Exercises That Protect Against Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Awesome, no more having to take a break from those late night rock band marathons.

ParDema

Very useful video, thanks for pointing it out :)

Wow, the second stretch induced some serious cramping in my right hand! I knew I had problems, but sheesh...

Great post! I'll be using these daily from here out.

Used to get TERRIBLE instances of RSI from my office desk. Bought an Evoluent mouse from Amazon and literally cured me in under 2 weeks. Haven't worn a wristbrace since and no discomfort at all.

In fact when I saw the LH post a while back about the 'best mouse you've ever used' i think i posted it then, but it has much more to do with this topic i feel.

i advise it to anyone who's on the comp a great deal.

These exercises are quite similar to the ones my doctor told me to do when I was having wrist pains from too much computing. They helped, and I continue to do them to this day.

I've always been afraid of carpal tunnel. But now thanks to this video I can sleep like a baby again :D

Great post!
Thx

ThaMofo

Woo, feels good!

Very useful.. great exercises for climbers too - just be sure to consult with your physicist!

Jason Hock

*sigh* If only YouTube wasn't blocked at work. I might be able to get it unblocked because this video would be educational to my co-workers.

tok3ninja

Now I need something for shin splints

crabbygeek

Wow I could totally feel that in my wrists and forearms. Thanks for posting this, very useful!

Khristopher Ranger

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Its funny how much of a stretch you can get from such small muscles huh?

For me, it was a little painful but after the stretch it felt kinda good.

This is great advice. I have been doing similar stretches for years and recommending them to others.

Shameless plug: there is a new social network devoted specifically to workplace ergonomics, and helping information workers make smart choices. Lots more of this type of info for anyone who is interested:

www.comfortablyproductive.org

I love these kinds of tips and tricks.

These are some great tips! hadn't used them before, but I could totally see how they could be useful.

What a perfect place to post this.. on LH, where most of us are at the keyboard most of the day anyway :)

I am a all year round motorcycle rider and started developing some pretty nasty wrist problems from a combination of holding the throttle open and having the bike vibrate against some nerve in my forearm exposed by the constant low torque I put on the grip. You know what solved it? Cleans. I started doing Crossfit and found that hang cleans, squat cleans, clean and jerk (anything with a clean motion) stretched out my forearms and they feel good as new. My wrist has never felt better.

johnmastriani

we did these as part of the warm up in Aikido (japanese martial arts), where a lot of techniques involve the wrists and other joints.

another exercie would be:
- stretch out your right hand (as when shaking hands)
- lay the left hand into the right hand's palm (both palms facing left)
- pull both hands to you and at the same time
"wrap" the fingers of the right hand around the left
- hold for a few seconds and repeat 5 times on both hands

these exercises are easily done everywhere and very helpful. As is this instructional video!

Florian Arendt

Holy crap! I feel better already!

tok3ninja

I don't think exercising helps carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). A few years ago I thought I had it and saw a specialist. Ultimately it turned out I didn't have it, but he said exercises don't help CTS one bit. Wikipedia seems to agree that it is mostly genetics and there is not even a clear link to the workplace environment: [en.wikipedia.org]

I don't doubt that the exercises could be useful for RSI. Just not for CTS. And I don't know on tendinitis either. Perhaps someone else here does.

mckennage

This is a nice excercise for tendonitus, but that isn't the same as carpel tunnel syndrom (is it?). These excercises protect against tendon issues. Carpel tunnel is a nerve issue. For my early stage carpel tunnel, my doctor had me wear wrist guards and work on my posture and wrist placement to prevent pressure on the lower side of my wrists from damaging the nerves that pass there. No such mention of stretching was made.

RowenaWasp

Whenever my mousing arm feels like it's falling prey to RSI, I've practiced the excellent self acupressure routine here: http://altmedicine.about.com/library/weekly/aa092500a.htm Two/three sessions have generally been enough to get me back to normal.

ParisKeppim

Can anyone point me towards a reference chart that I can put on my desk? I'd like to use it as both a tutorial and a reminder, and also so that I don't have to keep pulling up a video in order to perform the stretches.

PantheaMagoondo

These exercises are similar to orthopedic tests for carpal tunnel or stenosing tenosynovitis ("deQuervains disease"). Finkelstein's test, Prayer/Reverse Prayer Sign, and Mill's test. Googling those terms might give interested people more exercises or whatnot to relieve their symptoms.

IsabellaNardywomps

I've had a RSI in my wrists pretty bad since I was in middle school, and all of these exercises made my wrists hurt- a lot!

That said, I've also developed a terrible habit over the years of cracking or popping my wrists whenever I feel any pain or discomfort in them. I'm sure that doesn't help any, and I've tried to break the habit, but haven't been successful.

DarkKishi

@mckennage: You are right. I also think the exercises the gentleman described in the video will more likely damage the tendons and related tissues. People should take advice only from a specialist. You may need to have a PhD to understand what I am talking about. There are very well developed methods and science to evaluate any treatment (or exercise) to no treatment or other treatments with minimum (and usually measurable) bias.

wwoods

Excellent advice! My only other option is to ditch my eeepc ;)

ZahidBanks

@wwoods: Good point, I forgot to mention that. My doctor told me that CTS could get worse from exercising. I think he said due to strain or inflammation.

Moral: don't take medical advice from a bald guy filming in the trees for YouTube. Or from Lifehacker.

mckennage

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.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.

LeaCaiti

I would recommend reading The Mindbody Prescription by Dr. John Sarno. You can find copies of it in paperback for like 10 bucks.

Great exercises! I'd also add to this post some timer applications to force you to take breaks (like the open source Workrave http://www.workrave.org/ for Linux and Windows) and some ergonomic software (like open source MouseClick that clicks the mouse http://www.geocities.com/urifrid for Windows, Linux and Mac)

EnidGill

Possibly the easiest thing you can do to reduce carpal tunnel is to simply switch your mouse hand.

If you are right handed, switch your mouse hand to your left hand. It may take a few days to get used too, but give it a few weeks and you'll start noticing far fewer wrist issues.

As for "the mouse."
Go with a well rated trackball to eliminate much of the strain that causes CT.

I spend about 6 hours a day typing, and have done so virtually not stop for 10 years (with no more than a weeks break from keyboard at a time-- and that only to get married-- sort of forced on that one). :)

I have no carpal tunnel or wrist issues.

Enjoy,
Jim
TVC.Net

jwalker

@crabbygeek:
THe only cure I have found for shin splints is to start running barefoot. check out runningbarefoot.org

Robert Hathaway

Oh yeah, feel the burn! I always try and massage my forearms and hands to help avoid RSI, but having some actual stretches is a comfort.

@Jason Hock: You'll only need a physicist if you'll be defying laws of gravitation... ;o)

pale_blue_eyes

Wow that was great, I can already feel a bit of a difference after just one set of those.. I could really feel a burn during and after the final carpal tunnel stretches.

Been doing this for a long time. Rest and exercise in turns. Also taught my left hand to do most of what the right could do with the mouse. The double-click reflex has been the hardest to match on the left hand. I've escaped disability by a whore's hair.

paintbox

@ParDema: Oh I'm so impressed. All this Rock Band virtuosity. Let's see you play a real guitar.

paintbox

@paintbox:

Gee, somebody is cranky. BTW, what if he plays the drums? :P

kftgr

@paintbox:

Where are you getting your whore's hair, because some body parts produce much thicker hairs ;p

On topic, I found that wrist exercises helped me a lot to prevent wrist pain. Those gyroscopic powerball things helped much -- just remember not to hold onto it too tightly.

kftgr

@paintbox: Yeah, that was a little harsh. Can you play a real guitar?

chasema

@iomegaman5: +1 on the Evoluent mouse.

The chief benefit of Evoluent over the potentially-even-more-ergonomic... "pistol-grip" style mouse is that it's not so different from a standard mouse that others can still use it on occasion.

bobbo33

@paintbox:

That expression is epic. At least, I've never heard it before. You should get a medal, or something. :)

LuxuryYacht

I have awful pain in the joints of my index finger from using the scroll wheel for hours a day.

Any advice for treating and/or preventing this?

Please, and thank you!!!

LuxuryYacht

about 5 years ago, i started getting such pain in my mouse hand i would have to stop using it for several weeks at a time, then .... i bought a sweat band for my wrist, a tennis sweat band, it takes the pressure off the tendons on the wrist. i wear it whenever im on the computer, im wearing it now, in fact im wearing 2, one inside the other and ive never had any pain ever since.

OxfordPidgeot

I talked to my physicist and she said my sub-atomic particles must obey Newton's third law. I'm going to get a second opinion.

vante

@wwoods: Speaking of [the PhD bit], I say he's only _more_ awesome for suggesting that we consult a physicist.

Paul Kohler

I think that there's an easier way to avoid part of the mouse problems, use instead a trackball. Ten years ago I started to suffer wrists problems and after I switcher to a trackball, they have gone away completly. I now own three (a logitech marble, a genious easy track and kensington) and I would never trade them for any mouse.

Vicente Werner

I avoid carpal tunnel syndrome by having my mouse be as sensitive as possible so my hand doesnt have to fly across my mouse pad all day, I just looked at my hand while moving the mouse and discovered that my hand rests on the gel hump of my mouse pad while I use my fingers to guide my mouse.

strokeit and ahk also help alot(thankfully I dont have a desk job)

metalmarious

I did a few of those and they hurt good, I need to write them all down (or something) and start doing it, I dont hurt when I do computer stuff but seriously Guitar Hero World Tour, guitar and drumbs hurt like a mofo, I bought the things and my wife and sisters are playing and Im complaining that my wrist hurts lol.

Furious911

@Florian Arendt:

We did similar in my karate and tai chi classes. the chi kung exercises are the ones I do most frequently. Help quite a bit.

kenposan

From what I've heard, Carpal Tunnel is actually hereditary (and thus couldn't really be prevented). There's a whole mess of other injuries referred to as "RSI's" that these exercises probably would help with. Just sayin' :P

Haven't tried any of the exercises yet, but I'm a percussionist as well as a heavy computer-user. Uh-oh.

ThurstonDemonassa

Brilliant stuff. I've just started suffering from carpel tunnel/tendinitus and instantly felt these exercises stretching all the relevant areas. Lifehacker rocks :)

GugliehnoAbas