How do you keep your hands in good condition? [closed]

Question

Our hands are one of the physical tools of our trade. What do you do to keep them healthy and avoid injuries? What about wrists/shoulders or your whole body in general?

Answer 1

You can have a not computer/keyboard related hobby. To avoid repetitive strain on your hands.

I make chainmail. But there are countless other options.

Answer 2

I have had some issues with RSI in my hands, mostly due to mouse usage, and have the following tricks to help me avoid problems:

• Left-handed mice usage at home, right-handed at work
• Use only mice with very low click-thresholds.
  Logitech mice require very little force to click. I use nothing else.
• Use mice with a thumb button, and map the thumb button to middle-click
  Using my middle finger to click was something I did often and caused a lot of irritation. My thumb never gets irritated. In case of real problems, I could always remap it to left-click and not use any finger except my thumb.
• Most important: keep my hands warm at all times. Good gloves in winter are very important.

As for general issues, like back and shoulder aches, I've found regular martial arts practice to help a lot. Correct posture is of course also not a bad idea, but it's not 100 percent of the solution for me.

Answer 3

Reduce your stress and you will reduce your injury rate. This is much easier said than done. Exercise (even just walking around outside) helps. Time away from the monitor helps. Taking classes on relaxation or meditation or whatever works for you, helps. Massages, from a professional, if you can afford it, help.

Pick up an addictive hobby that is NOT Xbox or PS3 or WoW. I play Warhammer--the painting part is hand-intensive but uses different muscles, and mostly it involves standing around moving models and thinking very hard about tactics, perfect for letting the arms relax. Or dancing, or singing, or other things that encourage motion.

Do some strength training in your hands and arms and neck--AFTER you heal form initial injury. Strength seems to help keep the right postures so you avoid injury.

Switch up your workplace frequently. Move your keyboard tray up and down. Switch between different keyboards and mice. Sit in different chairs.

Answer 4

Excercices. I use Work Rave. But this nice piece of software will take care of the rest of your body as well.

Answer 5

That is an excellent question. After 10 years of pro-development, I started getting chronic arm/hand issues - burning sensation from shoulder to finger-tips, even when not using a computer. A specialist helped me, and we made some changes:

• work environment; in particular ensuring that I had support under both arms to reduce strain; at the time, that was as simple as switching from a left/right corner desk. Now (different desk) it means a good chair with arm support
• keyboard; I was using an ergonomic keyb, but there was a lot of travel between keyb and mouse; switching to a Goldtouch keyb (which doesn't have a numeric keypad) removed this travel, and allows for bespoke elevation / rotation (it has a ball joint you use to set the keyboard in a position comfortable for you)
• mouse; I now use an Evoluent vertical mouse; this takes a little adjustment, but removes the unnatural rotation you otherwise endure with a regular mouse

Answer 6

Wow, 10 answers so far, and no one so far mentioned any kind of sports activity !! Now, I know programmers are not the most sports oriented people on this little piece of rock we call Earth, but they're also (rather) rational people, and probably understand the importance of keeping (not just your hands) healty, but healthy in general (no point being smart, if you're gonna die from a heart condition at 65, is there?)

Jogging, cycling and tennis are my choices. I also, never had any problems with my hands whatsoever.

Answer 7

Advice I have had from various professionals over the years:

• Eyes Looking at one thing for a long time is not a natural thing for our eyes to do.

  Look away from your monitor on a regular basis. If you need glasses, wear them- your eyes will get worse for having to work to focus on a screen.

• Hands Using your hands for a single task builds up muscle but also builds tightness in other directions and is a longer-term recipe for arthritis and RSI.

  One exercise to help: With your palm upwards, gently pull your fingers down and backwards with your other hand.

• Shoulder and Back It is very common for regular mouse users to get a cold shoulder. This happens because through usage and in order to use the mouse precisely the muscle in the shoulder gets overdeveloped and puts pressure on the nerves that would otherwise potentially cause the hand to shake. The outcome is steady hands but a massive loss in shoulder movement. This is bad news because any stiffness in one part of the back tends to cause overcompensation in other parts, resulting in various problems in the spine and hips that can manifest in a broad selection of ways.

  You can help yourself a bit by shrugging your shoulders on a regular basis ( perhaps look around the room shrugging your shoulders as though confused and baffled by your surroundings ) and changing mouse hand on a regular basis, although I find being ambimoustrous very difficult. Learning keyboard shortcuts will also help with that.

In terms of general positional wellbeing I recommend visiting a chiropractor or similar from time to time if you can find a good one. Having been treated by physiotherapists and chiropractors it was always the latter that proved effective in fixing things quickly. If you really want to be able to help yourself you might want to consider something like the Alexander Technique, which teaches body awareness so that you can learn to correct your own position in simple ways.

Given how much time you spend at the keyboard it is also important to have a good chair and to spend a few minutes figuring out how to adjust it correctly.

This list of workstation stretches is also useful.

Answer 8

Training with free weights at the gym with no gloves will keep the soft, smooth office hands away! Seriously, the training will prevent injuries.

Answer 9

Tennis balls or some ball made of hard spongy foam. You can squeeze it to exersice your fingers.

Answer 10

Trade in QWERTY for Colemak. It's easy to install, a bit harder to learn but it pays off. Prepare for a lot of slow typing for a week, and after a few weeks you're typing back at old speed, but a lot more relaxed.

By the way, Colemak has a lot of keys in common with QWERTY, so I can switch between the two with only a little mental effort.

Answer 11

I keep one of these at my desk and have gotten into the habit of picking it up and doing a few reps when I'm waiting for builds, thinking hard, etc.

Answer 12

What about listening to them?

When you start feeling like your hands are getting tired or something take a break. No need for fancy training or anything.

Your body talks to you, just have to know how to listen.

Answer 13

Using a clicky keyboard, such as an IBM Model M feels like a much better work out than one of those silent keyboards, and my fingers and wrists haven't suffered for it.

Answer 14

Large strong elastic bands (really large). You can exercise your whole arm by stretching them. I suffer more from my shoulders than my arms, so this helps me a lot.

Answer 15

Climbing is probably the best finger exercise you can ever get. But it's unfortunately easy to injure them, so you got to be careful. You also got to keep your fingernails short and your skin lotioned, 'cause the chalk dries it out.

Answer 16

My hands are in terrible condition. Not that that's anything to brag about. I'm guilty of cracking knuckles.

Answer 17

Chinese metal spheres; the ones you rotate using one hand. They are both entertaining, tress relieving, and a good massage for your palm and fingers.

Answer 18

I had a problem with my shoulder blades..They use to pain like hell..But now i am following few little steps to overcome this, Take small breaks in between the work and Stretch your hands and make circles clock-wise and anti clockwise for about 20 times. That really worked for me. At the end of it take a deep breath. We need to keep our eyes as well safe, look at a distant object in between to reduce the strain.

Answer 19

I keep my wrists above the keyboard, and I type like I typist, alternating hands and using different hands for chords, the way I learned in typing class (on a typewriter).

I have had one repetitive strain injury in my life, and it was from taking notes by hand in college, not from typing. I fixed how I held my right hand on the desk and the problem went away.

I only bother to respond because I see lots of computer users forcing their wrists down and reaching up further than they can comfortably reach with their wrists down; I also see a lot of discussion among programmers about hand and wrist injuries. Coincidence? My grandmother first pointed this out to me: she's been a secretary/typist for seventy years and has never had a strain injury.

Answer 20

Posture is important. Keep your upper arms at your side and your wrists generally straight. Arm rests on your chair can help a lot if they're at the right level. Don't type too long at a time. I'm not sure it matters what you do when not typing, but I frequently bend my wrists and look out the window. (In a job like this, you're not always typing, or you're not thinking enough.)

Answer 21

I use a dwell clicking utility which saves me from making thousands of mouse clicks per day.

Answer 22

I play piano for 30 minutes to 1 hour just about every day.