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How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

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Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#41

Post by cgvgffyv »

pmcollins wrote: post #8

I got an RSI injury on my left hand and was unable to type normally for a few years. I went so far as to learn Dvorak RH which, even though I got reasonably good at it after a couple of years, was still crappy for programming. After a very dark period of taking jobs that required less typing (Kafkaesque jobs at mega-corps involving mostly fixing other people's bugs), I'm better now because of: 1) Using an Apple keybo…

> Using an Apple keyboard, which even though it doesn't look ergonomic, the reduced key travel has helped immensely.

I thought the conventional wisdom was that Apple keyboards caused RSI?

Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#42

Post by chx »

Go vertical, kids. For keyboard, I have used a Kinesis Freestyle w/ the Ascent explicitly designed for this purpose but now I just use the Matias Ergo Pro with some tripod parts to keep it vertical https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=79810.0 (since the pic I have changed a bit but nothing significant, I have these four parts now forming an adjustible, 12" long column: 1/4" to 3/8" male-male spigot, Manfrotto adjustible column, Triopo Short Column, 3/8" female to 1/4" male adapter). The huge advantage of this vs the Kinesis is the super light weight so you can travel with this setup easily. And despite the end result is quite wide it actually collapses into smaller parts so I can just pack them in the same padded tablet bag as the keyboard. Alas, the same bag is now out of production and I honestly have no idea what to recommend. In the same forum you can find other solutions to keep it vertical.

For mouse, Evoulent is good and I have used many generations of it and I can tell you the difference is negligible so you can just go on eBay and buy an older generation for cheap. It is a b!tch to travel with as it is really oddly shaped. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#45

Post by fapjacks »

Weightlifting and exercise are the only surefire ways I've found of combating the kinds of pain I experience as a programmer. I was able to utilize my doc's recommended steroid injections (and Kratom from Indonesia) in order to get myself to a point where I was working out every day. Years later, I haven't had to deal with any of those issues any longer. I am also a much better programmer for being a generally much healthier person.

Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#46

Post by skriticos2 »

I was a bit paranoid about this in my mid 20's, so I learned touch-typing the Dvorak layout (well supported on all major OS's, so no problem using it everywhere), got myself a decent mechanical keyboard a few years later and I use vim for editing since forever (fewer key-combos is good against RSI, so modal wins out here). Most recently I have switched the Ctrl and Caps keys on my layout, which reduces a lot of stress on my pinky finger. People think I'm a total geek (which is OK considering I'm in IT), and this works quite well in my daily business.

Now in my mid-30's I have no problem and enjoy typing very much, so I guess the best thing to do is start with the precautions before the damage is done. Of course my conclusion might be very much premature, but I'm carefully optimistic.

Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#47

Post by bluenose69 »

My left hand started aching about two years back, mainly when I was in Emacs. (I have the key to the left of "A" remapped to "CNTRL".) So I switched to Vim, which involves fewer painful single-hand key "chords". The pain went away within days, and has not returned. Of course, I'm not happy with the new Mac keyboards that lack an ESC key, so I am teaching myself CNTRL-[ as an alternative, and am happy that this splits the keys across two hands, which causes no pain.

Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#49

Post by sova »

chx wrote: post #42

Go vertical, kids. For keyboard, I have used a Kinesis Freestyle w/ the Ascent explicitly designed for this purpose but now I just use the Matias Ergo Pro with some tripod parts to keep it vertical https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=79810.0 (since the pic I have changed a bit but nothing significant, I have these four parts now forming an adjustible, 12" long column: 1/4" to 3/8" male-male spigot, Manfrotto adjusti…

Never even considered going "vertical" for a keyboard. I wonder if a future laptop utilizing this would have a screen hugged by two keyboard-buns? Future tech sandwich.

Re: How I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career

#50

Post by lutorm »

I'll put in my constant plug for the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: https://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-T...

It was recommended to me by my PT when I had hand pain, and it's helped me not only with that but back pain, headaches, and plantar fasciitis. Probably a few more, too. If you ask me, it's the best $16 investment you can imagine.

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