I’ve considered writing a post about the benefits of working from home for RSI sufferers. But it seemed a bit pointless: the benefits are mostly obvious – and if it’s not an option for you, it’s probably not a very useful post. But if you’ve got a sympathetic boss it might be worth discussing, even to do a day a week from home.
Benefits:
It’s so much easier to get your own setup right at home. Office furniture is terrible. At home I have the perfect setup; a keyboard tray at the correct height; monitors at the correct height. Good chair etc.
I have all my own ergonomic devices that work for me; various mice/ graphics tablet, goldtouch keyboard
I have all my exercise tools to hand; powerball, wrist wand, weights.
Rare that is I can even get completely away from the desk for non computer work, like sketching out a website
I’m not embarrassed to stand up and do some exercises and stretches or just get away from the computer for a minute
I think that people factor can be a big one. Just having a different setup etc in an office. It can get quite tiresome in an office every time someone asks you about your strange mouse / keyboard / or what that thing on the screen is telling you to a have break. Or people telling me my monitors were too high. That was a classic!
Overall it just seems less stressful working from home.
I’ve definitely had a much better time with RSI since working from home, almost two years now from a combination of everything above and most likely other things I haven’t even considered. Again sorry – if I’m rubbing your nose in it. But if your office is hurting you, it might be an option to request staying away from it now and then. In the very least a change in your setup will do you good.
Seemed topical to write this post today as I have a small spot in an article about working from home in today’s Independant . Was kind of amusing when the photographer came around. First thing he asked me to do was put all keyboard etc up off the keyboard tray beside the monitors. And I did for a second then laughed and had to explain: “Sorry – I actually have a blog about RSI and ergonomics and here I am about to be photographed with the worst setup ever”. He completely understood and we put them back down. Neither did I want to pose with a laptop. I wouldn’t be caught dead pretending to work on one of those dreaded things.
I mentioned in my last post that the Ergomotion keyboard was a bit too wide for my liking making the classic mistake of hogging up deskspace without leaving room for other necessary input devices. This extra distance your arm has to travel to reach your mouse can make all the difference to your RSI. I usually complain about this issue with reference to the extra space that the numeric keypad takes up – but more precisely the problem is that there’s usually one section for navigation keys (home, up, down etc) and then another section for the numeric keypad. Which together can be quite a hog on your desk space.
But it turns out that the promotional video shows the original keyboard design, but they pulled back the release date to make a more compact design. If you look at the images of the Ergomotion keyboard on the Smartfish site, or above, you’ll notice that these two sections have been neatly merged now and are nice and tight to the regular key, making it quite compact overall.
So there goes any reservations I had about it. It looks like a really well designed ergonomic keyboard in the truest sense, in that it takes every keyboard issue into consideration. Good job!
Smartfish technologies have announced a new product range, ErgoMotion. It’s an interesting concept and mostly well executed.
An ergonomic setup with all devices set in the same position everyday is not a good ergonomic setup. Change is good. They have taken this idea, and come up with an interesting idea, products that slowly change position/angles automatically. See the video below. Or on their own site.
They say they collaborated with top professionals in the field but they seem to have made the classic keyboard mistake of including a numberpad, which for people with RSI is much more of a disadvantage. See first section in my keyboards post. It’s a wee bit worrying that the quotes in the video are from the engineer and the designer. How about use case comments from rsi sufferers? Great that it looks nice but that’s the last of my worries. Not sure I’m the target market.
Seems like a really good effort at doing something new for ergonomics but I’d like to see a compact, version without the keypad.
Update: Turns out they had already resolved this issue. See update post.
Their mouse is interesting too, and I might check it out at some stage, but again they seem to have approached it from a classic mouse perspective, and added motion. But the base position presents the same problems as a classic mouse, that requires you to twist your wrist slightly, rather than the more natural handshake position of a vertical mouse. So I might hold off and see do they do a version where the base position is more vertical. But because it is so flexible, it might just make up for it. Flexibility is RSI’s worst enemy, so I’ll be keeping an eye on Ergomotion.
I read this book a good while ago now. Not sure why I didn’t review it at the time. Well I do – I actually felt that I’d read so much on the subject that I didn’t learn much from this book. So I didn’t want to be negative about it for the wrong reasons. It’s a really good book – if I had to recommend only book I’ve read so far this would be it I.
It really makes such a difference to understand what is happening to your body and why. A sizeable chapter in this book is geared towards understanding how people get RSI and understanding parts of your anatomy that are affected. There is another big chapter on therapy, but don’t expect to flick through the book and get a quick cure. Take your time, the background stuff is important. Knowledge is power!
As for the therapy / recovery, there’s not a huge amount that you won’t find on this site. All good resources recommend an appropriate exercise routine as the main course of action. And this book is no different. Though everything in the book is fleshed out a but more and there are more exercises.
One new thing I did learn is that poor posture is a symptom of RSI. We all know poor posture can greatly contribute to RSI but I never thought of it the other way around; once you start experiencing severe symtpoms of RSI your posture can get even worse, so it’s a bit of a double battle.
But – I still can’t believe how so much literature on the subject focuses so much on keyboard activity and gives so little column inches to the mouse – or more to the point using a mouse and keyboard together in the least harmful way. So often the use cases are about programmers or typists; keyboardists.
Another downside is that it has a very American slant. There’s a whole chapter about volunteering to become the office ergonomic sheriff. Over on this side of the pond we’re more inclined to want to keep this kind of stuff to ourselves, not shout it from the rooftops and become the resident RSI embassador. Thoiuygh feel free to shout “speak for yourself!”
And you’ve got to love the title. RSI and CPS are NOT the same thing.
My keyboard of choice, the Goldtouch Adjustable Keyboard, is on sale at Amazon.co.uk now at a really good price. I just bought a spare for a total of €32,93. The one I am now typing on cost me €172.58, though my previous job bought it for me (and unlike the job before, very kindly let me take it with me).
An easy mistake to make when you first start investigating how to cure your RSI, is to search for the perfect setup. There is no such thing. Or to put it another way, the perfect setup is actually one that is an always changing flexible setup.
Over the years you’ll find yourself gathering all kinds of input devices, to try and find the right one, specially pointing devices, (ie mice / alternative mice). Don’t get rid of them. Get a usb hub and plug them all in. Then whenever you feel pain in your hands; switch things around. Stop using your vertical mouse, and go back to your basic mouse, or use your graphic pad for a few days. None of them are perfect, none of them should be used for 8 hours a day, so give your hands a rest from that exact position and switch around.
It’s a very powerful technique. So powerful, that I think people can very easily assume their latest input device is their saviour; when it probably has a lot more to do with the old switcheroo. Let that be your motto for the next month;
I was over in Spain last month and it is always great getting a good solid break from the computer. But I know that’s all it is; a break. It’s very easy to think that a week or two might be enough for your damaged nerves and muscles to start repairing and rebuilding themselves but it’s not. The break is great – but don’t expect anything more – it’s just a break. When you get back to your computer, you will be right back where you left off, with the same old aches and pains – and maybe even worse if you’ve also taken a break from your exercise routine.
I’ve read about this in various books too, people have actually gone on sick leave and holed themselves in bed for the duration, thinking this will be some sort of cure, whereas not using those nerves and muscles is the worst thing you can do.
So keep it in mind,; unless we’re talking about a very prolonged period is only a brief reprise, enjoy your break, maybe even use the extra time to strengthen your body – just don’t expect any miracles when you’re back from the hols.
These guys are making a (very low budget) documentary about computer game addiction and the harmful effects it can have, both emotionally and physically. I wasn’t too interested in people’s game addiction stories to be honest – but if you skip straight to 6 minutes, 30 seconds, it’s interesting to hear an expert (plastic surgeon – Daniel Golshani) talking about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Too many people think RSI and CTS are the same thing. When they’re not. CTS is a very specific injury, whereas Repetitive Strain Injury or Occupational Overuse Syndrome are umbrella terms for a whole host of injuries caused by repetitive and strained use of interfaces/tools/instruments. Which reminds me I ve been meaning to write a review of the book “It’s not carpal tunnel syndrome!” for a while now.
Update. There are a lots of interesting replies, links and blogposts with more videos on their main page. I’m going to go through them all when I’ve time. Interesting to see that half the guys from the lighting team of Toy Story 2 got such bad RSI that they couldn’t wash their hair. I rarely see other people describe symptoms that I share but that’s one of them.
When I got the Wristwand in the post I thought I’d been had. Saw the end off a sweeping brush and you’ve got the Wristwand. But in fairness it does have to be the exact width (ok we’re still in sawn-off sweeping brush territory) – it is wrapped in nice foam on either end.
It does give your wrists a good stretch though. You just hold either end and raise your arms over your head while twisting at the wrists. Exercises can be easy to forget, so at the very least things like this act as a good prop; a reminder. Even if they’re not the miracle cure some of the pr would have you believe. And the WristWand is less than a tenner, so no big deal.
I ordered a new powerball today. One with a counter. If anyone out there wants my old one just leave a comment to claim it. Preferable location for me to post to is Ireland. The only difference between the new powerball and my old one is that the new one has a counter.
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