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Comment by tcoff91 | Hacker News Reader

Try doing some rock climbing either outdoors or at the rock gym. Fixed my hand pain real quick.

An alternative grip exercise that can be done anywhere and avoids the injury risk of climbing, is to alternately make a fist and then open your hands as far as possible while spreading your fingers apart. Start slowly and gradually increase the speed and repetitions. Be sure to have at least one rest day between sessions (I actually think two rest days is better). After a couple of weeks, you should be able to do it extremely quickly for hundreds of reps until your forearms are completely fatigued. In each workout, try to open and close your hand more quickly than the previous workout. Make your fingers look like a blur of motion. It is surprising how completely fatiguing this can be after just a few minutes.

Do you know what this exercise is called?

The closest thing I've found is called a "Fist Flex," so I just call this a "Rapid Fist Flex." I adapted it from a rehab exercise I was given after an injury, which instructed you to only do 10 to 20 slow repetitions. Once I was largely recovered from the injury, I found that doing 20 repetitions at a slow rate did little for me, so I experimented and determined that just increasing the rate and exercising to fatigue allowed me to continue to strengthen as effectively as any weight-bearing exercise I had done. I think of it as using acceleration/deceleration to generate force rather than using weights, which is similar to what sprinting does for the legs, core, and arms. Take a look at a 100m sprinter. Rapid movement is very effective at strengthening and it works your full range of motion. If you want some extra resistance, just put your hands underwater in the bathtub when doing it.

I did something similar quite often in my aikido classes. There was also a twist exercise - start with your fingers together palm parallel to the ground facing down, and rotate the forearm rapidly so the palm is facing up, and then back again. Repeat until you can't. Go back to the open close motion. Do those pairs 3x daily.

I stopped akido due to a knee injury, but yikes were my wrists strong for a while.

In my case too much bouldering caused forearm pain that lasted for two years. Didn't stop me from typing, but it did have a significant impact on my daily life :/

I also suffered from hand pain from typing and took up climbing both inside and a bit of outside for a good 8 years solid.

I found bouldering to be way more intense than just top rope (eventually getting into lead) climbing. Most of my hand/arm injuries were from bouldering.

I concur with the previous response though... climbing, done well and not over doing it... was the 100% solution to my pain problem.

Sitting and typing all day, you lose muscle and strength, not just in your hands, but your arms, shoulders and neck. Climbing builds it right back and really helped more than any special keyboards or posture changes I tried.

I don’t suppose this could be translated into specific exercises in the gym?

Not the same especially with grip style but you can go a long way by strengthening your back. I'm talking of horizontal and vertical pulls (heavy rows, pullups, lat pulldowns, deadlifts to an extent).

In my unscientific observation, a lot of people have very weak posterior chains. My wrist pain has always (so far) been the result of a knot in my upper back or a weakness there.

Don't forget to foam roll, stretch and perhaps add in some periodic deep tissue massage to keep things from getting too tight cos that also brings problems

Search for climbing fingerboard or hangboard.

Good for fixing or hang above a door way.

You don't need to actively climb on these, hanging from the holds will do the trick and reduce the possibility of dynamic loads.

I used this as well. Same issue as bouldering. It tends to stress the joints too much.

For whatever reason, regular climbing is better. Probably because there is more 'levels' and thus less immediate stress. You can't really climb to the top of an indoor route until you can learn and get the strength to do it.

With fingerboards you try to see how much you can tolerate and tend to over do it. It also is more of a static movement. Grab and hold. Where top rope climbing is more dynamic... you're constantly moving up the wall in various poses.

How much was too much? I can certainly imagine that bouldering could cause wrist injuries. But in my case, like above, it strengthened my wrists and improved the pain I was having from typing.

It just depends on how you are built. I tried to get into climbing for a while but the constant strain on the fingers caused more and more pain over time until I could barely use my hands. Took many years to get back to normal.

That’s why you should test a lot of advice if it works for you. Things that work for one person can be damaging for another.

There are lots of different stories and reasons for RSI. I’ve saved a bunch of them in a Github repo:

https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/README...

I’ve also saved a bunch of Programming by Voice links:

https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra...

Same position here - going on 2 years now. Did you ever get a diagnosis?

The current theory of my doctor is that it’s a brachial plexus injury - just waiting on some MRI results to confirm.

No diagnosis, but I did receive some exercises from a physical-therapist which helped significantly.

On a bad day I could barely hold a cup of tea with the affected arm. Now I just have a tense muscle now and again.

"Make or Break" by David MacLeod has helped me fix a handful of climbing related strains - https://www.davemacleod.com/shop/makeorbreak - might not be relevant for you anymore, but I would recommend it for anybody who climbs

As someone whose had RSI for about 6 years and managed it well enough for work; bouldering would be literally impossible for me.

Microsoft split keyboard, footrest and proper chair with adjustable armrests allow me to work with minimal pain, and I work long/after hours frequently. Prior to sorting out that setup I took a month of work because I was in so much pain, which returned as soon as I returned to work (without the ergo setup).

Playing games, playing guitar (sadly) or using tools like screwdrivers for even a short period of time does not end well for me. I absolutely still do each of these in moderation, and I would love to go rock climbing! It's just highly unlikely to be enjoyable after the first few minutes.

I had mild pain in my wrists in the late 90's I switched to ergonomic keyboard, got a good office chair, and switched to Dvorak layout. I did this for my work and home environment.

One additional step I had to take. I removed they armrests from each chair and have continued to do so with all chairs. I found myself leaning into the armrests too much to the extent of causing abrasions on my elbows. With removal of the armrests I work and play at the computer with better posture. I mention this only because what works will vary between people and I think it's an important change.

Also, I have no idea what to credit with the pain of my wrists going away. I suspect Dvorak, but it was probably a combination of factors.

>I mention this only because what works will vary between people and I think it's an important change.

I really like this because I took an alternative option. I decided "home row" thinking was too confining when writing code (I probably write more scripts), and I can't think as fast as I can type with that sort of approach. My colleagues call me a "hunt and pecker," while I actually simply refuse the home row. Muscle memory is quite odd and can be cultivated to encourage less repetition.

Learning to play the guitar is a surprisingly good way to increase your hand strength - mostly the left/off hand, but not exclusively. Learning to play the piano has similar hand strength benefits. Obviously overdoing it in both cases can lead to it's own RSI issues. But just getting past the beginner stage really adds a lot of strength & dexterity.

I've certainly read this before, however are there any studies that back this up?

I played guitar before I got RSI. Now, I can't play for more than a few minutes at a time without ending up in pain - despite my RSI being under control for work purposes.

Actually, there's nothing quite like playing guitar in terms of causing me pain well after finishing the activity. Certain things like lifting heavy furniture, or using a screwdriver cause pain quicker but it also goes away pretty fast. 5 minutes of guitar will result in pain and weakness until the next day. Granted, it's not an enormous amount of pain, but it's certainly enough to be annoying. It sucks, because despite not being very good, I've always enjoyed playing guitar.

I should add that I also certainly never overdid playing either; I've never played a live show in my life and have never taken it too seriously, was just a hobby.

I wasn't trying to say that playing guitar was a treatment or therapy for RSI symptoms. Obviously any type of hand exercise can make things worse while your hand/wrist/ligaments are inflamed or you're otherwise subject to flareups of RSI.

The general idea in this thread was that increasing finger/hand strength could be a preventative action for people worried about RSI, and I think that's a reasonable train of thought - and playing guitar certainly does improve hand strength.

I think it's fair to say that no preventative action is 100% effective for the kinds of things we're talking about. I'm pretty sure other activities and factors, including genetics and luck play a lot into whether that increased hand strength is enough to prevent RSI in any individual case.

I do think it's good to bring it up as a warning though - it's very possible for any activity that uses the hands a lot to contribute to RSI symptoms rather than help, and people should really pay attention to what their body is telling them :)

Sorry to hear you're not able to play as much as you'd like - it's been one of my favorite things to do when I need to get away from the computer, and I'm super grateful it hasn't caused my RSI to return.

Same

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