Is there anything known about the underlying cause of RSI? I should have it but I don't, friends of my shouldn't have it but they do... When I first heard about (and was scared of it) was mid 90s, but then it was still seen (at least here) as kind of nonsense and trying to get on disability easily without proof (that worked though after a few cases). But now, so many years later, they should know more?
I think the key is to not blindly follow typing advice.
For example, from the article:
The main mistake was chording. Chording is where you use one hand to type two distant keys. Press Shift-T on your keyboard with only your left hand and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I can see how it's a stretch if you follow home-row resting position from standard keyboarding advice, but I taught myself touch-typing while playing StarCraft several years before taking a keyboarding class. My resting position isn't home-row, and shift-t isn't a stretch - my hands rest on the keyboard angled instead of straight on, so bending my fingers a bit is enough.
It even hints at the "not blindly follow advice" at the end, while not saying it explicitly:
Throughout my experimentation, I tried several other strategies that seemed to be ubiquitously recommended across the internet yet were useless pieces advice for me personally.
I also read a lot of advice that told me to stop using my mouse. This didn’t really make much sense to me as I could clearly feel my wrists hurting more when typing than when using my mouse.
The mouse one is interesting. I've seen two main ways to use a mouse, often based on how big your hands are: Rest your wrist on the mousepad and use your fingers to move it around, or rest your hand on the mouse and lift your arm, using your elbow and shoulders to move the mouse around. The first method I can absolutely see contributing to RSI, the second not so much because you're not twisting your wrist. I'd guess the author reflexively does the second, people giving this advice were taught to do the first.
The understanding I picked up from having some dealings with the UK medical system and reading about it in the course of trying to deal with my RSI is that it's kind of a blanket term that gets applied to any chronic hand pain; there seem to be a whole collection of different underlying issues that manifest in similar ways. Some of those are relatively well understood and can be tested for (eg comparing nerve conductivity in different fingers can identify whether nerves are constricted in the carpal tunnel); others less so; and some chronic pain is still not understood at all. So I treat "RSI" as a convenient label if I'm trying to explain to somebody; but it's not a diagnosis and it doesn't have a single cause.
(In my particular case the conclusion seemed to be that nerves from the arm were being compressed as a result of some combination of poor posture and underdeveloped core/back muscles.)
Comments
Is there anything known about the underlying cause of RSI? I should have it but I don't, friends of my shouldn't have it but they do... When I first heard about (and was scared of it) was mid 90s, but then it was still seen (at least here) as kind of nonsense and trying to get on disability easily without proof (that worked though after a few cases). But now, so many years later, they should know more?
I think the key is to not blindly follow typing advice.
For example, from the article:
I can see how it's a stretch if you follow home-row resting position from standard keyboarding advice, but I taught myself touch-typing while playing StarCraft several years before taking a keyboarding class. My resting position isn't home-row, and shift-t isn't a stretch - my hands rest on the keyboard angled instead of straight on, so bending my fingers a bit is enough.
It even hints at the "not blindly follow advice" at the end, while not saying it explicitly:
The mouse one is interesting. I've seen two main ways to use a mouse, often based on how big your hands are: Rest your wrist on the mousepad and use your fingers to move it around, or rest your hand on the mouse and lift your arm, using your elbow and shoulders to move the mouse around. The first method I can absolutely see contributing to RSI, the second not so much because you're not twisting your wrist. I'd guess the author reflexively does the second, people giving this advice were taught to do the first.
The understanding I picked up from having some dealings with the UK medical system and reading about it in the course of trying to deal with my RSI is that it's kind of a blanket term that gets applied to any chronic hand pain; there seem to be a whole collection of different underlying issues that manifest in similar ways. Some of those are relatively well understood and can be tested for (eg comparing nerve conductivity in different fingers can identify whether nerves are constricted in the carpal tunnel); others less so; and some chronic pain is still not understood at all. So I treat "RSI" as a convenient label if I'm trying to explain to somebody; but it's not a diagnosis and it doesn't have a single cause.
(In my particular case the conclusion seemed to be that nerves from the arm were being compressed as a result of some combination of poor posture and underdeveloped core/back muscles.)