Mouse Arm Syndrome is a condition that affects the hand, wrist and shoulder that normally occurs in desk workers that are subject to repetitive strain using the mouse and keyboard.
How do you deal with it and What measures you take to avoid it ?
shammisharma
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How do you deal with Mouse Arm Syndrome ! Re : Tips that worked for me.
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Oldest comments (15)
I haven't had any issues with this as of yet (after almost 7 years working full time as a developer), I think this is in part because I do sport on a regular basis, climbing in particular. Some of my training targets the wrists, forearms and shoulders, so I have them conditioned quite well.
There are specific exercises you can do daily to help prevent the syndrome. If you can try to also setup the desk, mouse and keyboard in an ergonomic way. This will also prevent you from damaging yourself (there are many resources out there on how to do it).
First you need to know what is causing the issues, is it repetitive motion? is it because you have bad posture? is your setup not ergonomic? is it excessive work hours? Then once you know the cause, you can look for a solution.
But I'd say the most important thing is to control yourself, don't overwork and do some exercise you enjoy, better if it targets your weaknesses (wrists, arms and shoulders). Maybe push ups are a good starting point. Also planks could work good in this case.
Oh hi Keff ....how you've been !
Actually I also didn't have such problem for past 5 years but lately It is bothering me too much, mainly the right wrist.
I'm not quite sure about the cause as such but I will surely try to add some wrist strengthening excercises 👍🏻
I've been alright!! but haven't been around DEV for a while though!!
Hope the exercises work well for you!
Hand exercise. There's the wrist ball exercise gadget - google for it - to strengthen your forearm/finger musculature, plus anything else for your arms. Even regular weight lifting helps.
I will surely check this one out. Thank you for your time Sorin
I blogged about this in January last year, referring to Josh Comeau's story about almost losing his ability to write code with his hands.
Check it out at msdeibel.github.io/career/tools/en...
very informative blog Markus 👍🏻
I try to avoid touching my mouse; lots of hot keys and command menus which I can invoke from the keyboard. Then, to deal with my hands on keyboard, I make sure to have a split keyboard at my work station. And configure the keyboard to help open up my shoulders more.
Replacing many mouse actions with keyboard will surely help me a lot. I do sometimes implement this practice but unknowingly I switch back to mouse again 😅 Have to work on that I guess.
Talking about it, I don't know if it helps, but has anyone used an ergonomic mouse?
I own a Logitech Vertical mouse and I can't say it helped. The grip angle is uniquely designed to orient the hand as shown in your picture. It took a while to adapt to this new posture.
I've been using a mouse soon after they were released to the market too many years ago to remember. I haven't suffered any ill effects as a result. I still prefer using my MX Master 3S as it seems to do a much better job of cradling the hand and supporting the curvature of the palm.
I seldom use the vertical mouse, but I have one if the situation changes.
Interesting.
Advice appreciated.
Thank you! 👍
Don't move your arm so much. Adjust the sensitivity of your mouse so the forearm stays put even to move across the entire screen.
Thanks for the suggestion. I tred it but wasn't very helpful when I was using Photoshop & Illustrator like softwares too, where I can't afford to go even 1 off pixel. High sensitivity was hindrance in placing the cursor exactly where I wanted to.
For other tasks like browsing it's a good hack.
UPDATE : My wrist pain is gone now.
I tried some of the tips suggested in comments.