Keyboard Pain

Technology Doesn't Always Go Hand-in-Hand with Healthy Lives

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

Like everyone else, I use my keyboard at work and home. I've started to notice acute pains in my wrist and fingers lately from using the keyboard too much. I'm sure many people have this problem but it seems to never be talked about. It's impossible to avoid typing on the keyboard if you want to be a part of the modern world or hold down a job, so is there anything I can do to avoid this pain that I'm sure will only get worse?

Thanks,

Typing Too Much

Dear Typing Too Much,

You're right, everyone has this problem but no one talks about. It's so common because our lives are centered around the keyboard, both at home and at work.

As an online relationship expert, and I spend an inordinate amount of time on my computer, my blackberry, my cell phone, and I know exactly what it means to find muscles you never knew you had -- as a result of keyboard action!

My readers on my website, www.AskApril.com, often write to me about the same issue. Workplaces have become completely keyboarded, and now personal life is keyboard centered, too.

Below are some tips to make life easier and less painless while enjoying Blackberries, cell phones, computers and all kinds of wonderful technology that is keyboarded.

1. Get a good chair. If you can't get a good chair, get a good lumbar pillow. Your posture affects your thumbs, believe it or not. If you don't believe it, try an experiment on your own -- one week of keyboarding without a lumbar pillow and a good chair and one week with.

2. Your feet are connected to your thumbs. The placement of your feet affect your keyboarding ease. Feet should be flat on the floor, hip distance apart. Don't cross your legs while you're keyboarding -- not for any length of time, anyway. A little stool under your feet so that they're raised a few inches off the floor help, too.

3. Silicone is not just for you know where -- get a silicone gel wrist supporter at any computer store or tech store like Radio Shack.

4. Take breaks from keyboarding. Repetitive motion will lead to stress and stress injury. It doesn't take a medical degree to figure out that you're body is not meant to repeat the same motion over and over again without a break.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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