Wrist Pain from Typing

Most of you spend a lot of time typing. Do you have wrist pain, and are you worried about "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome"? In many cases, it's from overworking the muscles in the outer side of the forearm, incorrect positioning of the keyboard, and the mouse itself! Here is what you can do.

1) Level and Support Your Wrists (and Elbows)

Most of you have a keyboard tilted up, so that your wrists are bent upward. And also, your hands may be off the desk without a wrist rest. Place the keyboard just below the elbow level. Don't flip up the keyboard feet, and use a rolled-up hand towel under your wrists if you don't have an ergonomic wrist rest, so that the wrists are level. It's also a good idea to rest your elbows on the arm rests if your chair has ones.

2) Get a "Vertical Mouse"

The position of the hands with palms down is actually not the natural hand position. It may be awkward to use a vertical mouse first, but one of my clients told me it saved her life!

3) Massage Your Forearm Muscles

Now that you have done the above, let's massage your forearm muscles. You want to massage the outer part of the forearm especially closer to the elbow by rolling a ball back and forth on the table. You might feel it tender, which is normal. If it gets really sore next day, you massaged too much or too hard. Massage for 30 seconds and 4-5 times a day every day.

I hope you will get rid of wrist pain soon!