[hfdgiutdryg]

Having been through several bouts of RSI-type injuries, here's my advice:

1) take up active hobbies that strengthen vulnerable body parts. Rock climbing did wonders for keeping my De Quervain's tendinitis from returning.

2) stretching is an enormous part of recovery, if you've already developed tendinitis.

3) fix your posture. I didn't realize that I was craning my head forward over the years to compensate for poorly corrected astigmatism.

4) vary your environment. A convertible sit/stand desk along with an adjustable monitor arm should allow you to change up your position many times per day.

5) never spend extended periods with your arm extended to the mouse, resting your arm's weight on your wrist. This is probably the single worst thing for your wrists (aside from impact injury).

6) invest in a decent mechanical keyboard. Consistent, light key resistance is more important than ergonomic layouts, not that I have anything against properly executed ergo.

7) WALK! Get up, stretch your head back and your arms up. Go for a walk around the block while maintaining proper posture. No staring at your phone. It does wonders to reset your body and would have saved me years of pain if I'd done it regularly.

[bearhall]

This is a great list. One thing I want to add is that when I was suffering from tendinitis, I wasn’t able to really start building strength until I got cortisone shots. They’re a temporary solution but they can buy you the time to be able to function and start exercising. It’s a very powerful tool.

[hfdgiutdryg]

Yes. Also, consistent, responsible use of anti-inflammatories. For example, one 200mg ibuprofen three times per day, evenly spaced, seemed to pay off more than 400mg in the morning and 400mg before bed. And, of course, you have to remember that you're still injured.

To anyone suffering RSI, get into physical therapy. They'll teach you valuable stretches and exercises that will be useful for the rest of your life.

Probably the single most important thing is this: try to deal with injury before it becomes chronic. If your wrists seem sore or you get tingling sensations, seek help before you develop an injury that's going to take months or years to heal!

[0xcde4c3db]

> Probably the single most important thing is this: try to deal with injury before it becomes chronic. If your wrists seem sore or you get tingling sensations, seek help before you develop an injury that's going to take months or years to heal!

The problem I have with this is that I don't feel much difference between regular fatigue and pre-chronic-injury kinds of damage. Typically by the time I can even identify the discomfort as non-transient, I'm already in for weeks/months/years of recovery.

[hfdgiutdryg]

I'm going off the top of my head and only from personal experience here, but for me the difference is primarily about joint vs muscle pain. Joint pain is almost always bad. If you just did a ten mile hike and you don't normally do that, a couple of days of knee pain is normal. If you're mousing for your usual work day and your wrists hurt, it's a problem.

I have managed to cause instant tendinitis where it basically felt like intense muscle pain, but that was a rare shock-load situation.

Most fatigue is just a drained feeling, followed by some muscle soreness for one to three days. Soreness in tendons and joints is almost always a problem, in my experience. If it doesn't clear up in about three days of relative rest, you're heading into chronic injury territory.

[0xcde4c3db]

> Most fatigue is just a drained feeling, followed by some muscle soreness for one to three days. Soreness in tendons and joints is almost always a problem, in my experience. If it doesn't clear up in about three days of relative rest, you're heading into chronic injury territory.

In my experience, if it doesn't clear up in three days, I'm already there (and usually also have no fucking idea what I did to cause the injury).

The more I look into this, the more I suspect that in my case it's a sensory deficit, i.e. I literally can't feel the initial pre-injury discomfort that trains most people not to move/position their bodies in ways that acutely damage joints or connective tissues.

[swaggyBoatswain]

I had ulnar tunnel syndrome. Rock climbing got rid of it