[jarnagin]

A lot of people really underestimate the impact that mobility and strengthening can have addressing issues with RSI. If you're struggling with RSI, consider going to physical therapy as your condition may be caused by a wide variety of issues that aren't obvious based on the pain you're having.

My own experience was that I dealt with ulnar nerve RSI for about a year. During that time I wore braces at night and tried just about every keyboard and keyboard layout imaginable, and at best I managed to keep it at bay. When I finally made up my mind to go to physical therapy I learned that:

1. I had postural issues which led to trapping the ulnar nerve in my shoulder (not my wrist, that was just where the pain referred to)

2. I had deep myofascial issues that were preventing my muscles and nerve from moving freely in my arm

3. I had poor mobility which was contributing to decreased function overall

Where I thought I had a localized problem in my wrist, it turned out I had a systemic problem which required strengthening through my entire arm, shoulder, back, neck, and core. I resolved these issues through physical therapy and my ulnar RSI hasn't returned since, though I now maintain an exercise routine that focuses on mobility. I still use an ergonomic keyboard, but I'm now convinced that the issue can't really be solved with gear.

[vgel]

Same, I had horrible RSI in my wrists and went to a hand therapist (just a physical therapist who specializes in hands). She made me some thermoformed wrist braces to wear at night and gave me wrist massages which felt awesome, but the main thing she did was prescribe a set of simple wrist exercises which take about 2 minutes to do. I did them every day and my RSI is much better. I still can't do certain things that require 90deg wrist bends that support a lot of weight (mostly pushups), and I'm planning to go back after covid to continue improving, but I can actually type fine for 8 hour+ stretches at a time with 0 pain afterwards.

Most of the ergonomic typing stuff I see online is 100% bunk IMO. People spend tons of money and time on ergonomic keyboards and relearning how to type on different layouts just to buy wrist rests and type with their hands tilted up 15 degrees. Eek.

[azinman2]

What are the exercises?

[ashkankiani]

I had the exact same experience/realization. It's very easy to get focused on work and stop paying attention to the irritation one is putting their body in.

I have two examples.

Recently, I noticed that my neck posture was starting to lean forward again, and I realized that it was because I was sitting just a few more centimeters away from my desk because I had changed the place that I was sitting at. Given that I hadn't changed my font size, I was naturally leaning forward just a little bit. Once I noticed that, I bought a better monitor arm, moved my monitor closer, and now I can slowly return my posture to a less craned position. I've done it before, so I'm not too worried about getting it done eventually. Standing against a wall for a few minutes to calibrate your sense of where your head should be is a good tool for this.

The other example is when I was subconsciously stopping my keyboard from slipping using my right hand when it was on a slight incline. Eventually, this caused my entire right arm to be in pain on a daily basis from not just the wrist, but the elbow, shoulder, and back.

It's little things like this that make a huge difference. You have to appreciate how sensitive a body can be when you're sitting in the same position for so many hours (switching up positions/standing can help with this).

Once I fixed those things, I still had to reverse the damage that had been done, so I took a break from work for about a week and started doing exercises at home again. Mainly just pull ups and push ups (with a form that emphasized triceps more than chest) as far as arms were concerned, and that very slowly strengthed my shoulders and back, which got me to pain free after about a month and a half.

Even simple exercises like that can be enough to help prevent/undo a lot of the pain of RSI.

[chrisjarvis]

I have had manageable but painful wrist pain in both wrists for about 2 years, and I worry about the long term because Im only 26 now. I had never thought of this as an avenue to explore even though Ive had good results in the past from pt for a weightlifting injury. Thanks!!

[npunt]

Yeah, referred pain is weird. When people have hand RSI the root cause is much more likely to be a shoulder/neck/postural thing rather than a hand thing. Its unfortunate 'carpal tunnel syndrome' has become such a widespread diagnosis when IIRC something like 1% of issues are actually due to the carpal tunnel itself.

To use a web analogy, its like having a broken button on a webpage and thinking it's a problem with the HTML (the hand) rather than with the server (the neck area).

[AQuantized]

What sort of exercises do you do to help with this? I've been finding it very hard to work on shoulder strength, especially the scapula, without just impinging it more

[jarnagin]

I actually needed a few weeks of body work and mild exercises to teach me how to correctly engage my scapula before I graduated into more rigorous exercise, and I still require work to keep my infraspinatus from feeling like a steel cable. Things that helped the most:

- Prone T's/I's - Cat Cows with thoracic spine emphasis - Child's pose - Open Books - Supine Chin Tucks - Dead bugs/Bird dogs - Upper trapezius stretch - Levator scapulae stretch - Quadruped open book - Foam rolling back (every few days)

These all caused pain at various points, but as I learned to keep my shoulder rooted in the socket and learned how to correctly engage my scapula (pull down and back rather than up and back) I was able to do them without pain. I also learned to listen to my body and skip things for as long as needed when I wasn't feeling right. Pushing through nerve pain just leads to more pain. Your body will adjust eventually, but it will do it at its own pace.

EDIT:

1. Exercise frequency: daily/as tolerated

2. I also scrape the muscles in my inner forearms with a fascia release tool (butterknife, but you can find real ones online) a few times a week and this helps tremendously.

[korijn]

After going through the exact same thing (ulnar nerve RSI, pain in my wrist and hand, caused by my shoulder), my PT recommended a suspension trainer. It's cheap, doesn't take a lot of space and you can adjust your body angle to "set the weight". For example, if push ups are too hard, just reduce the angle until you can handle it. This way you can vary load from nothing up to your body weight. Pretty easy to set up too (I just bolted it onto a sturdy wall).

He recommended I exercise every day, I picked just before bedtime as a constant so it's easier to remember.

Instead of sets and repetitions he gave me the rule to just keep going with each exercise until I can't anymore (and that doesn't take much in the beginning).

Finally he gave me the advice to always choose exercises from three different categories: push, pull, and legs.

So you could get started with (1) pull ups/rows/flys, (2) standing push ups and finish with (3) squats for example. There's tons of charts online. Rows and flys are good for strengthening your shoulders.

Also, remember to take the exercises slowly and be mindful/aware of your motions and posture. Don't rush through them, put some music on, put your phone away, focus on the exercises! Quality over quantity.

Hope this helps. It worked wonders for me!

[danielheath]

I’ve had some success. If you’re getting started, resistance bands feel safer (less likely to injure something).

Any exercise transmitting force through the shoulder forces the scapula to hold (otherwise the rotator cuff would get injured instead; learn to avoid that before starting).

Pulling a resistance band is a good start; eg stand on the band and curl up, or wrap it around a doorknob and pull across the body.

Finally, if you’re well paid, get a physiotherapist or physical therapist to walk you through the exercises; the money is well worth avoiding the injury risk.

[Xevi]

I'm also interested in knowing this. On top of that I would like to know how often they exercise and for how long. I found that doing strength training helps a bit, but the relief I get from it is only temporary. I try to do it a bit every day but I guess I could increase the amount each day.

[robotmay]

I can heartily recommend folk music and ridiculous instruments ;)

But more seriously, I did tai-chi in the past and found that a very reasonable low-impact way of developing strength in various areas.

[lukeramsden]

I've absolutely noticed that my RSI / carpal tunnel flare-ups are extremely closely correlated with the closure of gyms in my local area due to pandemic restrictions. Now I'm training on bars at the park its getting a lot better.

[trhway]

yep, while i don't have full blown RSI/carpal-tunnel issues, the 3 decades of computer has been taking its tall on the wrists, especially the mouse one, and the pull-ups do help here as well as letting my wife practice jiu-jitsu on me, specifically those wrist handling techniques, to the extent of inducing low level pain which works as a kind of strong firm massage :)