Categories
Ergonomics RSI Tips

Lateral wrist deviation angle and RSI

Lateral (Ulnar) wrist deviation

A very common bad ergonomic practice is wrist deviation when using a keyboard. Keyboards have never been the most ergonomically designed devices, and users tend to hold their wrists very central to the keyboard whilst inducing a lateral deviation in their wrist angle.

bad wrist angle keyboard RSILateral (ulnar) deviation can eventually lead to wrist pain, both centrally and at the outer edges of the wrist. This can occur due to nerve pinching and tendon compression which can ultimately lead to RSI like conditions.

The image on the left shows lateral deviation in both wrists. This deviation can be further worsened by the user reaching for keys at the more extreme end of the keyboard, most commonly by little lateral wrist ‘flicks’.

This is a very common ergonomic problem, and can be easily rectified by the user once they know what to look for. The biggest problem being that most
users don’t start paying attention to wrist deviation this until pain develops.

Categories
Ergonomics Miscellaneous RSI

Maximum Exposure to RSI

We live in a technology driven world and seem to spend much of our lives using electronic gadgets. These include:

  • computers (mice/keyboards) for our work, gaming, web surfing, emailing, blogging, socialising
  • organisers to plan our lives
  • mobile phones for text messaging, web surfing etc
  • other hand held email devices
  • mp3 players
  • digital cameras
  • laptops
  • game consoles
  • TV remotes and 100’s of channels to hop

What do all these devices have in common?

Categories
RSI

RSI – Travelling Tensions

It has been a problem for a while now with my RSI condition – air travel aggravates it. There are a few reasons I think that this happens:

  1. Stress of travelling. Let’s face it, in this day and age, any air travel seems designed to stress people out. New security checks delay progress, plus being at airports super early for check-in adds to the tension of flying itself (for me anyway).Being herded around ever busier terminals and waiting to get aboard ever busier flights is not a recipe for relaxation.
  2. There are the physical side effects of carrying heavy luggage around.
  3. There is also the lack of sleep/rest associated with travel, eg different time zones, unfamiliar bed etc.