Gamed hard for years, top <0.1% Starcraft 2 and a few other strategy games, and now work in the industry
My right shoulder and hip lock up at the drop of a hat, thanks to the years of constant tension.
If I had known to take care of my physical health, it would have saved me lot of pain and improved my performance - I feel gamers are often the victims of mind-body dualism, and neglect the latter.
15 minutes of deep stretching and some daily pushups go a lot further than you'd expect.
Sun salutations are a very compact method for stretching and strengthening your core and hips, they're my daily go-to. Even a single cycle makes a noticable difference to back/neck/hip tension, and builds strength.
Keep it simple, favor steady repetition over forcing deep stretches, and coordinate your breath with your movements
Periodic reminder that, as a programmer (or anyone who uses a computer professionally/extensively), you need to take ergonomics seriously or you might regret it. The earlier you take it seriously the cheaper and less painful it will be. I was once out of commission for 10 months because of a severe coding-related tendonitis, it was miserable.
I've not spoken to anyone else who was out of commission for so long, most cases of tendonitis clear up in like 6 weeks (not a doctor, not medical advice), but I've met many programmers who hurt themselves.
And at this point I’m starting to see that for long term health reasons there is basically nobody except those with specific injuries that should be sitting for hours at a desk. I used to get some back and neck pain on occasion and now that I’ve switched to standing at my desk and finding a monitor height that is optimal for my posture (the standard recommendation by most ergonomic standards caused odd compensation for me) I’m healthier overall than I was 10 years ago. There’s almost no reason to sit except to take a quick break.
I’ve even stopped driving as much after I noticed that my back is a bit stiffer from road trips.
I’ve truly found that (in increasing order of cost) strength training, mixing up input device when using a computer to give other muscles a chance, and more recently getting a motorised standing desk to be great helps in working against tendinitis. Some days are better than others, but those should good days never be seen as a reason to drop all techniques against that numbing feeling in the arm.
When using gamepad(PS3, Xbox 360)or steam deck I'm loosing feeling in my hands while playing, but mice(vertical) and keyboard (FPS and programming) doesn't cause such problems. I'm thinking if there are more ergonomic gamepads I could use instead?
Depending on the type of game, you can use stuff like a leverless arcade controller, such as the Flatbox or Frame1. Works well for fighting games, platformers, simpler 2D stuff. Anything that doesn't need two analog sticks or expect a mouse. Similar benefits to a keyboard, but less stuff in the way and can potentially have a more ergonomic layout. Games that need more inputs could benefit from custom controllers made for them. I heard a guy in passing talk about building a custom controller for American Truck Simulator.
The DIY controller scene is pretty healthy right now thanks to the RP2040, 3D printing, and certain firmware projects like GP2040-CE that have already done a lot of the work.
I wonder if it has to do with the size of your hands? I have big hands and always preferred the Xbox controllers to DuelShocks because they felt better suited to my hand size.
My right shoulder and hip lock up at the drop of a hat, thanks to the years of constant tension.
If I had known to take care of my physical health, it would have saved me lot of pain and improved my performance - I feel gamers are often the victims of mind-body dualism, and neglect the latter.
15 minutes of deep stretching and some daily pushups go a lot further than you'd expect.