6 ms·

Exercises That Protect Against Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

39 points by terpua 18y ago

sreitshamer 18y ago
This book contains a lot more exercises in the same vein: http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Repetitive/dp/1572240393 http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Repe... Changed my life -- no more typing pain.
chaosmachine 18y ago
I discovered a similar exercise to the 3rd one shown a few years ago, and it really helps. Basically, you push your hand out like you were telling a car to stop, and pull your fingers back with your other hand. Like this: http://i40.tinypic.com/54dm6b.jpg http://i40.tinypic.com/54dm6b.jpg I usually hold it for about 20 seconds. You should feel a good stretch going on in your tendons. It's surprisingly effective, and the results are almost instant, with any wrist pain basically subsiding after doing this stretch.
seldo 18y ago
Wow. These are amazing. The one with your hand upside down against the tree was excruciating on my mousing hand, which is where I usually have problems, so I figure that's the problematic tendon. Let me give this a week and see if things improve...
niels_olson 18y ago
If you think you have what you think is "carpal tunnel", you may actually have nerve inflammation somewhere else: tingling or numbness in the hand can also occur due to inflammation of the tissue around the nerve, or the nerve itself, in the neck (posture), shoulder (swimmers, ball players, or others with lax shoulder joints or history of dislocations) or elbow (a very low grade, chronic "funny bone" sort of impingement).
- yummyfajitas 18y ago
  I'd suggest digging up an anatomy book (Grey's Anatomy or whatever) and comparing the location of your pain to a map of the nerves in your arm. This will help you debug the specific problem.
  - fergusjdawson 18y ago
    I'd sooner employ wikipedia to the same end.
    - Zev 18y ago
      Just a heads up, Gray's Anatomy doesn't only mean the TV show. It also refers to a well regarded human anatomy textbook, "Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body" - see http://www.amazon.com/Grays-Anatomy-Human-Body-30th/dp/081210644X http://www.amazon.com/Grays-Anatomy-Human-Body-30th/dp/08121...
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- lutorm 18y ago
  This is called referred pain. There is an amazing book called "The trigger point therapy workbook" that talks about these and how to treat them. It's helped me tremendously.
nileshk 18y ago
For an alternative idea on this, this is what helped me: http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc That's a Word doc, you can view the Google cache for HTML: http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:6ZpktcdKS0kJ:www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:6ZpktcdKS0kJ:www.rsi.dea... That's just a short overview of the ideas, but reading the book "The Mindbody Prescription" by Dr John E Sarno is what "cured" me of what I thought was RSI. I recommend that anyone who thinks they have carpel tunnel syndrome or "RSI" read that book.
yummyfajitas 18y ago
I posted this already on a carpal tunnel thread that didn't get many upvotes, but I think it's useful enough to repost. I eliminated most of my keyboard induced problems with a split keyboard in a vertical layout. I use this keyboard: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle_mac.htm http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle_mac.htm And I made one of these out of a cardboard box and duct tape: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/solo-ascent-90_512x390.jpg http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/solo-ascent-90_512x390.jp... This avoids torsion in the forearms and prevents you from bending your wrists.
- streety 18y ago
  Building on avoiding torsion in the forearms I was experiencing some discomfort in my mouse wrist. I bought an Evoluent vertical mouse and experienced a substantial improvement. Buying a second one so I could have one at home and one at university solved the issue entirely. As mice go they're expensive, especially if you're not sure it's going to help, but can be picked up on ebay at a discount.
diN0bot 18y ago
swimming works great for me.
- wallflower 18y ago
  Swimming is excellent because it's as close to zero-impact (e.g. not pounding pavement) as you can get. There was a point in my work career where I hurt and swimming every day after work helped. If you're wondering or thinking "Swimming is hard" - go to http://totalimmersion.net http://totalimmersion.net (they teach you how to swim like fish do - not the standard Red Cross Mississippi Steamboat (paddle-wheel high-energy-required kick way)
silentbicycle 18y ago
There's a series of wrist stretches associated with Aikido (a martial art that, among other things, involves a lot of wrist twists and joint locks) that I've found to be extremely helpful during many hours of typing. Their names will differ from school to school (mine called them "ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo, yonkgo, gokyo", which pretty much just means "first, second, third..."), but googling for aikido wrist stretch should give you the general idea. Also helpful for me: getting more exercise in general, good posture, getting enough sleep, Dvorak, taking breaks, xwrits, better keybindings, less mouse, etc.

39 points by terpua 18y ago

This book contains a lot more exercises in the same vein: http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Repetitive/dp/1572240393 http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Repe... Changed my life -- no more typing pain.

chaosmachine 18y ago

I discovered a similar exercise to the 3rd one shown a few years ago, and it really helps. Basically, you push your hand out like you were telling a car to stop, and pull your fingers back with your other hand. Like this: http://i40.tinypic.com/54dm6b.jpg http://i40.tinypic.com/54dm6b.jpg I usually hold it for about 20 seconds. You should feel a good stretch going on in your tendons. It's surprisingly effective, and the results are almost instant, with any wrist pain basically subsiding after doing this stretch.

seldo 18y ago

Wow. These are amazing. The one with your hand upside down against the tree was excruciating on my mousing hand, which is where I usually have problems, so I figure that's the problematic tendon. Let me give this a week and see if things improve...

niels_olson 18y ago

If you think you have what you think is "carpal tunnel", you may actually have nerve inflammation somewhere else: tingling or numbness in the hand can also occur due to inflammation of the tissue around the nerve, or the nerve itself, in the neck (posture), shoulder (swimmers, ball players, or others with lax shoulder joints or history of dislocations) or elbow (a very low grade, chronic "funny bone" sort of impingement).

yummyfajitas 18y ago
I'd suggest digging up an anatomy book (Grey's Anatomy or whatever) and comparing the location of your pain to a map of the nerves in your arm. This will help you debug the specific problem.
- fergusjdawson 18y ago
  I'd sooner employ wikipedia to the same end.
  - Zev 18y ago
    Just a heads up, Gray's Anatomy doesn't only mean the TV show. It also refers to a well regarded human anatomy textbook, "Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body" - see http://www.amazon.com/Grays-Anatomy-Human-Body-30th/dp/081210644X http://www.amazon.com/Grays-Anatomy-Human-Body-30th/dp/08121...
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
lutorm 18y ago
This is called referred pain. There is an amazing book called "The trigger point therapy workbook" that talks about these and how to treat them. It's helped me tremendously.

nileshk 18y ago

For an alternative idea on this, this is what helped me: http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc That's a Word doc, you can view the Google cache for HTML: http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:6ZpktcdKS0kJ:www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:6ZpktcdKS0kJ:www.rsi.dea... That's just a short overview of the ideas, but reading the book "The Mindbody Prescription" by Dr John E Sarno is what "cured" me of what I thought was RSI. I recommend that anyone who thinks they have carpel tunnel syndrome or "RSI" read that book.

yummyfajitas 18y ago

I posted this already on a carpal tunnel thread that didn't get many upvotes, but I think it's useful enough to repost. I eliminated most of my keyboard induced problems with a split keyboard in a vertical layout. I use this keyboard: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle_mac.htm http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle_mac.htm And I made one of these out of a cardboard box and duct tape: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/solo-ascent-90_512x390.jpg http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/solo-ascent-90_512x390.jp... This avoids torsion in the forearms and prevents you from bending your wrists.

streety 18y ago
Building on avoiding torsion in the forearms I was experiencing some discomfort in my mouse wrist. I bought an Evoluent vertical mouse and experienced a substantial improvement. Buying a second one so I could have one at home and one at university solved the issue entirely. As mice go they're expensive, especially if you're not sure it's going to help, but can be picked up on ebay at a discount.

diN0bot 18y ago

swimming works great for me.

wallflower 18y ago
Swimming is excellent because it's as close to zero-impact (e.g. not pounding pavement) as you can get. There was a point in my work career where I hurt and swimming every day after work helped. If you're wondering or thinking "Swimming is hard" - go to http://totalimmersion.net http://totalimmersion.net (they teach you how to swim like fish do - not the standard Red Cross Mississippi Steamboat (paddle-wheel high-energy-required kick way)

silentbicycle 18y ago

There's a series of wrist stretches associated with Aikido (a martial art that, among other things, involves a lot of wrist twists and joint locks) that I've found to be extremely helpful during many hours of typing. Their names will differ from school to school (mine called them "ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo, yonkgo, gokyo", which pretty much just means "first, second, third..."), but googling for aikido wrist stretch should give you the general idea. Also helpful for me: getting more exercise in general, good posture, getting enough sleep, Dvorak, taking breaks, xwrits, better keybindings, less mouse, etc.