about it as a problem of proportions: The median nerve must pass through the carpal tunnel in order to reach the hand. If the carpal tunnel is too small (for any number of reasons) or the median nerve is swollen or enlarged (again, many possible causes), then you may develop the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, since the median nerve is essentially being "pinched" as it passes through the carpal tunnel. Nerves really do not like to be pinched!
There are many possible contributing factors which can lead to such a situation, some of which can be improved with medications of behavior modification, and other which cannot.
Some Contributing Factors
Symptoms
Diagnosis
Treatments
What does surgery do?
Surgery entails an incision over your wrist and a portion of the palm of your hand. The transverse ligament, which is the "roof" of the carpal tunnel, is then cut so that the median nerve is no longer trapped inside a tunnel. The tunnel becomes a ditch. The nerve breathes a sigh of relief. The degree of tightness is often quite impressive, and often the nerve is visibly swollen or even discolored. In those unfortunate enough to have waited too long, the nerve is visibly atrophied.
If pain and intermittant numbness were the only symptoms, then there is a very good chance for an excellent recovery after surgery. If, on the other hand, there is 'round-the-clock numbness or weakness prior to treatment, then this suggests that the nerve may be permanantly damaged, and a complete recover is less likely. In these cases, the pain will usually resolve fairly quickly postoperatively, but the numbness and weakness may take months to recover, and may not recover completely. Recovery in these cases is slow because the median nerve has actually lost some of its fibers (axons), and they must regrow. The axons begin in the spinal cord or a ganglion in the neck and extend all the way down the arm into your fingers. When there has been prolonged CTS and associated inflammation of the median nerve where it was pinched, there may exist scar tissue within the nerve which prevents the axons from crossing that segment as they try to regrow though the wrist to the hand. So the moral of the story is: try conservative measures if you are having pain or intermittant numbness. If the conservative measures do not work, and the CTS is interfering with your life, or if you develop 'round-the-clock numbess or signs of weakness then you should consider surgery. Most cases will not require surgery, but it is a sad thing to see when CTS is allowed to progress to the point at which damage to the nerve is permanant.
There seems to be a lot of talk on the internet lately about carpal tunnel syndrome as a mysterious entity that only a select group of doctors that treat famous musicians understand. Simply untrue. Family physicians see CTS all the time. Any neurosurgeon and most orthopedic surgeons (and some plastic surgeons) will be intimately familiar with CTS, as it is really quite common and is treated by a relatively minor procedure when conservative measures fail. The risks of surgery are small, but they include
- damage to the median nerve leading to further numbness or weakness
- infection
- failure to completely free the nerve from compression (i.e. compression of the nerve beyond the extent of the incision).
In my own personal biased opinion, I favor the "open" approach with an incision over part of the palm of the hand and wrist over the "endoscopic" approach which allows a smaller incision. I believe that the traditional larger incision provides superior visualization of the nerve, and thus more control over what is and isn't being cut.The other popular take on CTS these days on the net is that RSI is somehow being misdiagnosed as CTS. This is actually becoming a very popular misconception. The critical thing to keep in mind is that RSI (repetitive strain injury) is one of many mechanisms that can contribute to carpal tunnel syndrome. We don't tell patients that they have Repetitive Smoking Injury (another RSI!) when they have a stroke, heart attack, or lung cancer, even though smoking can certainly be a cause of those problems. It would be silly to say "You don't have lung cancer, you've got repetitive smoking injury". Similarly for RSI and CTS. If you have the signs and symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, then you have carpal tunnel syndrome. Repetitive strain injury may have been an important contributing factor and you may be able to help your symptoms by taking altering your behavior. The increased public awareness of repetitive strain injury (RSI) is, IMHO, a good thing because it can lead to changes in behavior that help to avoid CTS and other problems - just like increased public awareness of the dangers of smoking can lead some people to quit. But let's try not to confuse our terms! RSI is a general mechanism of injury to tissues that contributes to problems thoughout the body. CTS is a specific problem with your wrist in which RSI may or may not be a contributing factor. I hope this has helped to explain RSI and CTS!
IMHO, the best way to avoid RSI injuries is to build up strong fingers and wrists.
I wrote an article on how to accomplish this for another story here.
BTW, for spine health I recommend bridging and proper posture (shoulders back, head back, chin tucked, back straight; many bad slouch-encouraging chairs become excellent chairs with the addition of a small cushion behind your hips and lower back, and of course your monitor should be at eye level). Also, deadlifts rule as a whole-body exercise for rapid and dramatic results.
The easiest beginners bridge is to lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor (obviously you have to bend your knees for that), and just raise your butt up off the floor. This works the buttocks, thighs, and lower back, but not very much. A more advanced and productive bridge is to start in the same position, and bridge up on alternate shoulders, striving to roll yourself over that shoulder (if you actually do roll yourself right over, stop that! ^_^' I mean hug something heavy across your abdomen, like a big sack of potatos or a duffle bag full of books).
Another extremely useful "bridge" is the dand, a staple exercise of Indian wrestlers. I recommend that it be done rather than any sit-up or crunch. You get down on all fours with legs and arms straight and your butt up in the air, then alternately push forward, arching your back and neck while lowering your butt, and pull backward, curling your abs and chin in while raising your butt. A useful advanced variant is the judo pushup (mostly for more emphasis on the shoulders and arms) which resembles a dand except that in the "arching" phase you bend your arms and knees to put your nose to the ground, rub it along the floor (well, actually you'd be 1/2 inch above it or so) for as far as you can reach, then straightening your arms and arching your spine before doing the normal dand curling-up phase. Just do as many dands as you can every second day and you'll have a spine like a teenage gymnast when you're in your eighties.
Neck bridges are incredibly useful, not just for your neck but for the length of your spine, but you must be very careful, especially when you are starting out. Remember to warm up carefully: bridge to the front first, putting your forehead on the mat and supporting most of your weight on your hands (and keep your knees off the floor). Gently and slowly rock back and forth, going a little further each time until you finish by stretching your neck with your nose to the mat, then your chin to your chest. Very gently stretch to the sides, too; this is the most dangerous part, take extra care to control the weight with your arms. Now get up and bridge to your back; use your arms to lift yourself into and out of position and also to control the weight on your neck (after a few weeks or months you may become strong enough not to use your arms at all, like a wrestler, but be very cautious at all times). Arch straight back as hard as you can (but with careful control), straightening your legs and turning your body into a wheel that can't quite roll over, then relax and bend your knees to return to the starting position. Once you are strong in this movement you will go so far that your nose touches the mat. Repeat this arch ten or twenty times, then arch once more and see how long you can hold it. After than, do another front bridge and rock back and forth again to finish off your neck, gradually using your arms for support more and more as your neck tires, finally finishing with one last four-way stretch like you started with.
Finish the exercise for your neck with some standing exercise: apply manual resistance as you tilt your head towards the shoulder, first one side then the other, then with no resistance turn your head alternately to the right and left as far as it will go. Having pre-exhausted the major muscles of the neck in its strongest movement, these exercises strengthen the neck in its other movements.
You can also do gymnastic bridges (back bridge on hands and feet with legs straight as possible), but these are more of an extreme stretch than anything, and I don't recommend them.
BTW, if you do many exercises for the front of your shoulders and chest, your shoulders will start to pull forward and ruin your posture because of muscle imbalances. Remember to stretch your shoulders and chest. You must also balance the muscle development out with upper back strength: lying on your back, grab hold of something above you (some chairs work, or a rope around a table, or a friend can stand over you and you can hold his arms) and pull yourself up, with your grip at shoulder width and your palms facing up.
ABTW, use a nice soft surface for head bridging (duh).
One more thing, make sure your spine is straight when you sleep. IMHO the best sleeping posture is flat on your back on a firm bed with your feet raised (supported behind the calves) and a very small pillow moulded around your neck (and, for some people, a very small thin cushion, such as a folded towel, under your lower back). Sleeping on your side is good in a fairly soft bed with two pillows and a third pillow between your knees (especially for women, the wider your hips, the more important that pillow is), but this can easily lead to shoulder problems, especially for men with broad shoulders.
My cousin had severe wrist/hand pain and was diagnosed & treated for RSI. This did not work and eventually she was referred to a consultant who told her that it was her back/neck that was causing the pain in her wrists. Since being treated for this, her pain has got better. So not all wrist pain is RSI.
Someone mentioned stretching exercises. I would also highly recommend these as they do seem to help enormously with this kind of pain. Stress also seems to increase pain, so do some stress-reducing activities too.
HH
Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes.
She's just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings.
I had arm problems four years ago. I got them about once a year and they lasted for a month. I never knew what caused them and what helped. I just knew that I'll heal. Until the last time of course when I got it twice a year and it lasted 3-4 months. Even when I rested, it just didn't heal and I grew desperate after doctors couldn't do anything.
In the end a doctor told me: "What I find in you is not really anything. But if resting doesn't help, then how about using your arms?" He told me to start working again, do some heavy with my arms and exercise. Needless to say that I was shocked.
But I tried it. I started throwing the shot put and my arms did heal in a few days. Since then I've been doing weight training regularly and haven't had any problems whatsoever.
Here's what's bad to your arms. If you have a wrist support in front of your keyboard, don't rest your hands on it when you type. That way your arms are not moving enough. I nowadays put the rest under the fron of the keyboard so that it's impossible for me to rest my arms on anything while typing. Also don't be too careful to type. Our arms are made for heavy work, so they don't take small repetitive movement as well.
But I can't stress enough how important it is to exercise. If you just sit by the keyboard all day and don't do any sports, your muscles are going to get smaller until you get problems. If you exercise and have stronger muscles, your arms are going to take anything. You can see it in the construction workers. Their work contains a lot of repetitive movements but they don't have arm problems like we do.
Now, if you do have bad pain already, don't run to abuse your arms by typing along. If you can take heavy housework, do it. But talk to your doctor about this first as your case may be worse than mine was. And all you healthy ones, go lift some heavy weights to keep yourself healthy.
Well resting your palms when you type is a definite no-no. Your arms are not getting enough movement and the blood circulation is bad. Also you risk getting CTS because of all the static movement that your finger movement causes on the carpal tunnel.
Resting your elbows is ok, though. But don't restrict the natural movement of your hands.
My wrists have been popping a LOT recently. Would this be an early warning sign of RSI or something? It generally doesn't hurt but it can't be good. What are some other early warning signs?
Hmmm, if that's bad I may be in serious trouble. My fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, back, neck,hips, and even my breastbone pop frequently. Oh, and I have chronic back pain, and my wrists are significantly weaker than they were 1 year ago... And it SUCKS because I'm only 19, I love martial arts and rock climbing, and weak wrists make both of those activities harder. Also, a 2 minute stream of constant typing will tire out my wrists. Anyone know if I need to see a doctor?
Kintanon
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As a lefty, this is exactly how I hold my mouse, since the buttons are on the wrong side. I've found that reversing the buttons and holding the mouse as a right-handed person would causes fatigue much faster.
Now if only I could find a keyboard with the numeric pad on the left side...
-ai
"..and the stains on my boots show my life is going well."