Key is used to reduce repetitive strain

A repetitive strain injury is damage to your muscles, tendons or nerves caused by repetitive motions and constant use. Talk to your provider about what’s causing your injury and if you need to adjust your daily routine. Federal laws and guidelines require employers to accommodate their employees’ needs to prevent repetitive strain injuries. Overview What is a repetitive strain injury? A repetitive strain injury is damage to your Repetitive strain injuries are very common and usually affect your: • Fingers and thumbs. • Wrists. • Elbows. • Arms. • Shoulders. • Knees. As their name suggests, repetitive strain injuries are caused by doing the same motion or activity repeatedly until it starts to hurt your body. Any motion or movement — from typing on a computer at work to practicing an instrument — can cause a repetitive strain injury if you do it too often. Most repetitive stress injuries can be treated at home. Who gets repetitive strain injuries? Anyone can get a repetitive strain injury. Some of the most common people affected include: • Workers with physically demanding jobs. • Athletes. • Musicians. • People who sit at a desk or use a computer often. How common are repetitive strain injuries? Repetitive strain injuries are very common. They lead to many conditions, including: • • • • • • • How does a repetitive strain injury affect my body? The most obvious way a repetitive strain injury will affect you is the pain, discomfort and other symptoms you feel. Because these ...

• Work-related upper limb disorders and repetitive strain injuries • Signs and symptoms of RSI • What causes RSI? • How to prevent RSI • Next steps for UNISON reps Work-related upper limb disorders and repetitive strain injuries WRULDs/RSIs occur when the tendons, muscles, ligaments or nerves are damaged by repetitive movements done at work. Symptoms can include pain, swelling and difficulty in moving. The worst cases can result in permanent disability. Common examples of RSI are: • tendonitis and tenosynovitis; • epicondylitis (tennis or golfer’s elbow); • carpal tunnel syndrome; • Dupuytren’s contracture; • bursitis (knee, elbow or hand). Although work-related RSI is generally associated with the upper body, it can also occur in the lower body – for example, in the knees and feet. Signs and symptoms of RSI RSI can start with mild pain and stiffness in a specific area, or a general achiness, for example across the shoulder. Common symptoms include: • pain in the fingers, wrists, arms or shoulders; • stiffness; • pins and needles or tingling; • numbness; • swelling; • redness; • loss of strength in your hand or fingers; • cramps. What causes RSI? RSI is caused by repeated movements of the fingers, hands or arms carried out for a long time and/or in an awkward position. Anything from typing to cleaning can cause RSI. Some common causes are: • working at a badly designed work station that has not been adjusted for you; • using equipment that is too heavy; • using equipment t...

Prevention • Warm up and stretch before starting activities that are repetitive, static or prolonged. • Take frequent breaks from any sustained posture every 20-30 minutes and stretch stiff muscles. • Respect pain. Change positions or stop whenever activities cause pain. • Recognize early signs of the inflammatory process, and treat early. • Only use splints and wrist supports after instruction by your physician or therapist. Posture • Maintain erect position of back and neck with shoulders relaxed. Minimize twisting and bending motions. Position equipment and work tasks so that your body is directly in front of and close to your major work tasks. • Use proper positioning during all activities. Keep upper arms close to the body, elbows at 100 degrees, forearms neutral (thumb toward ceiling), and wrist straight. Keep feet flat on the floor when seated by proper adjustment of your chair, or use of a footrest. • Keep wrists as neutral as possible. Avoid extreme motions. There is a safe zone of movement for your wrist. This zone is about 15 degrees in all directions. • Avoid bending neck forward for prolonged periods of time. If typing from a manuscript, place the document on a holder beside or below your computer screen. • Avoid static positions for prolonged periods. Muscles fatigue faster when they are held in one position. Keep moving to increase your blood circulation. Task Modification: • Whenever possible, alternate activities frequently throughout the day. Rotate heavy...

An ergonomic keyboard is a Features [ ] The common In general, ergonomic keyboards are designed to minimize awkward user wrist positions and finger motions by rearranging and/or repositioning the keys. For instance, typing on a conventional keyboard layout can force the user into shoulder elevation, wrist ulnar deviation, and head rotation. :385 Consideration of physical ergonomics suggests the most relaxed typing position is one in which the keyboard user's forearms are parallel to the ground, with wrists held straight. To facilitate this posture, Klockenberg published a study in 1926 that suggested the primary key clusters for two-handed typists should be split into left and right halves which are set at an angle to each other, allowing the wrists to remain straight. :385 :386 :387 Split key clusters [ ] • Tenting angle between the two alphanumeric halves Split keyboards group keys into two or more sections. By separating the keyboard, split keyboards typically change the angles and the distance between each section to ensure the user's wrists remain straight. There are three relevant angles: :Fig.2 • the split, rotation, slant, or opening angle, which refers to the angle between the rows of the left and right halves. This can be imagined as the angle of rotation around an imaginary vertical axis drawn through the D and K keys of a QWERTY keyboard. Because most shoulders are wider than the hand position when placed on the • the slope or tilt angle, which refers to the fr...

Repetitive strain injury has been around since people first began repeating motions and carrying out manual labor. The Today, the main causes of RSI are manual labor, office work, and the use of modern technological devices. Examples include Blackberry thumb, iPod finger, PlayStation thumb, Rubik’s wrist or cuber’s thumb, stylus finger, raver’s wrist, and Emacs pinky. The range of RSIs is wide, but this article will focus mainly on those caused by working environments, sports, and the use of modern devices. Here are some key points about RSI. More detail is in the main article. • There are many different kinds of RSI, and different ways of treating and preventing them. • Modern technological devices have caused an upswing in RSIs. • Repetitive motions in one part of the body can affect the muscles in another part. • Psychological • Improved workplace practices can help prevent it. Share on Pinterest Wrist pain can result from using a laptop for long periods of time. RSI refers to a wide variety of problems. An RSI can affect almost any movable part of the human body. RSIs are associated with repetitive tasks, forceful exertions, vibrations, mechanical compression, and sustained or awkward positions. Other names include repetitive motion injuries, repetitive motion disorder (RMD), cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), occupational overuse syndrome, overuse syndrome, and regional musculoskeletal disorder. RSI has many possible causes, and a wide range of possible symptoms. Here ...

There are a lot of games out there that assume that players will use WASD as their keys to move the player (ie. most flash games). I don't use WASD as my player control when using keyboard and mouse. I tend to use a AERG (Left-Up-Down-Right) control scheme, due to mainly the size of my hand and WASD feeling too cramped. Plus playing for small periods of time (> 30 min) on WASD makes my hand hurt. The problem that I have is that a lot of the Crouch/Dodge/Target/Run keys are bound to the Left-Ctrl/Alt/Shift which I have a problem using effectively with this layout. I tend to rebind them around my left index finger (on the G). I find that it is sometimes difficult to play in this manner as I don't have a spare finger for extra key presses and sometimes multiple keys are required to be pressed at the same time. I don't really want to use a controller, and I need something that doesn't put strain on my hands. Are there any improvements/layouts that I could use to reduce repetitive stress and still allow optimal control? A buddy of mine uses an odd configuration that he loves: It basically involves the forward movement being the Left Mouse button, A for Left and F for Right. Right click for Fire, and then I believe W as a toggle for alt fire. E for crouch and Space for jump. This was his TF2 setup. The idea behind it is moving the 'Move Forward' key off the keyboard to free up his left hand requirements. You describe large hands so maybe getting a key you use frequently over to ...