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I'm curious too. One thing that strikes me as unusual (and perhaps others can lend some sort of insight here) is that I have been working with PCs on a daily b

by jat850 16y ago

I'm curious too. One thing that strikes me as unusual (and perhaps others can lend some sort of insight here) is that I have been working with PCs on a daily basis, often for excessive lengths of time (12-16 hours a day or more) for about 24 years now. At no time during any of these years have I ever encountered symptoms of RSI, or required any special breaks. I have terrible posture and I don't go to any lengths to protect myself against RSI, either. I've wondered if perhaps moving in a more digitally-inclined direction has somehow led to us being more conditioned to deal with these repetitive movements, or if I'm just lucky (or, more scary to think about, destined for some sort of horrible crippling onset of RSI at some point soon)?

MikeCapone 16y ago
Chances are you are one of the lucky ones, though it doesn't mean that your luck will not end at some point (your body can compensate for a long time, but when it can't anymore, symptoms can appear rather quickly). This book has been useful to me: http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Professionals/dp/0965510999 http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Profe... And in it they mention that some people do all the wrong things and never seem to get RSI. Better not to count on luck, though. I now wish I had taken preventive measures much earlier. I have my first physical therapy appointment next week...
Silhouette 16y ago
I'm much the same. I always figured it was one of those things where when you've always used your body to do certain things from an early age, it's so well adapted that the action is no signficant burden at all. Most people can walk a very long way without becoming too tired, even if they could only run or cycle a short distance. Their threshold for that kind of activity is low enough that walking just doesn't tax them. Personally, I have a limit on how many push-ups or crunches I can do in a set: with training over the years, the numbers have gone up, but I always start to feel it after a while and eventually I have to stop. However, I know people who can outlast a bleep tape and still be doing crunches with correct form and only a little tiredness. It's so easy for them that there is negligible cumulative fatigue. Personally, I've been using computers since I was small, and I also play a musical instrument and play sports that involve a lot of arm/wrist/hand movements. I've never adopted the kind of "bad habits" that many people of my generation who only started typing lots as adults have: I've just always kept my hands relaxed, wrists aligned, etc. because using my hands and fingers efficiently comes naturally to me. Maybe we're both just lucky, but I suspect we also have bodies that have adapted to this particular kind of task from an early age and we've never got into the kinds of bad habits that tend to exacerbate any natural predisposition to RSI. Which is still lucky in a way, I suppose.
- MikeCapone 16y ago
  Exercising is probably what helps you. Most RSI sufferers don't exercise enough (myself included). I don't think it has to do with habit; a lot of RSI sufferers, myself included, started using computers very young. Humans have evolved to walk long distances, but we haven't evolved to sit all day holding our arms in front of us in a relatively static position, doing repetitive wrist and hand movements. If on top of that you don't exercise, have weak muscles overall and bad blood flow... Well, that's asking for trouble.
elai 16y ago
A lot of IT and Programming work is a lot of reading punctuated by short bursts of typing behaviour and 'walking speed' amounts of clicking. Stuff like typing dictation or pro star craft players is constantly clicking and typing, so I'm not surprised that you don't have RSI problems. Try taking 10 pages of written text and typing it out with no breaks, you'll feel the pain soon enough. Or your like those people who never have problems with their teeth or eyes despite abusing both. Some people are just built better, other people have weaker systems like skin prone to excema, but since it is internal it's less obvious.

by jat850 16y ago

MikeCapone 16y ago

Chances are you are one of the lucky ones, though it doesn't mean that your luck will not end at some point (your body can compensate for a long time, but when it can't anymore, symptoms can appear rather quickly). This book has been useful to me: http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Professionals/dp/0965510999 http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Syndrome-Therapy-Computer-Profe... And in it they mention that some people do all the wrong things and never seem to get RSI. Better not to count on luck, though. I now wish I had taken preventive measures much earlier. I have my first physical therapy appointment next week...

Silhouette 16y ago

I'm much the same. I always figured it was one of those things where when you've always used your body to do certain things from an early age, it's so well adapted that the action is no signficant burden at all. Most people can walk a very long way without becoming too tired, even if they could only run or cycle a short distance. Their threshold for that kind of activity is low enough that walking just doesn't tax them. Personally, I have a limit on how many push-ups or crunches I can do in a set: with training over the years, the numbers have gone up, but I always start to feel it after a while and eventually I have to stop. However, I know people who can outlast a bleep tape and still be doing crunches with correct form and only a little tiredness. It's so easy for them that there is negligible cumulative fatigue. Personally, I've been using computers since I was small, and I also play a musical instrument and play sports that involve a lot of arm/wrist/hand movements. I've never adopted the kind of "bad habits" that many people of my generation who only started typing lots as adults have: I've just always kept my hands relaxed, wrists aligned, etc. because using my hands and fingers efficiently comes naturally to me. Maybe we're both just lucky, but I suspect we also have bodies that have adapted to this particular kind of task from an early age and we've never got into the kinds of bad habits that tend to exacerbate any natural predisposition to RSI. Which is still lucky in a way, I suppose.

MikeCapone 16y ago
Exercising is probably what helps you. Most RSI sufferers don't exercise enough (myself included). I don't think it has to do with habit; a lot of RSI sufferers, myself included, started using computers very young. Humans have evolved to walk long distances, but we haven't evolved to sit all day holding our arms in front of us in a relatively static position, doing repetitive wrist and hand movements. If on top of that you don't exercise, have weak muscles overall and bad blood flow... Well, that's asking for trouble.

elai 16y ago

A lot of IT and Programming work is a lot of reading punctuated by short bursts of typing behaviour and 'walking speed' amounts of clicking. Stuff like typing dictation or pro star craft players is constantly clicking and typing, so I'm not surprised that you don't have RSI problems. Try taking 10 pages of written text and typing it out with no breaks, you'll feel the pain soon enough. Or your like those people who never have problems with their teeth or eyes despite abusing both. Some people are just built better, other people have weaker systems like skin prone to excema, but since it is internal it's less obvious.