Keyboard Health Warning

Recently I turned by computer keyboard upside down (another story all together) and found the following:

HEALTH WARNING
Use of a keyboard or mouse may be linked to serious injuries or disorders.
When using a computer, as with many activities (!), you may experience occasional discomfort in your hands, arms, shoulders, neck or other parts of your body. However, if you experience symptoms such as persistent or recurring discomfort, pain, throbbing, aching, tingling, numbness, burning sensation or stiffness DO NOT IGNORE THESE WARMING SIGNS. PROMPTLY SEE A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL - even if symptoms occur when you are not working at your computer.

Symptoms such as these can be associated with painful and sometimes permanently disabling injuries or disorders of the nerved, muscles, tendons, or other parts of the body, These musculoskeletal disorders include carpal turnnel syndrome, tendonitis, tenosynivitis and other conditions.

The warning continues, but I'm sure you get the gist.

Now, as a massage therapist (one of the abovementioned qualified health professionals) most my patients are suffering postural stress (the balance are sports injuries), and I hear myself giving the following advice more than I would like, but for the record here are some tips:

* Limit computer-working periods to blocks of 40 minutes and definitely less than 60 minutes;

* Get up from your desk as often as you can.
You'd be surprised what a change in gravity will do. Include walking the long way to the water-cooler or bathroom; doing arm swings or shoulder rolls; NOT eating lunch at your desk (go for a walk around the block); stand up during long phone calls etc.

* Make sure you have your computer desk and chair set up correctly. If you don't have an ergonomist on hand to "fit" you check out the link on my website called "How To Sit At Your Computer".

* Get your body moving, at least 30 minutes each day, preferably at the end of your work period so you can loosen your muscles up: swing your arms when walking, do a yoga or stretch class, add a couple of laps of backstroke at the pool, shoot some hoops, try Tai Chi, whatever - just get moving!

* If you can see a deadline looming (assignments, exams, tenders, end of period reporting etc) schedule 10 minute stretch breaks into your day.

* have a remedial massage. Of course I'm going to recommend this, but if you haven't yet experienced the benefit to your muscles, it's about jolly time you did.