Blogging shouldn't be painful

As a web developer by day and a blog addict in my spare time, I spend vast quantities of time in front of a computer. Non-addicts look at me and wonder, "Don't you get tired of it?" Hell no! I love this stuff!

However our bodies were not designed to spend so many hours typing, mousing and staring at a monitor. With the computer age came repetitive stress injuries, also known as RSI. Anyone who doesn't take the proper precautions will eventually succumb to some form of injury.

One of the most common RSIs involves the wrist. Carpal tunnel syndrome is just one of the things you can get. There's also trigger finger, nerve spasms, and in extreme cases, permanent nerve damage. When your hands perform the same action over and over, such as typing for hours, the tendons involved start to get inflamed. Your wrist is basically a collection of small bones that protect your finger's tendons and nerves. This soft tissue passes through a tunnel in this collection of bones. Repetitive tasks irritate the soft tissue and they start to swell. This compresses the nerves that also share the space, and they start to become irritated as well.

This nerve compression and irritation would account for any numbness, tingling, or shooting pain you might be feeling in your hands and forearms. Continued abuse can result in tissue damage. Pushing yourself this hard weakens your hands' strength and mobility. In essence you'll be disabling yourself.

I myself am skating dangerously close to several RSIs. My wrists are often sore if I don't remember to take care of them. There are several things you can do.

• Take frequent breaks - every 20 minutes, pause for a bit and stretch.
  
• Do wrist stretches. Some good ones that I do can be found here.
  
• Keep your wrists straight - this is key. Bent wrists reduces the size of the tunnel in your wrists and compresses everything inside.

That last item is one of the most important things in preventing RSI in your wrists. This means trying to keep your wrists straight no matter what task you are doing -- typing, chopping onions, sleeping. Yes, even sleeping. Perhaps especially sleeping.

I bought a pair of wrist supports and wore them at work. It was a little cumbersome and not that comfortable either. However I found that if I wore them to sleep I didn't need to wear them at work. The soreness went away. When you're asleep you have no idea what odd position your wrists might be in. You could be compressing your nerves all night long and not know it. By wearing wrist supports to keep your wrists straight when you sleep, you not only avoid the hours of compression, you give the inflamed tissue hours of true healing rest. It might be the simplest solution to your wrist problems.