Feeling Some Pain?

After sitting in front of your PC for quite sometime, have you ever felt some discomfort or even pain on one are more of these body part- your neck, shoulders, upper arm, lower arm, wrist, fingers, lower back, and or your fingers? It maybe your neck or sore or your elbow. Or you feel like you need to massage your wrist and fingers.

Well if you have been sitting in front of your computer and have been working for over an hour or so. And you do this (almost) everyday. Chances are you have developed a Repetitive Strain Injury or RSI.

What is RSI?
RSI is defined as any of a loose group of conditions resulting from overuse of a tool, eg. computer, guitar, knife, etc. or other activity that requires repeated movements*. This article will tackle mainly on computer related RSI.

Some Probable Causes of RSI
While working with computers, RSI may occur because of one or more of these reasons-- or even all of these and probably there are more reasons that are not mentioned here.

1. Uncomfortable /Non Ergonomic Workstation Setup. It maybe that your keyboard is placed right on your desktop, (keyboard is too high) elbow is overly bent (less than 90 degrees) making an uncomfortable position in the long run since your wrist will not be on their extension. And/or your monitor is placed to high that you have to slightly tilt your head back.

2. Sitting Posture. Probably you slouch or slump your head forward (maybe your font size is too small)

3. Working for too long. Probably you have been sitting for hours without taking a break

4. Wrist positioning. Commonly, when we type we bend our wrist at angle with our forearm. Overtime time this position would cause an RSI on your wrist.

5. Pounding on the keyboard. Specially if your used to type on an ancient manual type writter, or you love to listen to the keyboard making that clicking sound, you would usually pound on the keyboard (specially on the

6. Tucking the telephone between your ear and shoulder so you can talk while typing.

There could be more possible causes of RSI other than mentioned here.

Prevention.

Development of RSI can be easily prevented.

Correct Posture. Do not slouch. Your head neck and shoulders should be in line.
Correct positioning of keyboard and monitor. The keyboard should be placed where your elbow are not overly bent. The ideal angle of your elbow should be at least 90 degrees (between arm and forearm). The monitor should be directly in front of you, so you don't have to turn to either side as you type. And your eyes should be more or less level to the top of the monitor -so you don't have to tilt your head back.

Wrist should not be bent. Your wrist should be in straight line with your forearm. and or use ergonomic keyboards.

Keep your feet flat on the floor. This will minimize your tendency to slouch.

See the following websites for pictures on how to position your workstation properly and the ergonomic keyboard.
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/AHTutorials/typingposture.html
http://eeshop.unl.edu/rsi.html
http://www.fentek-ind.com/ergo.htm

Do not pound on the keyboard. Use light touch.

Use both hands when performing double key operations like CTRL-C, ALT-F4. (Thats the purpose of having, the SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT keys on both sides of the keyboard).

Take A Break every 30 minutes and Have a Kit-Kat. :D. Better yet, stretch your arms, shake your wrist to release the tension. Also look at something far, this will relieve your eyes of some strain. Stretch your neck.
Plan ahead. This will cut your time in front of the computer.

Use ergonomic assistant software that monitors your keyboard and mouse activity and reminds you to take take break.
http://repetitive-strain.qarchive.org/

If you think you already have developed RSI. First thing to do is STOP Typing specially if your hands already hurts. If your hands still hurts after a couple of days or so, ask for medical advice. See a doctor a physical therapist.

For more information on RSI visit the following websites.

http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/AHTutorials/typingposture.html
http://eeshop.unl.edu/rsi.html
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/articles/Consumer-Advice/Repetitive_Strain_Injury/
http://www.shelterpub.com/_fitness/_desk_stretches/stretches_graphic.html


Other References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury
http://www.ergonomicsnow.com.au/rsi/whatisit.htm
http://repetitive-strain.qarchive.org/