Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

I had a very bad case of this condition. After a lot of searching, I came across many common themes for solutions. There is one primary solution - stretching out your neck.

The muscles in your neck become tight due to keyboard work, and the pain radiates to your wrists. It’s often misdiagnosed as carpel tunnel or similar.

As I searched for info I came across a litany of temporary solutions that scared me: ice, anti-inflammatories (some people popping many ibuprofen or similar per day), wrist braces, expensive surgery.

When I started stretching, I could barely move my head to touch my ear to my shoulder. My neck was incredibly stiff. Do this test yourself.

Stretch your neck out, multiple times per day. 30 seconds or more per stretch, and there are 4 really core stretches. There is a set of stretches I can share via PDF in a PM. I should put them on a website or similar.

In addition, take many micro breaks throughout the day - relax your arms to your side, let your shoulders come back. Just let the blood flow. These micro breaks can be only 15 or more seconds.

Other things people suggest here can help - ergonomics (chairs or desks, mice, speech-to-text programs), working out, etc.) but in my opinion the source is tight muscles in your neck.

I learned all this from Rick Mahaffey of Peninsula RSI in the Bay Area. His practice is not there anymore, but he changed my life and I’m sure the life of many other keyboard workers with his simple and cheap method of stretches. For a while he was a go-to for local FAANG insurance companies when workers had RSIs.

I started lifting dumbbells and doing press-ups to try to build strength since I'm in my 40s. Unfortunately I developed medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), possibly because I have narrow wrists. I had to completely stop anything that flexes my biceps or pectorals, and a year of bored lockdown eating has made me flabby, heavy and frustrated. Recently though, I've been using a combination of trigger point massage and stretches, which seem to be helping so far. I'm hoping to get back to being able to lift weights and hang from my hanging bar. And lift up my toddler without wincing.

This is probably the most stupid advice I can ever give someone so be warned. But for me it went away when I started to work with my laptop actually on my LAP, ut improved tons and just upright in a chair, no table whatsoever. Got a bit of neck pain in return but that was easier to deal with. My current theory is that it my arms were actually resting mostly on my knees with no actual kink in the wrist. the laptop a little further out on the knees tho. I have an air so its already pretty slim.

I dont use a mouse.

For me the arms where just in total relaxed position this way, but its probably the opposite what people advice :|

> Work out and lift weights.

Also take care to exercise important muscle groups for your job. Core strength helps a ton in sitting, and in my experience forearm adds a lot of stability to wrist and typing motions.

I would sometimes get tennis elbow (not sure why..) from desk work, and a specific type of releasing exercise was almost a light switch for the pain. So not just building muscle, but touching the right muscles in the right way i imagine is important as well.

If you're curious, specifically i use a type of rubber-ish solid tube that is designed for you to twist it. You can twist to build muscle in one direction, but you can also reverse your grip and "untwist" it under pressure. This tension-ed untwisting motion is what massively helped my elbow RSI, like a light switch, it was sort of insane.

That experience really solidified the idea to me that exercise is the foundation to damn near everything. Ie Physical Rehabilitation over reactive fixes like bone alignment / etc. Yea, posture is important, but i don't think posture can fix a body that isn't capable of supporting itself.