georgieporgie:
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Dealing with Wrist Pain
11–20 of 70 posts
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#12I've found that the biggest reason for neck and wrist pain is actually the mouse.
The position that most people use the mouse, off to the right side (if you're right-handed), causes your arm and your hand to twist unnaturally, since it needs to be flat to the table. This puts pressure on the nerves running down your arm, and for me, this is what caused the most amount of pain, to the point where I was worried my career as a programmer was over.
I've discovered that keeping the mouse to the left side of my body (I'm right-handed) and keeping my hand perpendicular to the tabletop as I use the mouse has all but alleviated my back and wrist pain, going on 15 years now.
To be clear, I don't hold the mouse normally. I have both my elbows on the table and keep the mouse almost all the way to my left elbow. I sort of cradle the mouse with my right hand, with my thumb and index finger on on the left button, and most of my hand on the right side of the mouse so that my hand remains perpendicular to the table. This mimics how my hand would be if I were writing with a pen, which is a more natural position.
I've been programming mostly pain-free ever since 1997 this way. I even use a regular mouse, I just hold it differently and use a posture that ergonomic specialist would probably reject, but it has completely worked for me.
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#13I had a bit of wrist pain too earlier. I stopped resting my entire hand on my wrist and it stopped hurting in a few days. I raise my hand up over the keyboard like a magician saying abracadabra or a DJ with a turntable. It's a bit weird at first and your forearm might hurt after a bit but not only has my wrist pain disappeared, my typing speed seems to have improved. The forearm pain is the good sort (like after an intense workout) from the effort of holding your hand up with no support from the table and gradually reduces as you get more used to typing this way.
And I completely agree with the other comments about the mouse causing wrist pain. I have learned more and more keyboard shortcuts to keep myself from using it too much.
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#14This article by Aaron Iba (author of EtherPad) talks about how he solved his wrist pain. He followed the recommendations of a book called "The Mindbody Prescription".
http://aaroniba.net/articles/tmp/how-i-cured-my-rsi-pain.htm...
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#15The best-selling books on Amazon on RSI both recommend getting deep tissue massages. I've gotten a bunch, and they seem to help more than anything else I've tried, but I've still been unable to type for more than an hour without getting symptoms for the past eight months. This has completely ruined my life, so I recommend taking wrist pain seriously. Preventative measures are probably best. Here is a nifty sit/stand…
Go to the doctor, tell them you have cubital tunnel syndrome, go to PT, and it improves rapidly.
That's my story, and it sucked, but it worked. Once you're at PT, if you're lucky they'll use ASTYM on you, which works wonders. Leaves you bruised as hell, but absolutely the only thing that worked for me.
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#16Here's my experience dealing with wrist pain, it echos many of the lessons learned here:
http://blog.chromarati.com/2010/04/rsi-my-problem-child-10-t...
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#17Surprised that he didn't mention: 1. stretches Do this before any extended typing session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbf4mBKq-o Doesn't have to take more than 30 seconds, just DO IT 2. height of the keyboard The vast majority of desks simply aren't the right height. Your hands should be comfortably pointed down and not over your wrist. Had some issues with wrist pain a couple years ago, never had any problems s…
I definitely second both of these. The nature of my work means I end up using my computer in all sorts of places. Even just one day of trying to type on a desk that's too low, too high or too far away (i.e. there isn't room to get your legs under the desk) and I get problems. My back has to be vertical, and arms have to be horizontal.
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#18been using dvorak for > 15 years. switched because of pain from coding 12-14+ days at startups. also used a kinesis advantage for ~10 years. am now on a topre realforce, which i very much prefer over the kinesis, and have been for 6 months without the pain returning. so, half-splitting the problem, i don't think it's the keyboard. worth mentioning: i can't imagine typing in qwerty now. it just doesn't have that butte…
One datapoint: I used to get sore wrists if I didn't take breaks, changed to a Dvorak variant, haven't had sore wrists since then. Used notebook keyboard for years, now have a MS Natural, both fine. Used similar before Dvorak, had issues. Have Herman Miller Embody, which I adore, but it hasn't magically improved my posture - still some work to do.
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#19I've found that the biggest reason for neck and wrist pain is actually the mouse. The position that most people use the mouse, off to the right side (if you're right-handed), causes your arm and your hand to twist unnaturally, since it needs to be flat to the table. This puts pressure on the nerves running down your arm, and for me, this is what caused the most amount of pain, to the point where I was worried my care…
As another data point, I use the mouse in a normal position (off to the right), plus I don't have an ergonomic keyboard, a special chair, or perfect posture. I've spent at least 5-6 hours a day on the computer since the 90s (and played an inordinate amount of video games), and I've yet to experience any wrist or neck pain.
An ergonomic specialist would reject everything I do, and you probably should too, regardless of how it works for me.
Re: Dealing with Wrist Pain
#20I started having some pain in my wrists and the top of my hands earlier this year.
I feel that switching my keyboard and mouse to Apple keyboard and mouse helped (especially the mouse), because of their low design, preventing my wrist from bending too much.
I also started practicing indoors climbing and this helped a lot for the flexibility and strength of my hands. I didn't feel any pain since then. You don't mention any physical activity in your blog but I'm convinced any sport involving the hands practiced regularly would help.