The idea is to have two waterproof (plastic storage boxes work fine) containers. Each one  should be just greater in length than the distance from your elbow to you finger tips. These should be filled with water to a depth enough to cover your arms when fully submerged.

One container should be ‘hot’ – not too hot.  ie. no greater than 40-45^oC (104-113^oF)

The other container should be ‘cold’ – cold tap water with a few ice cubes (or an ice cooler pack) in it to chill further to no lower than 10-15^oC (50-60^oF)

You will also need to have a clock or timer handy with seconds/minutes easily visible. A kitchen timer or stopwatch is good for this purpose.

The procedure is simple, and involves submerging your arms into the ‘hot’ bath for 1 minute, followed by submerging them for 1 minute in the ‘cold’ bath. Then repeat this switching between baths for 10 to 15 minutes (longer if desired).

You can repeat contrast baths a few times a day if necessary, but it may be impractical to do this at work. You could also increase the time from one minute in each bath to two minutes in each bath if found to be more effective.

This temperature cycling should help relax any stressed out muscles a bit, and give some immediate pain relief. At the peak of my RSI condition after coming home from work every night, I would do contrast baths to get some pain relief. Its a low cost and self administrable procedure that can help reduce RSI pain.

Please check with your health advisor first if you have diabetes, heart problems or Raynaud’s Syndrome before doing contrast baths so that they can determine whether it is advisable for you to proceed.

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“Tweeting by thought alone is a somewhat slow process using this prototype technology –- we speak at approximately 120 words per minute. But, as with texting, users can improve as they practice using the interface. “I’ve seen people do up to eight characters per minute,” Wilson says.”

Ouch.. that would be a significant downturn in workload!  I can see this form of input being a considerable benefit to people with severe disabilities, however I do wonder what the long term health impacts are of having an electrode implanted in your brain. My guess is that it must surely at this stage be a large unknown. It is, however, an interesting area of research.

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The mind boggles at the mere though of this. It’s a very Orwellian concept. Imagine other sensors out there being able to read your thoughts – scary!

The assumption is that due to the ease of the technology, we as consumers will beg to have this implanted technology. I’m not convinced of this argument. I also tend to believe that new concepts in computer control are never going to be risk free in themselves. Eye motion controllers could cause eye strain. Thought controllers could cause brain strain!

The human brain is not a device that tends to tackle one sole task at hand. Out thoughts are random, parallel, and varying in nature. You may be thinking about the weekend holiday ahead or be excited about a forthcoming birthday etc. How would thought control devices differentiate these ‘human’ thoughts from ‘control’ thoughts? Would your employer be able to see when you were not thinking about the project you are working on each day? Would they be able to pay you per thought control hour rather than per 8 hour day?

Only time will tell whether this plan comes to fruition, but it seems to be no more than wishful thinking. I suspect that if it does come into existence it will be treated very cautiously by discerning workers.

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The page is not so much intended as a page of products that I endorse. It is more a collection of the latest products in the field of ergonomic computer input as well as some key older products. It may contain ergonomic products which I find to be useful, potentially useful, or completely bizarre, and will where appropriate have my comments on the product and if available, a link to a review that I have done on the item. I will clearly state whether I have/have not used the product.

The page will be updated/added to as new products appear on the market.

If you are a manufacturer that would like to have their product listed or reviewed by Ergomatters please contact us.

Trigger finger is where a finger in a gripping position appears to lock in place. When you pull the finger open, it unlocks with a click (or in my case a loud ‘clunk’ which made anyone around me squirm!), hence the name trigger finger. The condition is caused by a nodule growth on the tendon which gets stuck on the pulley (sheath) system that is there to guide/hold the tendon in place. Doctors have minimal knowledge about why this nodule forms. Nodules on tendons can come and go on their own, but this one has been bad and persistent.

The build up to the operation had certainly been playing on my mind for several months. Unsurprisingly the mental prospect of the surgery was the worst part since the operation itself was only 15min in duration and was carried out under local anaesthetic (although I avoided the temptation to watch it!).

The procedure itself involved cutting open the sheath(pulley) that was causing the tendon restriction to occur, which freed the movement of the tendon (and nodule). The surgical entry point was  on the palm of the hand just below the finger, and the incision itself was only about 1 inch long.

Recovery time has been fast. I am now nearly 3 weeks post op, the stitches are out , and the skin on the scar has fully healed over. I still have joint stiffness, and a bit of swelling which causes my finger to stiffen up in the bent position, but I expect this to gradually subside over time, especially after I keep stretching it like I have been instructed to do by the physiotherapists.

It is too early to do a complete assessment of the experience, but I can say that it’s great not having an annoying triggering finger condition any longer!

I wish there was a simple solution like this to my RSI condition!

UPDATE : 1 month post op

It’s now been about 1 month post operation, and I thought I’d update this post. Although the scar on the plam of the hand is healed over, however I still have a lot of  sensitivity about the entrance wound, as well as a lump under the wound. Not sure at this point if the lump is scar tissue or the nodule. The triggering has gone, but I still have a lot of stiffness in the joint, and the finger still likes to stick in the bent position (I have to physically bend it straight with my other hand). Hopefully this is just a result of the swelling and that this will go away on time. I am using the finger, but it can be sore depending on the task at hand.

Update: 2 1/2 months post op

The finger is getting  better all the time. It doesn’t stiffen up as frequently as before, but it still can stiffen quite badly and there is no cause I can determine for this. I recently had a follow up with the surgeon, and was advised that post op stiffness is common, and recovery can be as much as 18 months for some individuals – they don’t tell you that before the op! He suggested massaging the joint to reduce the swelling. The scar has totally healed up now, and is a whole lot less sensitive than it was a few weeks ago.

I’ll keep updating this article as I progress.

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I may not be a medical professional, but I am able to tell when I encounter descriptions of body motion that just make plain sense, and this DVD contains some enlightening information. In a collection of well narrated chapters complete with diagrammatic video illustration, the evidence is laid bare of our common tendencies to keep our bodies out of balance, causing pain through muscle tensions that, in turn, keep our bodies in bad posture. This is due in part to us having mapped the body in a particular way, eg in relation to position, when in reality the position is entirely different.

This DVD is broken into multiple sections covering the many aspects of posture imbalance, and covers areas from the head to the feet and just about everywhere in between. Posture is translated by the authors as ‘Body Maps’ which are essentially memories in your mind of where you think your individual body parts are and how you use them. The DVD highlights how you may have had a flawed map (understanding) of your various body parts in your mind from a very young age. This may have led you to actually move according to those flaws and results in the straining of some parts of your body which can lead to pain. As the narrator tells us, “We move in the way in which we think we are constructed …”, either consciously or unconsciously. Wrong body maps can be responsible for many bad posture related problems, from walking to sitting, to using a computer.

Subjects covered in the DVD include -

• Body maps – identifying flaws in the human body map and how to recognise those errors
• Balance – identifying correct balance with core posture, and identifying posture related pain
• Kinesthesia – learning free and fluid movement to correct body imbalances
• Arms – covering shoulders, elbows,  wrists and hands
• Legs – covering hips, pelvis, knees and feet
• Breathing – covering lungs, skeletal/muscular system, diaphragm
• Mapping the whole body
• Correcting the map
• Inclusive attention

The areas I can relate to most pertain to the shoulders, arms, wrists and hands. These are covered in detail and are very applicable to the RSI sufferer. The main posture/skeletal issues with RSI type injuries are listed, adding to the viewer’s knowledge and understanding through plain and straightforward explanations along with clear diagrams and video.

From previous experience, I knew that over-supination of the wrists was a bad thing, but now I know about the natural axis of rotation of the forearm and how it ties in with a neutral position wrist, as well as why supination causes so many injuries.

The company website rather generously shows sample videos of some chapters which are well worth checking out, and will give you a sneak peak of the DVD content and style as well as some key body map information!

• ‘Elbows’ chapter
• ‘Arms’ chapter
• ‘Forearms’ chapter
• ‘Hands’ chapter
• ‘Lower Back’ chapter
• ‘Balance’ chapter
• ‘Lungs’ chapter

I also found the section on breathing very interesting. It’s probably the first time I’ve been able to picture the role of the diaphragm in breathing, and I certainly had my lungs mapped as being a bit lower than they actually are. The related section on the ribcage was also revealing to me having just recently strained my sternum connective tissue whilst gardening. It  also reinforces the benefits of some breathing practices including Yogic breathing (Pranayama).

The DVD run time is a substantial 2hrs,  and certainly lends itself to being watched in stages. There is the temptation to skip straight to the section you are most interested in, however it should be watched as a whole to get the complete picture and overall message firmly ingrained in your mind. I expect that multiple viewings would be best to fully absorb the detail.

All in all this DVD is an excellent resource for just about everyone. It is not solely aimed at one specific group of people eg RSI sufferers, but covers the whole body, and should be a useful education tool for everyone, including ergonomists, physiotherapists, fitness instructors, yoga teachers etc, as well as many others including in the medical profession.

If you have posture related pain it’s likely that it’s down to your bad body map and it’s certainly time to re-educate yourself!

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The reason that developments like this are exciting is that the games business, being a cutting edge, technologically advanced industry, usually pushes the boundaries of software and hardware development for the sake of market share.

Technology like this for, say, computer controls would ordinarily evolve a lot slower if there were a lesser need for it aside  from gaming. However, once developed, you can see how it could easily transform into some kind of gesture control for computer operating systems and applications. Who knows, you may even get a workout whilst doing a spreadsheet in the future!  Will a workout mat eventually replace the old desk?  Maybe we can eliminate the need for going to a gym!  Do employers only hire fit people in the future?

We are certainly at a crossroads with computers, where the basic mouse has been around too long and has created too many overuse injuries. It is more than time that we took computer input to a new level of evolution, and this may be the glimpse of what’s to come.

Whether this technology can save us from RSI related injuries is unknown, but it may help wean us off using a mouse. It may also lead to opportunities in computer use for people with all kinds of different disabilities, and not just RSI.

Is this the dawn of a new age in computer ergonomics, or is it just a gimmick ?

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