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How I Cured my RSI Pain

aaroniba.net

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Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#61

Post by jonstjohn »

sokoloff wrote: post #45
Luc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Had nasty pains in both wrists and tried a lot of things until I finally purchased a Kinesis (the current model is this one: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage_pro.htm ) and a Kensington Epert Mouse trackball. I had to learn to type again, but am now faster and completely pain-free for about 6 years.

Very similar experience here; bought myself a Kinesis for home and one for work (I'm sure they'd have paid for it, but I couldn't be bothered). It was quite possibly the best $600 I've ever spent. I don't mouse enough to have yet bothered with the trackball, but perhaps I'll get one to try it out. The only downside I've found (other than cost, which is a non-issue IMO) is that you get very used to the keyboard and no…

I keep a kinesis at work and a standard keyboard at home. Now I'm so used to using both that I can type just as fast on either one.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#62

Post by akkartik »

slmbrhrt wrote: post #55

It may seem small, but adding these lines to my vimrc have entirely broken my habit of scrolling with the arrow keys. map map map map imap imap imap imap It may seem irritating at first, but in the end I argue it's worth it.

I actually trained myself to use the arrow keys because of my RSI. Moving my hands away from the home row slowed my typing down a touch and alleviates some of the constant pressure on the fingertips.

But now that my RSI is manageable as well (two words: wrist breaks) perhaps I should try going back to hjkl.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#63

Post by msb »

sshumaker wrote: post #5

I too, encountered crippling RSI pain, and eventually switched to a kinesis keyboard ( http://www.kinesis-ergo.com ). While the keyboards are crazy expensive, and a bit flaky, they completely cured my carpal tunnel. The downside is, I'm now stuck hauling around this weird, non-standard keyboard. :)

I have to put my vote in for the Kinesis Advantage as well. For anyone reading this that might be on the fence about the cost, you will not be disappointed. I was suffering from excruciating pain in my forearms, wrists and fingers. That pain disappeared almost as soon as I started using the Kinesis. For me, the big difference is having a wide split between home rows. This keeps my arms almost completely parallel and alleviates the forearm pain. The key layout is a little funky at first, but what I have realized is that each individual key is positioned exactly where your fingers naturally curl and extend. The other change I made was to add a trackball. I keep the trackball on the left and my regular mouse on the right and switch up usage as often as I can.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#64

Post by msb »

Assuming that the techniques the author describes really work, is it any different from taking a pill to relieve the pain? I tend to operate under the assumption that when our bodies present us with pain, then we are doing something to deserve it. Instead of attempting to remove the pain we should be trying to discover what we are doing to cause it.

Vacation, chiropractor, surgeons, acupuncture, massage, micro-breaks...but no exercise? A light dumbbell routine and a few walks or runs per week can work wonders on RSI and any other aches and pains we encounter while at the computer.

There is a certain "common knowledge" among computer workers that RSI is the result of poor ergonomics. This fails to explain why some people can work for long periods of time under conditions of atrocious ergonomics, but not experience the same pain that I did.

In my experience, an increase in RSI and back pain correlate directly with my level of physical activity outside of the work environment. A combination of fitness and ergonomics have absolutely made the difference.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#65

Post by dylanz »

tigerthink wrote: post #18
zefhous wrote: post #17

Typing in dvorak decreases finger movement significantly. I recommend it.

Doesn't work with Vim as well though.

Vim works great in Dvorak. I switched to Dvorak, and jumped right in to relearning my Vim keystrokes with it. After a few weeks, I was back to normal in Dvorak, in both typing and Vim.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#66

Post by dylanz »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #30
tigerthink wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't work with Vim as well though.

I learned Dvorak and Vim at the same time and never noticed an issue. Maybe if you've already learned Qwerty Vim there's a transition?

Yeah, it's a brain@#$%. I did it though, and wouldn't look back.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#67

Post by m_eiman »

carbocation wrote: post #54
mikeklaas wrote: post #42

His experience matches mind as well. Horrible RSI persisting for years, with non of the conventional treatments effective beyond a short amount of time. After doing a _lot_ of research into this, I experienced an almost complete short-term recovery. It wasn't just lack of pain... muscles that felt perpetually taut and ropey were suddenly softened, and I became extraordinarily thirsty for a couple of days as healing s…

Being a medical person, I am skeptical by nature, so I looked into Sarno's academic publication record. According to NYU, at least, he hasn't published in a journal for 7 years. That doesn't mean anything necessarily; it just calibrates my expectations. His explanation for what is going on is not credible - but that does not mean that I don't find his solution credible. Biofeedback techniques are noninvasive and alwa…

In one of the articles I read while following links from here ( http://www.tarpityoga.com/how.html ) they say:

  You also have to completely believe in the TMS diagnosis.
  That means that you have to completely accept the fact
  that your symptoms are emotionally induced. If you still
  believe that there may be something physically or 
  structurally "wrong" with you, you're not yet "cured."
  You're not paying attention to the underlying emotions,
  which means that the symptoms can still work as a 
  distraction, and it's likely that they will return.
Sounds like a self-imposed placebo to me. If it works it's still good, of course; it'd be very useful for "standard" medicine to learn how to use the placebo efficiently and ethically.

It also sounds like a good excuse to explain the people who aren't helped by the therapy - if they don't get better they don't believe in it enough and have themselves to blame (or they have the wrong diagnosis).

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#68

Post by aaroniba »

mikeklaas wrote: post #42

His experience matches mind as well. Horrible RSI persisting for years, with non of the conventional treatments effective beyond a short amount of time. After doing a _lot_ of research into this, I experienced an almost complete short-term recovery. It wasn't just lack of pain... muscles that felt perpetually taut and ropey were suddenly softened, and I became extraordinarily thirsty for a couple of days as healing s…

This is exactly what I was getting at in paragraph 5 of "The Cure" section ("If you find the idea...").

The problem with stress as the root cause is that after I resolved my RSI pain, I have been through tremendously stressful situations during which I was typing a lot, but these have not triggered any RSI pain. So I think there's something more going on unconsciously, and yes I agree with you it sounds pretty far out.

As for exercise, I should have mentioned in the article that I have always exercised regularly and exercise is a big part of my life, even while I was typing a lot, so in my experience exercise (while having may other benefits) did not help my RSI pain.

Re: How I Cured my RSI Pain

#70

Post by kirubakaran »

slmbrhrt wrote: post #55

It may seem small, but adding these lines to my vimrc have entirely broken my habit of scrolling with the arrow keys. map map map map imap imap imap imap It may seem irritating at first, but in the end I argue it's worth it.

Emacs: (for easy copy-paste into your .emacs)

  (global-unset-key [left])
  (global-unset-key [right])
  (global-unset-key [up])
  (global-unset-key [down])
  (global-unset-key [prior])
  (global-unset-key [next])
  (global-unset-key [home])
  (global-unset-key [end])
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