Desk jockey injuries

Howdy all,
It's been a busy few months at work, hunched over a computer tap-tap-tapping away. I've been having some mild symptoms of something in my forearms. It's somewhere between a tingle and a bruised feeling. It's worse in my dominant hand arm. I wonder if the bruised feeling is from my forearms hitting the edge of my desk. It almost feels like I've been bowling and have strained the grip muscles in my forearms. It was irritating enough last night that it interfered with my sleep.

I figure there are lots of desk-bound Salonistas. Anyone have any experience with mitigating little nagging discomforts like this? Stretches or other techniques? Should I switch to early 2000s ergo bars?

Writing my thesis gave me carpal tunnel. I was at my computer 3-4 hours a day. I slept with the braces on both arms and that helped with the pain. It took a few months to heal up after I completed the paper.

I tried different keyboards and such. My standup desk helped.

I am a system engineer. I am not working 100% remote

I have had various similar issues along the years and now I am no longer using a fixed desk. I switch from being on a standup desk, to a seated desk both using external keyboard and mouses, to using the computer on my lap, or in a regular table in the kitchen or in the outdoor terrace. I try never to be in the same position for more than an hour. Oh and I am using a vertical mouse. It felt weird for the first 15 minutes but that's about it.

It is kind of in contradiction with many recommendations to have a dedicated room for remote work in order to separate work life and house life but that is what works better with my body imho.

I've dealt with annoying stuff like that for a few years now, particularly in my shoulder but sometimes wrist/forearm. I have a standing desk and found that little adjustments in the desk height make a big difference. I usually use a vertical mouse (Evoluent) and a wrist support, but I've come to the conclusion that changing it up often is better than hunting for a magic bullet solution.

I got a bone bruise in my elbow. I asked my doctor how'd I get that? He said where do you notice it? Now I sit up straight at the desk. It's like the bike, do your situps and core strength, everything else will be fine.

Kelly Starrett has been mentioned in other threads so you can look up old Mobility WoD videos. His new thing is https://thereadystate.com/ I have tennis elbow and have been slacking about making a PT appointment so I paid for the Tennis Elbow protocol. It was worth it. You can check the site for something that might help.

It should not matter whether you use a standup or sit down desk. The issue(s) here are about getting the right eye to monitor height to avoid neck pain and right keyboard to wrist / elbow height to avoid carpel tunnel. Whether sitting or standing, the key metrics are 1) the distance you need from eye level to hand and 2) ability to adjust either your chair height or the height of the table.

To avoid neck pain, set the monitor such that your eye height is about 1" below the top of your monitor or at least in the top 1/4 of your monitor.
To avoid wrist pain, your elbow should be above your wrist and your wrist should be above your keyboard. Do NOT type with your fingers elevated above your wrist with your wrist sitting on the table or a pad.

For most people, this means either 1) an under desk mounted keyboard tray to get the hands low enough for a monitor sitting on a table OR 2) mounting the monitor on an armature to raise the viewing height.

For myself, I like a 3m keyboard tray mounted to a standing desk. I probably switch between standing and sitting once or twice a day. The eye to hand height doesn't change when sitting or standing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gt6267a

To avoid wrist pain, your elbow should be above your wrist and your wrist should be above your keyboard. Do NOT type with your fingers elevated above your wrist with your wrist sitting on the table or a pad.

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uh oh! I've definitely got my wrists higher than elbows (or level, depending on location). I'm going to give this a shot. A bit of time with ice packs on my forearms seemed to help yesterday.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by defspace

uh oh! I've definitely got my wrists higher than elbows (or level, depending on location). I'm going to give this a shot. A bit of time with ice packs on my forearms seemed to help yesterday.

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Good luck!

Something to consider ... if your chair is hydraulic or easy to adjust height, moving it up might solve your first problem. Be careful to not cause a second problem with the monitor height. A quick fix is to put a book or two under the monitor and get the eye height right. If you are open to it, this is why I like a keyboard tray. Not only does it help set the keyboard / monitor delta correctly and eye height, it gets the keyboard off the desk and frees up valuable table top space.