There are a lot of braces out there, and what works for one person may not work for everyone. Braces are usually made out of neoprene or elasticated material coupled with a metal or hard plastic support to immobilise the wrist.

The primary use of the wrist brace should not be forgotten ie to rest wrist joints and forearm muscles that drive the wrist motion (forearm extensors, flexors), and reduce the pain associated from overuse injuries. While this may sound like a good thing, quite often if you wear a brace while using a computer, you will end up using other muscles in a strenuous way to do the same work, and can cause other injuries because of this.

There is no such thing as an ideal wrist brace, it really depends on what they are trying to do.

In the course of your RSI journey you way well encounter many different styles of wrist braces.

My general rules concerning wrist braces are -

1. You shouldn’t jump in and buy a wrist brace without first seeking advice from a physiotherapist or doctor.
2. Ideally, it should be used to rest (heal) the wrist and the overused (painful) muscles that drive the wrist extension and flexion, and not worn when using a keyboard or mouse.
3. Exceptions to the rule are perhaps specific braces intended to stop excessive flexion of the wrist if you are prone to this. It’s a far better idea to be able to spot this flexion yourself and change it, but if you have difficulty doing this then a brace may be required. Alternatively have someone stand and watch over you with a big stick, you will learn faster then!
4. Braces used to rest the wrist should not be too tight, just a snug fit. Over tightening can lead to restricted blood flow to the hand and wrists.
5. Consider wearing a wrist brace at night in bed to avoid sleeping with your arms/wrists/hands in bent positions. It is critical that you don’t have a tight brace when doing this so as not to restrict blood flow.
6. Don’t use them unless you have to. Its better to know your pain, when it happens and try to make adjustments to your  work practice etc to reduce the causes than it is to just ‘bandage up’ your injured wrists into a brace.
7. Neoprene braces can be hot, sweaty, smelly and itchy to wear even for short periods of time. Better to look for ventilated elastic material ones.
8. Wrist braces are not a good  universal fit for everyone, so you may have to make some adjustments to it to make it comfortable, including cutting bits out of it or adding some customised padding.
9. Wear them at work and they do flag to your employer and colleagues that you have a RSI problem!

Remember though, wrist braces are not a solution to RSI, they are really only there to rest an injury and ease pain. To address your injury it is far better to try to make adjustments to your work to stop the motion that is causing you to have the pain. In other words, you should monitor your wrist, hand motions at a keyboard etc, and make adjustments to your bad working practices, including posture changes. You should also introduce more regular breaks away from your computer along with a good stretching routine and some physical activity.

Rate this post! Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

When you actually analyse what position your arms , wrists and hands are in when you wake up, you will more often than not, find them in all kinds of contorted positions. Quite often the wrist can be bent or twisted, causing blood flow restrictions, pinched nerves, and RSI symptoms can be worse when you least expect them to be.

I can quite frequently wake up in the mornings with pain , numbness and tingling in my hands. It is an impossibility during sleep to keep a track of what position you put your arms and hands into, but there is one solution that can help.

If you have been prescribed by your doctor or physiotherapist a wrist brace, it can be more important to wear the brace in bed while sleeping than it is at most other times of the day. The wrist brace (depending on type) will force the wrist into neutral position for the whole night, and give the RSI much needed rest. I personally find the Bauer & Black carpel tunnel wrist brace to be the most comfortable brace for this purpose. Sadly it would seem that this excellent brace has been discontinued by the manufacturer.

Whichever brace you end up using, be sure not to over tighten it before going to sleep, blood flow restriction is not the aim here! Be especially careful if you use a snug fitting neoprene style brace, since they may not be best suited for these purposes. If in doubt, ask your doctor or physiotherapist for their recommendations.

Rate this post! Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

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.

Lateral (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.

Keyboard Position

Keyboard position can become critical too.

An off-centre keyboard can cause one wrist to laterally deviate more than the other. Keyboards should have the centre of the spacebar (as opposed to the centre of the keyboard) aligned to the user’s centre. This will push the numberpad (if you have one) way out to the right, but will reduce the lateral wrist deviation.

Alternatively keyboards with removed numberpads (which are not always used) are available.

Good neutral wrist angle

It is very important to have your wrists in a neutral position when using a keyboard. Compare the wrist deviation angle in the image to the left. The wrists are held in a neutrally straight angle.

This is the best angle to hold them in to minimise potential injuries. This may feel a little strange at first, but keyboard users can get used to this style of typing posture. The hands should be lifted by the forearms and shoulders and no pivoted by the wrists. Keep in mind at all times to avoid clawed hands.

Keyboard solutions

Alternatively, there are a wide array of ergonomic ‘natural’ type keyboards, which present the keyboard to the user at the optimal wrist angle.
Some, like the GoldTouch keyboard (pictured below) have a fully adjustable split that can be adapted to the user’s posture.

This keyboard has the right hand number entry pad removed, but if required, a detached separate one is available

Rate this post! Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.