Carpal Tunnel therapy

[Francois Ouellette]

Here are my comments as a musician and computer user:

One word: POSTURE.

Playing the piano using a bench or stool that's too low requires the
pianist to raise her/his forearms which causes unnecessary strain on the
shoulders and spine which result in all sorts of discomfort. Too high, the
wrists bend upwards and playing forte will soon create another kind of
discomfort, not mentioning a tendency to slouch which causes its own set
of problems. With the wrong posture I cannot play for more that 10-15
minutes
before feeling some discomfort. With the correct posture I can play for
hours and only my public feels all sorts of pain (but that's another story
altogether).

Pay primary attention to the posture.

Same with the computer: use a chair that makes sense. Kneeling chairs are
my favourite. And also a big trackball whenever possible. Avoid those
office chairs with armrests. If they can be removed, remove them. If not,
try to get a simple chair without. Resting your elbows
while typing makes you want to slouch and this makes you feel very
uncomfortable after a short while. Worst case, you will pinch nerves
located between the cervical vertebrae and get both arms completely
useless, not mentioning the the excruciating pain.

Try to keep your upper body *straight*, and avoid a posture that makes
you bend your wrists. Every 10-15 minutes stop typing, look at something
else than the screen and move your hands in a circular fashion to keep the
blood supply going. Popping noise is "normal", this is the liquid moving
around the small bones.

I have been using keyboards and computers for over 30 years, starting
before the word "ergonomy" was even invented and hardly had any problem,
except when I did not pay attention to my posture.

Happy typing!

 François Ouellette
<fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>

>
>>...so perhaps good posture and proper typing technique also
>>makes a difference.
>>
>
> They certainly do. Also keep in mind that musicians have been
> keyboarding for centuries. They too are subject to similar injuries, yet
> over that time, pianists have evolved techniques to allow them to
> practise injury-free 10 or more hours a day for decades!
>
> (That's an extreme example, and I doubt that anyone but the world's
> greats does it, but the point is that it's humanly possible to do.)

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml