Ergonomics and wrist pain
Your environment and ergonomics will affect your wrist pain tolerance. Here are some tips to help you modifiy them to reduce carpal tunnel syndrome.
Environment
Different people have different types of bodily circulation. Some have more efficient circulation, and their hands are mostly warm; some (like me), have less efficient circulation, and their hands are often cold.
This is nothing to worry about unless it is chronic – in this case you may have Raynaud’s whereby blood flow to your hands is severely restricted.
You can improve your circulation by staying fit, but circulatory issues are almost certainly not at the heart of why your wrists are sore, just a mild contributing factor. All this is saying is that your body is more suited to a warm climate.
But if you live in a cold climate you absolutely must keep your hands warm as much as you can. Simple woolen gloves are cheap, and sheep don’t need that fleece in summer, so you’re doing the world a favor by reducing the stockpile of wool!
If you need to carry on working on the computer you can get a heated infrared gloves. While infrared is no longer considered a reliable treatment for sprains and strains, it is excellent for keeping the area warm. Don’t use excessive heat to treat wrist pain, though.
Ergonomics – how you do your work
Ergonomics is a huge field of study and we could devote pages and pages to it here, but in my experience it is a minor contributing factor.
The most important thing to do is change your position regularly. If you use your mouse on the right, try switching to the left every so often – it’ll take a few hours to get used to it, but it halves the impact on your wrists.
Better still purchase a couple of different types of computer mice and alternate them. And occasionally use the trackpad if you have a laptop.
Make sure that you adjust the height of your chair, and the distance of your computer keyboard from your desk every day.
On some days you should use a wrist rest for your keyboard (a rolled up towel is fine), and on other days you shouldn’t. Try an ergonomic computer keyboard (but remember that typing isn’t ergonomic, so it’s not a solution in and of itself).
Some days it’s fine to slouch. Slouch backwards, then to one side, then the other side. Now sit upright. Now lean forwards. Now stretch.
Ideally, every few hours, or at least every day, you should change something about how you’re sitting, and the position of the items that you use. The purpose of this is to start using your muscles in a wider range of motion. Don’t move them into a position that’s unduly uncomfortable.