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I have been playing a lot of starcraft 2 recently. Tow hours a day at least and more like 6 on the weekends. It is the only way I have been spending my leisure time in the past few weeks and I have noticed quite an improvement. I was recently promoted to gold and my average APM has risen from about 50 to 75 post patch.
Of late I have been experiencing fatigue in my left hand, you know, the one I use the keyboard with. It does not feel like carpool tunnel as there is no numbness or pain. It's as though I was just squeezing a stress ball really hard for half an hour.
My questions are as follows:
1) Have you ever experienced this before or is it just psychosomatic on my part.
2) Is this bad. Does this sensation precede some sort of RSI or is it just my hand adjusting to playing more and it will go away.
3) How should I proceed? Should I play less or play more, or stay about the same. I am not sure.
I guess I am a little concerned but not overly so. Any feedback would be appreciated.
-=Hyyde=-
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United Kingdom1717 Posts
Hi-
I play guitar for at least six hours every single day, usually followed by Starcraft:BW, which I play pretty hard and requires a lot of APM.
Before I begin my guitar practice I always do a certain set of stretches, and I find my hands/wrists are usually just fine. Please do not damage yourself doing any stretches, you have to be very gentle with your hands/wrists when doing such things. You must also be sure to do each one for over a minute, or they will simply lead to your hand cramping up even earlier.
First, I put my hands stretched in front of me, clenched, then stamp my feet and shake my hands backwards and forwards as if I'm shaking the bars of a prison. This gets the blood flowing better to begin with. (you don't need to do that one for a minute).
I then stretch one arm in front of me, point my hand up as if telling someone to stop, then VERY CAREFULLY put my other hand on my fingers and pull back just a little, to feel a slight stretch in all the tendons. Make sure to be gentle, and do this for over a minute. Repeat with the other hand.
Next, I put a hand out in front of me again, this time flopped over towards the floor. Once again, very carefully, I stretch it downwards and back towards me, to feel a light stretch along the top of my hand. Repeat for the other hand, for over a minute each.
I then do a couple of shoulder stretches, I'm sure you know a couple already, and then I'm ready to play. On no account should you open and shake your hands after any of these stretches. Never do that!
Maybe this will help. Hope the problem eases.
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I will certainly give these a shot tomorrow, thank you very much for the response 
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I do similar to ImbaTosS where you pull very little just so that it barely gives a little tingle/burny feeling in the joint/pivot and then keep it there for a bit. I don't really know any good stretches though. The ones from that Day9Daily.
I also crack my joints a lot. Don't think this is a problem, sometimes even helps when your joints are like "dislocated", not really of course but it feels that way, puts it back in place. Or when you pull on your finger and that puts it back.
However, what I wanted to say is that the handfatigue is something I have been struggeling with ever since I got a new keyboard. I think I've gotten it down to a couple factors now. I never used keyboard stand, always flat keyboard, because it was insanely comfy for me. Maybe I have big hands I don't know. The current one has the tilt in the design.
The keyboard is also quite high, making my hand try to stretch/reach even higher, being more bent and uncomfortable.
The switches are of the black type and from my previous keyboard, the rubbers wore out. So overtime the keyboard would slant towards me with the left side. Maybe near 40 degrees. While that unfortunately works well for my muscle memory because I'm used to it, it wants to put my wrist at an awkard angle. I've noticed for using multipliers like shift and control. Having the keyboard slant inwards with it's right side allows your hand to more naturally reach for a combination with these keys, rather bending inwards and having the hand go over that finger.
My first tip would be to follow a similar process in trying what all the factors are. You're not gonna them all at once but when you continue to pay attention and think about you will find out some good things.
For example I noticed I get a lot less strain in my pink if the keyboard slants right side inwards a bit.
If I use a sweatband on my left wrist to raise it a bit it makes it more comfortable and creates less fatigue.
Unfortunately I can't do anything about the tilt, but from still having a cheap flat keyboard, using that makes it clear a lot of the strain comes from my hand not being able to relax and lay on top of the board, because it has to be bend upwards or it can't hit the keys well.
Come to think of it. With piano you are supposed to float your hand and have the fingers angle down, like there's three joints in a finger, the 3rd one the knockle? That's on the hand is supposed to be the highest point I believe. So I might be pursuing this form because of the tilt they fall below which is bad form. I just don't understand why there are so many of those tilted keyboards. Does it have something with the size of your hand of length of your fingers? Or just what you have gotten used to. Because I now suddenly actually don't understand anymore why not every keyboard is flat lol
Finally, the creme of the crop. You can use a hand training device to train your hand/forearm muscles just like you would any other muscle. I've done this a lot in the past and you can really notice the muscles develop. Looks cool too. But then after I had been doing that for a while. I realized I could game for a ridiculous number of hours without getting close to tired as one naturally should become. That really has to do with the muscle training granting endurance.
You can treat it like fitness where you try to get some extra protein in etc. I've got the Gripmaster blue and red. But there are tons of other brands. Gripmaster seems like one of the best because it has individual finger, and you can use it many more ways than just squeezing. You can hold and point it like a gun and train your thumb, or remove the grip part from one side so you can place it on a table and push it down using your wrist/arm/shoulder etc.
Best of luck I think it's good you are aware and stop to figure out what's going on. That is most important. When I notice my body tells me, don't continue or you will get injured. I take the appropriate rest, use the computer with a totally different grip/form of controlling, learn to mouse with other hand etc.
I'm sure you will be fine! Hope this can be of help to you
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EPT
