They really aren't designed for that much pounding. Any money spent on an ergo keyboard is money well spent. It'll also help get you farther away from the screen. It's cheaper than surgery.
I got RSI 15-20 years ago and successfully avoided the surgery by changing my habits and paying attention to what my body was telling me. Also had a great doc who put me on prescription anti-inflamatories for a couple months to relieve the swelling/pain. I wore wrist support braces every night for probably about 6 months. After that, I was sufficiently recovered to avoid surgery, which has questionable success. If you don't change your habits, it will recur and need to be done again. I really don't want anyone cutting ligaments in my wrist. I'm funny that way.
I also had to change my typing 'posture'. Being in support, I often walked up to desks and typed/moused while standing. BAD. I also invested in a power screwdriver to stop the constant twisting of taking screws in and out of computer chassis all day. Also, on the advice of my doctor, I actually stopped using a wrist rest. He said that by resting your wrists on them, they can actually put more pressure exactly where you don't want it. Instead, I changed to a wrist elevated/straight - curved finger position like your high school typing/piano teacher taught me. As far as an ergo keyboard, I still don't use one. But I DO use a full size standard keyboard on my laptop if I'm doing anything on it longer than 15-30 minutes.
This is a great, FREE, program for reminding you to take breaks to avoid both eyestrain from staring at a fixed distance too long, and rsi/posture issues.
- Brian Fields - SCNP
Operations and Systems Specialist
NC State University, CALS Information Technology
brian_fields@ncsu.[redacted]
>>> Alexander Ray <alexjray.ncsu@gmail.[redacted]> 6/8/2009 1:11 AM >>>
Hey Guys,
I'm throwing this out there cause I know I'm not the only one thats on
the computer a lot. I'm working ~60 hours a week on my laptop now,
and just a few weeks ago I was hit with wrist weirdness. Now I'm
starting to get strained from just looking at the laptop screen for
long periods at a time.
So, what are your issues, problems, ideas, or solutions to ergonomic
programming.
I'll start off with a few of my own.
Wrist Weirdness: I'm avoiding the use of the term 'carpal tunnel'
because I know I can't spell that well, and I'm also refusing to admit
it. I went out and did some homework for this one, doing research
online and talking to therapists. At Ed's suggestion I looked at
buying a more ergonomic keyboard, but man they are EXPENSIVE.
I finally settled on a completely new typing position, interestingly
based off of the old 'set' position I had in high school marching
band.
In addition, I really should be using a mouse instead of a trackpoint.
I've been told its more ergonomic (and I'm not a point-and-click guy,
so I wouldn't use it that much). For now its the little red nub in
the middle of my keyboard.
In the spirit of full disclosure I should say that I'm in
colorguard/winterguard, and being a member of the rifle line is
actually MORE strain on my wrists than programming, so I'm dealing
with the combination of the two.
Eyestrain and stress headaches. Man these can be killer. When I'm
writing my own code (or een composing this letter ) I can type with my
eyes closed. I try to do this as often as I can to just give my eyes
a break. My problem now is that I'm constantly reading (I'm porting a
whole slew of someone else's code), so I don't have that luxury. One
of the things I've considered is seeing if I can get my hands on a
projector (so I can read off a wall 12 feet away instead of 12 inches
away.
In addition, try to keep the brightness of your screen close to the
amount of ambient light; this means both turning on the lights
above/behind your computer and turning down the screen brightness.
I've also been told that its best for your eyes if you look at
something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes (20 20
20 rule), but I'll admit its hard for me to keep to that.
Seating/Back stuff: I haven't found a good solution to this. I am
constantly varying my seating position, but its variations on what I
think are 'bad posture'. I'll admit I rarely sit up straight, so I'm
trying to do more of that. I go from seat to floor to medicine ball
and back again. I love the seats they have in the library, but I dont
quite have $500 to drop on an ergonomic chair (my chair is from
surplus and I had to fix it up a bit). Again, I'm taking what little
'posture' I know from marching band, and try to achieve the upper body
that hornline members are supposed to get. An open, lifted upper body
with the back straight.
Cheers, and I look forward to hearing what y'all have to say.
~Alex
Also: Ashtanga yoga for the win.