I’ve been working on a daily routine page recently. The only time I truly beat my RSI was when I fully took on board everything I ever read and every exercise my physio showed me and got up at 6am every morning and went through a half-hour routine. And in the evening I’d do another half an hour. Unfortunately I didn’t realise just how important it was to keep up the routine after I got better - so I’m trying to catch up again now. With two kids, it’s a bit harder this time around I’m just about managing 15 minutes most mornings. But the most important thing is to a little every day and try and get into a routine.

See: The Daily Routine page.

When my aches and pains get a bit depressing, I have a habit of reaching for my credit card and buying some RSI related gadget to try and cheer me up and add to my arsenal of RSI weaponry. A powerball, or gyroscopic exercise tool, is a ball with another rotating ball-like rotor inside. You start it spinning, like an old lawn mower, by pulling a string and then you build up the speed slowly by moving your wrist along with the rotor.

The powerball is fun in a gadgety kind of way but it can be good for building up arm muscles. I tend to play with it for a few minutes every day at low speed, but don’t really consider it a serious part of my daily routine. Update: I’ve since decided to use it for at least 10 minutes a day, one minute on each arm. Some people have testified to it being The Cure, though I tend to think that’s a flawed way of thinking in general. It can be dangerous to get too excited about any one thing being the end all cure. I’ve often got excited about my latest workstation setup or new input device and started slacking on exercise/posture/breaks etc and found myself back to square one very quickly.

Related links

• www.powerballs.com
• An RSI thread on the powerballs forum
• Powerballs on ebay

If I only get to do two exercises on a day, I do arm lifts and Wall Angels.

• Lie on your side with a cushion to support your head.
• Very slowly, raise your arm up straight and then back down to touch the floor.
• As with all exercises start off at your own pace and then work up. I do three sets of ten on each arm
• When you’ve got a bit more used to that add weights. I started off with those weights that are supposed to strap onto your leg and then got slightly heaver ones.
• It’s important to go slow

There are a few key exercises that you should add to your daily exercise routine. The main one is called angel wings. Both my own physio and Dr Casparelli highly recommend it, it’s both a strenghtening exercise and a postural realignment exercise. Like a lot of the exercises you will find here, it’s much harder to do than it looks, depending on the state of your arms.

• Your feet should be a little bit apart and a few inches away from the wall
• Your shoulders should keep in contact with the wall
• Do three sets of 10 or a straight run of 30 if you can manage it
• Do a few times a day if you can. They’re easy to do in a bathroom cubicle
• I’m usually groaning with pain by 30 but see if more or less is more suitable to you
• It’s important to keep your shoulders horizontal, a mirror helps, or you can use the straight line from tiles on a wall.
• And no laughing at my video! (even if it does have a creepy anonymous mask.)

(Video should have stop and play buttons, not showing up - I’m working on it)

The nodding dog is one exercise you really don’t want people to see you doing. It’s very silly looking but works really well for strenghtening your neck. If you get a sore neck either at the computer or while reading a book, do this exercise for about a minute every day.

• Nod your head up and down with small but fast movements (like a nodding dog in a car)
• Slowly turn your head all the way to the left, then all the way to the right while nodding
• Keep this up for less than a minute
• Do a few times a day if neccessary, maybe while you’re in the loo (but wait until you’re finished!)

We all know drinking plenty of water is good for you so that’s a bonus but this is a great trick for getting you away from your desk as much as possible. Drink lots and lots of water and you’ll be forced to go to the toilet frequently. Getting away from sitting in that same position for long stretches of time is very important.