Hi fellow programmers.
How do you ensure to prevent RSI and/or manage RSI? Especially with your hands and arms.
For those who don’t know, RSI is a disorder that occurs when repeating the same movements too much for a long period of time. This frequently occurs when sitting behind a desk and using keyboard and mouse the entire day.
I personally have a great (but expensive) chair with arm rests and have a slightly ergonomic mouse (it has a curve, to make it more comfortable for my thumb).
Honestly, I dislike having to disrupt my computer activities every hour, because I’m usually quite immersed / invested into whatever I’m doing. Whether that’s watching a movie, developing an app or simply playing videogames. However, I’ll probably have to start taking frequent breaks, in order to prevent RSI from taking a hold in my body. Unfortunately, we only get one body, one chance, so let’s not mess it up with neglecting breaks and acquiring RSI.
I am 42 and I have been dealing with this for the last few years. It comes and goes but when it comes it’s hard to get any work done. My best advice is to stop working when the pain starts, sit in a proper office chair the right way straight up do not slouch, take frequent breaks, do RSI warmup stretches, and finally get a personal trainer to get the blood flowing in the arms. I do all of these things and even have switched keyboard layouts. I current use whisper c++ to dictate my slack convos and work emails. As for the mouse use I have tennis elbow from mousing I have not figured out a way yet to stop that, I’m going to try mouseing with my left hand and see if that is doable.