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Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

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Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#41

Post by whitepoplar »

Vinceo wrote: post #38

Found out it was psychosomatic. My belief that my pain was caused by structutal damage reinforced the pain. The cause of the pain seemed to rather be a combination of stress, fear, and supressed emotions. When I started working on these areas the pain resolved. It comes back now and then but now I know it's my mind messing with me so I just resolve what's stressing me at the moment and just keep using my hands and th…

I mentioned this in another comment, but I tried reading all of Sarno's books and it didn't really work for me. I 100% believe the stories though, and based on another comment, I may give it another shot, this time going beyond just the books. Do you have any TMS-specific recommendations that helped you cure your pain? Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#42

Post by blueberry_47 »

This book changed (saved?) my life. It came out a long time ago and while I seldom feel pain anymore, when I do I still do the stretches that helped the most (from memory as the book has been passed around). More effective than any PT I tried.

Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries: A Self-Care Program (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572240393/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_...)

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#43

Post by pgroves »

Except for occasional flare ups, mine is pretty much gone and at worst was pretty debilitating (eg hurt to pick up a glass of water). I think all of these do a lot:

- Exercises and stretches from the pdfs here: https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/. Finding some that feel kinda good and then doing them a few weeks worked better than suggestions from doctors. I do the exercises as part of my warmup for my normal 3x a week workout and do the stretches at the end.

- Use a stylus for my phone at all times. Just the type that is a ballpoint pen with a rubber tip on the cap. Also a pop-socket to hold it with.

- Cut down on bike riding for the sake of my wrists.

- Play mostly console games, less phone and PC b/c consoles have more ergonomic controllers.

- Fasting. I do at least a 24hr fast every week and that always works at least temporarily. I have several problems related to inflammation and for some people this helps a lot.

Geekiest bonus suggestion: use XFCE as a desktop and configure all the hotkeys so you can do things like move windows around with the keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#44

Post by robscallsign »

whitepoplar wrote: post #30
robscallsign wrote: post #28

I've got nearly identical symptoms, and while it does come back now and then, I feel like I'm finally on top of it. I spent about a year trying various things, including exercise ( which actually only seemed to aggravate the symptoms rather than helping), various targeted stretches, physiotherapy, rest, ice, compression, wrist support braces, various ergonomic keyboards What ultimately worked for me was a combination…

Thank you so much for this thorough response! I have the Armaid and use it regularly, though I haven't done any focused massage therapy. Can I ask how you found your massage therapist?

Just through a quick google search and chose one that happened to be near the route I drove between work and my sons daycare. Her website was pretty generic and minimal, so I didn't have high hopes going in, but feel I lucked out as she had an undergrad degree in Kinesiology (or similar), and was a semi-professional cyclist, and had a lot of applied knowledge on anatomy, health, wellness, performance.

The keywords I would recommend looking for when looking for a masseuse would be myofascial release, trigger-point therapy, and active release therapy, though, your mileage may vary of course. I found the 30-45 minute appointments too short, and the 1.5 hour too long, but an hour was just right.

At first we just focused on the shoulders and back, but as I learned and researched more, as well as trying to find problem spots myself, we did a couple sessions on calves, buttocks (mainly piriformis), hands, neck/scalenes, forearms/elbow.

A few other things I didn't add in my first comment:

- I now always use a heating pad under my keyboard. The office spaces I've been working in the last decade are cold, industrial spaces, and the desk surface and hence my keyboard are always frigidly cold. I was developing arthritis-like symptoms (joint stiffness, I could feel the tendon 'clicking' in my pinky finger). I now use a generic heating pad under my keyboard and couldn't go back to not using it.

- Really paying attention to my wrist/arm posture when I sleep. I was a side sleeper and would flex my wrist under my chin when I slept which was putting additional stress on my wrist/forearm, I now really try to focus on relaxing my hands/arms when I sleep. This took some time, but I think it's one of those little things that paid off in the long run.

- I also have a Dr. Ho's Tens electro stimulation unit which I will use on my elbow, forearm, shoulders and back as needed. I find it helps. For the cost of ~1 massage appointment it seems worth while, even though reception/reviews/clinical proof of it's effectiveness is mixed.

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#45

Post by whitepoplar »

robscallsign wrote: post #44
whitepoplar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for this thorough response! I have the Armaid and use it regularly, though I haven't done any focused massage therapy. Can I ask how you found your massage therapist?

Just through a quick google search and chose one that happened to be near the route I drove between work and my sons daycare. Her website was pretty generic and minimal, so I didn't have high hopes going in, but feel I lucked out as she had an undergrad degree in Kinesiology (or similar), and was a semi-professional cyclist, and had a lot of applied knowledge on anatomy, health, wellness, performance. The keywords I…

I really appreciate this! How often did you visit the massage therapist? After looking at prices, I know many can be quite expensive, but if it works I'm fairly price insensitive.

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#46

Post by cultofmetatron »

whitepoplar wrote: post #22
cultofmetatron wrote: post #17

I started regularly lifting weights a few years ago. After a few weeks, all the muscle and joint pain in my body disappeared completely.

I keep hearing this! Can you recommend some weight lifting exercises that you think may have helped most?

if you're just starting out, you wanna start with the top 5 compound exercises. I'd recommend "starting strength" by mark ripetoe. There's thousands of exercises you can do at the gym but you'll get 80% of the output with just these 5 exercises.

squat

Hits everything from the legs to the core to the upper back.

deadlift

alos hits everything as well as the pulling muscles so it really builds your back

pullup

works your upper back muscles and arms

pushups/dips

works your arms and chest

plank

the ultimate ab excercise.

Honestly, the best advice I can give is to hire a personal trainer for the first few sessions. Get one that knows strength training specifically to watch yoru form and make sure you have that mastered BEFORE you start lifting any serious weight

BACKSTORY:

so a few years ago I sheared my knee. I could not walk more than a few yards before my knee started grinding. I had resigned myself to eventually need a knee replacement. a few months of working with a personal trainer on the squat fixed that. Its like the injure never happened at this point.

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#47

Post by ghoward »

Got a Keyboardio Model 01 [1], switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout, and started doing exercises, all at the same time.

I also recently switched from GNOME to the keyboard-centric awesome window manager [2].

[1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keyboardio/the-model-01... [2]: https://awesomewm.org/index.html

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#48

Post by ElijahLynn »

whitepoplar wrote: post #39
ElijahLynn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it is worth, I didn't get that far with Sarno's books either, and I read three of them. It turns out I needed much more specific direction and the work that Alan Gordon (TMS Wiki courses), Dr. Schubiner (Unlearn your pain) and Curable have been gold for me in the specificity that I needed. It took years for me (neck, upper back & lower back) and finally with significant therapy, journaling, and Curable I hav…

Wow, this gives me hope! I'm willing to try anything at this point, and will probably give TMS theory another shot as I fit the prototypical TMS patient description to a T. Thanks!

Nice, I was in the boat of trying almost anything too!! I had been to over 8 different physical therapists, massage therapists, chiropractors etc over the past 10 years spending well over 10-20K, hundreds of hours in travel and treatment (lost time) and nothing really stuck. The days of any _new_ pain are 100% over now, including turning my neck the wrong way and having a week long "can't turn my head" situation.

I feel like I have "found it" finally, and it has been at least 3 years since I read my first Sarno book.

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#49

Post by earino »

The best I can offer is mediocre bro science. I stopped using a computer or any kind of device outside of working hours and (as my condition allowed) I lifted weights. Eventually my grip strength was solid and my pain was minimal. Then i took up brazilian jiu jitsu which requires significant grip strength in a bunch of angles. Fundamentally i believe that thoughtfully only using a keyboard during work and gaining significant grip strength over time gave me a much bigger buffer against RSI.

Re: Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?

#50

Post by msmitha »

Again, more anecdote than science but juggling with slightly weighted balls works for me. It's also a fantastic activity to fit into my pomodoro five minutes as it gets me out of the chair and moving around to retrieve the juggling balls from under my desk.
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