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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

K - Keeping my wrists straight

I have been typing stories for almost 20 years and never had a problem with my wrists while typing at the keyboard.

However, a little over a year ago my husband got me into his world of gaming and believe it or not that overdid it for me! It was too much and the next thing I knew, my wrists started hurting!

Now let's be clear. I am not a gamer - not a full time gamer, or even a part time gamer - I just enjoy playing games every now and then with my hubby and his friends when they are all online. We're looking at once to twice a week. But for some reason it was just too much!

So I talked to my chiropractor who shook my wrists around, popped a few joints that I didn't know could pop, and told me to try an ergonomic keyboard


Things you should know about an ergonomic keyboard:
1 - after using a regular keyboard for years and years, you are bound to type everything wrong because your fingers are confused.
2 - despite the weird positioning and look, the attachment that lifts your keyboard (as shown in the bottom part of the picture above) actually makes your wrists feel better even though it makes you type worse cause once again, your fingers are even more confused!
3 - they are actually quite comfortable on the wrists! The front part is soft and a bit squishy!

Other things I discovered that may better help all writers out there - While trying to figure out what to do for my wrists, I stumbled across this website which I think is genius!
So take a look at what she has to say about exercises for writers

To sum up - if your wrists hurt while typing, try some of the exercises in the link. If they continue to hurt, an ergonomic keyboard may be a great way to go. And if still in doubt go visit your chiropractor and let him snap your wrists around (it may hurt a bit at first, but it feels great afterward!)

Tell me, what do you do when your wrists hurt at the computer?


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shout out to my blog, Rebecca! :)

    Ooo, does that attachment elevate the keyboard *backward*? I've never seen that before, but I can see that being awesome (once you get used to it :) ).

    I have the feet propped up on the back of mine so it's tilted the other way. It elevates the keys so my fingers don't have to stretch as far, but obviously that means I can't use the wrist-rest at all. Then again, as I mentioned in my post, my keyboard is ancient, so the wrist-rest isn't soft and squishy anyway. LOL! Thanks for sharing. :)

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  2. I created an elevated work station on my desk. I stand and type with my arms in a natural position. I also wear a wrist brace at night. works wonders! I'm an A to Z minion/helper sauntering through the 'net and checking blogs. Your blog looks wonderful.

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