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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

#101
post #97
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that exercise and sleep are keys, but I do believe chronically cold hands is a serious problem that needed to be remedied.

Just a thought in case it helps someone: a family member of mine always had cold hands, and a doctor prescribed a special prescription antiperspirant. Making his hands dry also made them warmer.

Sweating is a cooling mechanism, so reducing sweating (ceteris paribus) should reduce cooling.

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

#102
post #80

This article is totally missing the basics. Exercise. I promise it will make ALL the difference. Get yourself a pull-up bar, and if you're feeling extra fancy, a dip bar. Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and sit-ups. Every day. You'll be a coding machine. At the VERY least, push-ups. Every hour or two, take a break, knock off ten push-ups, walk around a bit, get some water, get back to work. I'll do this right at the office…

I agree that exercise and sleep are keys, but I do believe chronically cold hands is a serious problem that needed to be remedied.

Excercise, sleep, and not being overweight!

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

#103
I had some pretty bad RSI that I thought was going to kill my career also.

Turned out, I managed to eliminate it by completely changing my keyboard technique to tuck my thumbs underneath my fingers when typing. I'm surprised no-one ever told me about this before.

The action of tapping the space bar with the corner of your thumbnail instead of smacking it with a big lateral thumb tap makes all the difference in reducing strain on your carpal tunnel.

If your arms are at rest beside your body while standing, the 'natural state' of your fingers and thumbs in this position is the exact same hand posture you should maintain when typing. If you are instead performing an up-down movement with an unbent thumb, that can lead to RSI problems.

Learnt about this from: http://www.kogosowski.com/product/prevent-rsi-ebook/ * This e-book was written by a really smart concert pianist and the thumb positioning was the main take-away for me

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

#104
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…

My experience is that vertical keyboards only alleviate some problems and even cause new ones. They do relieve pressure from the ulna and radius being in a twisted position and they obviously relieve pressure from the side of the hands. On the downside, they put strain on the shoulders and neck since the arm is held freely in the air for prolonged time. Vertical keyboards also don't help with issues due to spreading ones pinkies too far for reaching control, shift and enter. For me the Kinesis Advantage was overall a far better relief. None of the measures I tried were however more effective than stretching and upper body strength training.

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

#105

One of the things I did that made a tremendous impact on reducing the tension in my joints, was buying a good keyboard. I don't typically recommend Microsoft products, but their sculpt keyboard is a product which is cheap[0], stylish and most importantly ergonomic. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CYX26BC [0] Cheap relative to other ergonomic keyboards.

I fucked my wrists by spending 8+ hours a day on a laptop from age 12 to 22. I have one of those at home, and one at work. They are really good. I went from being able to type 25 hours on a regular keyboard to 50 hours a week with minimal pain on this one.

The sculpt has empty space in the middle (above the space bars), I always liked the thinkpad clit mouse - so I hacked a small trackball in the middle of the keyboard.

(This one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00810ROQ4)

The trackball buttons are not really accessible, but the keyboard has two space bars, so I rewired the left one to be left mouse click.

The warranty is definitely void, but it was worth it.

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

#107

This article is totally missing the basics. Exercise. I promise it will make ALL the difference. Get yourself a pull-up bar, and if you're feeling extra fancy, a dip bar. Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and sit-ups. Every day. You'll be a coding machine. At the VERY least, push-ups. Every hour or two, take a break, knock off ten push-ups, walk around a bit, get some water, get back to work. I'll do this right at the office…

Working on large, compound muscles, like that I wouldn't recommend every day. I would spread it out to no more than 3 times per week where you can exercise without any muscle stiffness and pain.

If you have the stiffness and pain in your muscles, hydrate yourself well, take the day off from these exercises and substitute light stretching to work on your flexibility, but always always drink plenty of water.

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

#108
post #80

This article is totally missing the basics. Exercise. I promise it will make ALL the difference. Get yourself a pull-up bar, and if you're feeling extra fancy, a dip bar. Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and sit-ups. Every day. You'll be a coding machine. At the VERY least, push-ups. Every hour or two, take a break, knock off ten push-ups, walk around a bit, get some water, get back to work. I'll do this right at the office…

I agree that exercise and sleep are keys, but I do believe chronically cold hands is a serious problem that needed to be remedied.

Indeed - painfully cold hands could be Raynaud's, which is a symptom of a number of syndromes (of varying severity):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynaud_syndrome

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

#109
I've been a software engineer for nearly 30 years and I was diagnosed with tendonitis in my first 5 years but I have managed to hold RSI at bay. I pay attention and if any pain surfaces I take action that day. I do not ever, ever wait. This is what I do: 1. short regularly enforced breaks. I use WorkRave to take a break every 10 minutes for a minute and 6 minutes every hour. I skip these breaks if I'm fine but use them if I have any soreness. 2. A keyboard that allows my hands and wrists to be vertical and can be configured for any slant. I use a comfort keyboard, not easy to find anymore. 3. Ice baths. If my wrists are sore at all I immerse them in an ice bath for 7 minutes each, morning and evening. This really works. So cold it hurts. 4. Pressure point massage therapy. Releases tension in the muscles. It hurts but works. I do that once in a while.

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

#110
Just as an aside, don't neglect your neck. I have had a couple bouts of pain, that felt for all the world like it originated in my left wrist. Turned out it was a pinched nerve in my neck. Physical therapy and a standing desk were the cure for me. (Of course it might have just cured itself too).
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