All RSI is caused by excessively tight/excessively weak muscles. Test for tightness in these muscles (People with supple and flexible muscles will NEVER get RSI).
The crucial thing to understand it this: Your hands bear about 10% of the load of typing. 90% is borne by forearm/upper arm/upper back/ pectorals/ lats/middle back/ lower back and even glutes. The 'hands' and wrists can't be fixed without without fixing the entire upper body – including remote areas like the glutes.
THE ONLY EFFECTIVE CURE OF RSI
30% of the cure: DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE
Break the spasms/ tightness in muscles with myotherapy or other very hard deep tissue massage
30% of the cure: STRETCH
Recover normal range of motion and length of muscle through clinical Pilates and other stretches – follow up with yoga.
25% of the cure: STRENGTHEN
Swim to strengthen your back muscles. Use a range of weightlifting and other strenghtening exercises [some of them here]
5% of the cure: PACE YOURSELF
Pause before doing anything – relax the body as much as possible (Alexander technique, psychiatry MAY help, but in the end, this is a VERY SMALL part of the solution)
5% of the cure: SPEECH RECOGNITION
Use Dragon Naturally Speaking Ver. 9.0 or better to minimise typing.
5% of the cure: ERGONOMICS
Good ergonomics will help, eg. Type while sitting on a fitball, get a split keyboard. (I have been sitting on a 65 cm ball at work since December 2006)
THE KEY THING IS TO NOT DESPAIR
It WILL get OK! May take time but IT WILL DEFINITELY BECOME OK NO MATTER HOW BAD IT IS. - but you must not waste time on "solutions" that don't work.
First thing – don't rely on your doctor or physiotherapist unless you want your problem to get worse. Either they'll give pain killers, or do some useless and expensive 'tests' including MRI, or give you useless therapies like ultrasound, or may even recommend surgery . Better spend all that money on the myotherapist, gym, swimming pool, and yoga classes.
The ignorance within the medical profession of the biokinetics and physiology of the muskulo-skeletal system is mind-boggling!
Instead or running after totally useless 'experts', just put in the effort outlined above. That will fix it. The solution is actually quite logical, as well. It makes physical sense. I'll explain the logic some day when I find the time, through a detailed book.
Get well!
Melbourne
DONATE!
If my advice to you has worked (not just helped. I want you to be FULLY CURED first! before you even dream of donating), then please donate to (a) help me recoup a tiny part of the tens of thousands of dollars I've wasted through bad professional advice from ignorant doctors and other nitwits, and, (b) more importantly, to help me spread the message of freedom across the world, particularly in India (working night and day on bringing liberty and good governance to India was the thing that drove me to the excessive typing that led to RSI).
