[ssfrr]

Is there evidence that minimizing finger movement is ergonomically desirable? It seems like "repetitive" is a key part of RSI, so making the exact same small motion over and over again may not be optimal.

I think about piano players, who obviously need to move their hands and arms a lot to hit the keys (and with more force). Definitely takes a lot more energy than typing on a computer keyboard, but is there evidence that it's any more or less likely to cause injury?

[akdor1154]

I have the same crank theory. I have shithouse typing technique - hands fly everywhere, whichever finger is closest, wrists move a fair bit, what's a home row? I stuck rubber o-rings under all my keys so bottoming out wasn't painful. My keyboard has the heaviest sprung switches i could find, and I'm still on the lookout for a heavier mechanism (e.g. literally a typewriter or piano type mechanism).

I also started learning piano at 4 and played daily until 25 or so. I still play other instruments but with different movements.

I am 35 and still have no hint of RSI or carpal tunnel (touch wood). I had a scare for a bit but turned out my mouse was just in a dumb position.

YMMV but the above informs my crank belief of 'move heaps, varied as much as possible, get strong fingers and forearms' being a viable approach.

N.B. A note on the bottoming out stuff: this was again inspired by my piano teacher who taught a technique of imagining pressing the piano keys 'through' the base, further than they move in reality. This was combined with the weight coming from your entire arm, fore, bicep, and shoulder, not from your fingers.

N.B.B. If anyone knows input methods that take this to extremes I'd love to know. I.E. something that involves moving your entire arm around. I've occasionally looked at jumbo-sized keyboard for those with learning and dexterity difficulties for example.

[jatins]

Do you do weight training in gym? I wonder if that has an impact

[akdor1154]

No, I'm pretty scrawny (for a westerner), stronger forearms from the childhood of piano though.

[djhn]

It’s interesting how you are probably saying you are scrawny for a westerner, but if you were the oppisite - an ’easterner’ - you wouldn’t be considered scrawny.

I bet there are people who would consider ’westerners’, however they define them, weak and scrawny. Pacific Islanders? Eastern Europeans?

Either way, our piano teachers must have come from the same school of thought and no RSIs here either. For fifteen years now I’ve typed on a macbook keyboard (tethered to a big display 90% of the time) which I’ve never bothered to upgrade from. No vim. A constant mix of the trackpad, Apple magic mouse (!) and Wacom tablet for input. Haven’t experienced any ergonomics issues whatsoever.

[Twey]

Precise causes of RSI are, as far as I know, still largely unknown, but (at least as far as current hypotheses go) there does have to be some kind of strain involved.

From a quick search, it seems piano players do suffer from a high incidence of RSI (e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12611474/, which also correlates it with smaller hands, i.e. more stretching).

[earthicus]

I recently started learning the piano as an adult, and from what i've gathered from reading and watching videos, the 'folk wisdom' about how to avoid rsi-type injuries is to minimize tension in your wrist by maximizing relaxation of your fingers and wrists (especially the thumbs, which tend to get locked into a permanent state of mild tension on the piano keyboard). So you want to do your best to develop more finger independence, so that you can press with one finger while keeping the neighboring fingers relaxed. It's really hard.

[xlii]

If you can I'd recommend getting piano teacher and live lessons. I got one and improvement in posture was a biggest gain I got. That and some cultural push (e.g. there's no wrong music, only the music someone doesn't like, or put piano next to window to learn to not watch on own hands).

[earthicus]

I’ve thought quite a bit about getting a teacher, but have hesitated for a few [somewhat legitimate] reasons. Among them, I’m partially disabled and can’t practice consistently. However, having a teacher berate me about my posture would actually probably help that at least a little bit, now that you mention in :-) Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and encouragement with me! Best of luck on your lessons as well.

[snozolli]

About the time that I graduated from college, I'd developed bilateral tendinitis in both wrists. It took me years of physical therapy, habituating stretching, breaks, and new exercise, along with a string of different types of keyboards.

I learned Dvorak on a Kinesis keyboard. Years later, I realized that switching to the high-quality, consistent, mechanical Kinesis was 99% of the payoff.

If I were doing it over again, I'd have just jumped to something like a QWERTY Realforce with Topre switches.

For the record, the absolute worst keyboard was an early Microsoft 'Ergonomic'. The inconstant resistance absolutely tore my tendons up. Also for the record, the best thing to stave off injuries after healing was taking up rock climbing as a hobby.