Preventing RSI for programmers

I've been computering daily for 24 years, since I was 9, and managing RSI since high school. People often ask how it never gets bad. This is the article I always wish I had written.

Ergonomic keyboards and doodads help but they're mostly a gimmick. You can make anything ergonomic if you use it right.

My approach requires no gadgets, although they help. No wrist braces, warmers, or weird exercises, although they help.

My approach requires something far harder: Better habits.

The tools and gadgets make it easier to improve your habits. Force you to improve them. But you can use these techniques on any keyboard and any mouse.

I regularly use them with a tiny iPad keyboard for example.

The basic principles

The basic principles are:

  1. Your wrists were made to support weight only on the axis going through your forearm
  2. Your wrists were not designed for constant tiny movements
  3. Your hands and fingers are not good at clutching things for extended periods of time

You'll notice every ergonomic doodad is designed to help you minimize wrist movement. Ergonomic keyboards discourage flicking your wrist, braces stabilize or immobilize it, vertical mice encourage moving from your elbow.

Try making a fist like you're holding a stick. Now bend the wrist around. Feels weird right?

That's what a vertical mouse does.

Apply these principles for better computering

What this means in practice:

  1. Float your wrists like a pianist
  2. When you aren't typing, rest your hands on your palm, not your wrist
  3. Move your arms from the elbow or shoulder
  1. No flicking wrist motions
  2. Rest your hand on the mouse, no clutching – a good test is "Can you mouse with your pinky and thumb in the air"
  3. Increase mouse sensitivity so you can reach the whole screen by gently moving your elbow/shoulder, with no movement in your wrist or fingers
  1. Keep your wrists stable
  2. Strengthen your wrists
  3. Keep your desk and monitor at such a height that you cary weight on your spine, not your shoulders or arms
  4. Your arms should feel loose

No.9 is a recent addition to my arsenal. I started getting RSI in the front of my shoulders from leaning on my desk.

Loose arms come from motorcycling. I'll let Fast Eddie explain

Play: YouTube video

Your hands are important, take good care of them. ✌️

Cheers,
~Swizec