
Exercises That Protect Against Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - terpua
http://lifehacker.com/5195481/exercises-that-protect-against-carpal-tunnel-syndrome
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niels_olson
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).

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yummyfajitas
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.

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fergusjdawson
I'd sooner employ wikipedia to the same end.

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Zev
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/08121...](http://www.amazon.com/Grays-Anatomy-Human-
Body-30th/dp/081210644X)

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yummyfajitas
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>

And I made one of these out of a cardboard box and duct tape:

[http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/solo-
ascent-90_512x390.jp...](http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/solo-
ascent-90_512x390.jpg)

This avoids torsion in the forearms and prevents you from bending your wrists.

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streety
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.

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silentbicycle
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.

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chaosmachine
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>

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.

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sreitshamer
This book contains a lot more exercises in the same vein:

[http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-
Repe...](http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-
Repetitive/dp/1572240393)

Changed my life -- no more typing pain.

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nileshk
For an alternative idea on this, this is what helped me:
<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.dea...](http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:6ZpktcdKS0kJ:www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc)

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.

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seldo
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...

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diN0bot
swimming works great for me.

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wallflower
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> (they teach you how to swim like fish do - not the
standard Red Cross Mississippi Steamboat (paddle-wheel high-energy-required
kick way)

