Forget carpal tunnel, iPod thumb and texting RSI are the new syndromes to worry about
Posted by Chris Leckness on 02/26/06 in General
You may have heard of carpal tunnel syndrome as one of several common Repetetive Stress Injuries, or RSIs, but what about iPod thumb (excessive use of the scroll wheel) or texting RSIs? According to Virgin Mobile, as many as four million Brits suffer from text message related injuries, such as sore wrists and thumbs. Virgin Mobile has gone so far as to create a website, www.practicesafetext.com to help combat the problem. The following are some exercises designed to minimize injury during marathon texting sessions.
Safe Text Exercises:
Stop these exercises if you feel any pain otherwise you can do more harm than good.
- In your texting hand: Tap each finger with the thumb of the same hand. Repeat five times.
- Pull your thumb firmly with the other hand. Repeat five times.
- Wrap an elastic band around the tips of fingers and thumb and open your hand against the resistance. Repeat 20 times.
- Palms down wrap an elastic band around each thumb and force apart. Repeat 20 times.
- Tap the palm and back of your hand on your thigh as quickly as you can. Repeat 20 times.
- Massage thumb web, back of forearm and front of forearm. Two minutes.
- Press and rub in a circular motion the painful nodules in those muscles. Thirty seconds for each nodule.
- Reach up high with both arms and shake your hands. Reach down low with both arms and shake. Repeat three times.
- Arms at 45 degrees, squeeze them behind you.
- If it still hurts after a week of doing exercises, wrap an ice pack on sore hand and arm parts. Do not put ice directly on the skin but wrap in a thin cloth or piece of kitchen roll. Ten minutes on, 10 minutes off. Repeat three times.
And some other advice
- If texting starts to hurt, Stop.
- Use the other hand or call instead.
- Vary the hand you use.
- Vary the digits you use.
- Don’t text for more than a few minutes without a break.
This sounds like craziness, but this is the direction that the "connected" world is moving in, and I am sure that carpal tunnel syndrome being related to typing sounded just as crazy a couple of decades ago. So please, practice safe text!
Source: Gadget Spy
Written by Chris Leckness · Filed Under General
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