Ergonomic work station

Step 11 Other factors and ancedotes

Being overweight, leading a sedentary life, smoking, and being chronically dehydrated increase the serverity of RSI. Eating well, exercising, and sleeping enough will help. These things should be obvious.

I once had an RSI flare-up after using the stupid track-point on my laptop for 3 hours straight in a boring meeting. A tendon that controls my thumb or first finger became so seriously inflamed that the pressure required to pick up a pen with my thumb and first finger was enough to bring tears to my eyes. However, it was was the frustration of having a useless hand that would make me cry out.

I swore off computers for three weeks. My loving wife typed the few email responses that were actually critical or couldn't be done with a phone call. Luckily, the third week coincided with a kitesurfing vacation. After a full week on the water, the tendon healed. Since implementing all of these techniques, it hasn't bothered me since (other tendons still give me problems, but not nearly as severe).

I went to physical therapy for a while and decided it was a mixed bag. The ultrasound and massages were not really helping me. However, they did determine that my wrists and fingers are hypermobile, which is why some of the standard RSI stretches were not working for me.

As an experiment, I gave up cycling to work and took the bus. Without the exercise and relaxation of biking, my wrists felt much worse. They promptly improved once I started biking again.

Comments

[johnny2474u]

Great Instructable !! Thank you & I will spread the word

[Cristian Lavaque]

Thank you for all the wonderful tips. I'm going to try implementing at least some of them.