Here is a short practical guide on how to prevent yourself from getting RSI or CTS when playing Starcraft 2.
Mouse Sensitivity A lot of people seem to think that having a very high mouse sensitivity will make you play faster and better. This may be true but in the long term, having a high sensitivty requires a lot of strain on your wrists to maintain accurate control.
As a point of reference, when you move your mouse pointer from one side of the screen to the other, if your mouse moves less than a centimeter I can guarantee you will get RSI if you play at that sensitivity for long periods of time.
Doing other movements It's important that if you have been doing the same motions for hours, its important that you do other motions with your wrists. It may be during downtime or in between games or a combination of both. Stretching, playing guitar or sleeping are great activities to change up your wrist's movement schedule's.
Mouse Positioning A lot of people like to put there wrist on the edge of the table to get a good pivot point to control the mouse. It's a lot better for your wrist if you lay your arm on the table and spread your keyboard and mouse apart to maintain control. It will feel weird playing like this but it will be invaluable in the long run.
Hardware Obviously you want a mouse that suits your hand well. You must make sure that it is not too heavy like a stupid Microsoft gaming mouse though. It can be a good idea to have just a small amount of mouse acceleration so that you don't strain your hand too much when trying to make very small movements.
Simple stretches: Make your arm strait and then pull your wrist back .
Reach behind and grab your thumb and then pull it back. pull your wrist back as well
Do the same stretch but in reverse. So instead of reaching around, flip your hand towards your thumb and then pull your thumb with your other hand
Extra Things like hand warmers, are ok in the short term, but if you are getting carpal tunnel, they are not going to solve your issues. Although nice to have you need to find other solutions
As soon as you feel your wrists are getting sore, start stretching them strait away, even if you are in the middle of a game.
hey, i am a master level terran player who was once at the top of my master league playing about 5 hours a day, watching replays for 1 hour, and watching streams/tournaments for 1 hour. basically i was spending a ton of time. when i got a 2 week break during college i bumped my play up to 9-10 hours a day to get into the top rankings of us ladder(sidenote: i was eating fast food, candy, drinking alot of soda everyday, and i wasn't excersising at all). i was playing in a ton of tournaments and all of a sudden my forearms began to tighten up mainly in the extensor area and my wrist began to ache in pain. aching in the hands soon followed. i played with my wrist at the edge of the table with a small mouse called the razer orochi at 2000 dpi. i know i tense up alot when playing. i remember having this pain one time during beta but i took a 3 week break and it went away. this time this pain was constant all day everyday for 6 months. and here i am 6 months later with the same pain. i have been to doctors and they say its rsi. no carpell or tendonitis. just little soft tissue damage and rsi. so i took a month off and did physical therapy and nothing worked. it got a little better and i went back to play and made it worse. how long does it take for this to heal? and what am i going to have to do.. its extremely irritating. i may have to take a full month off from all computer use and start strengthening my arm/wrist/finger muscles. does anyone have experience with this? how do i get back to 100%?
i know tlo has had my same problem for a year now and from what ive read its all cleared up now.
I've played video games sense I was 5 years old and I've never had an issue with any wrist injuries and I've not been doing any of the things you suggest. I highly believe wrist injuries are mainly due to a mental fear in people. (To be clear I played Quake 3 at 5 years old, my dad was into it and wanted me to play next to him ^_^ so the games I played were somewhat strenuous even tho I never played at a pro level 10 hrs a day on Quake 3 I eventually got into Unreal and Starcraft and now Starcraft 2 where I play atleast 4 hrs a day and most days playing 10-14 hours a day.)
I think the biggest thing is stretching, Just before/after ladder matches stretch and if your wrists are "feeling" weird for a extended period of time go to a doctor and ask and you won't have any issues.
Also I'm certain this thread has come up before. The big things are just stretch and ask a doctor if you feel pain for extend time even while stretching before/after games (like for a week or so)
Day9 talked about carpal tunnel in one of his dailies and showed a couple of stretches you can do. I take ~5 minutes every night before I go to bed to stretch my wrists, shoulders, etc.
Any sport is bad if you overdo it badly. The problem with gaming though is that there is no physical fatigue that prevents you from continuing training, hence player tend to overdo it much much more often.
Beware if following the above information. Always check a real ergonomics guide or wrist specialist. Please check google and find real ergonomic guides/informatin from a reliable source
His advice on placing the entire arm on the desk is completely wrong.
I don't know if it helps carpal tunnel specifically but I play with a wrist band now and my wrist doesn't hurt anymore. The problem wasn't because of my mouse movement, but just the fact that my wrist was on a hard surface for 9+ hours a day.
On August 01 2011 00:58 untilMay wrote: I've played video games sense I was 5 years old and I've never had an issue with any wrist injuries and I've not been doing any of the things you suggest. I highly believe wrist injuries are mainly due to a mental fear in people. (To be clear I played Quake 3 at 5 years old, my dad was into it and wanted me to play next to him ^_^ so the games I played were somewhat strenuous even tho I never played at a pro level 10 hrs a day on Quake 3 I eventually got into Unreal and Starcraft and now Starcraft 2 where I play atleast 4 hrs a day and most days playing 10-14 hours a day.)
I played games for 20 years to with no problems until suddenly out of the blue I got problems. It has nothing to do with mental fear. I don't kno wwhy you think it does.
Anyway, Imostly stopped using the computer for about a month and did some stretching exercises fairly regularly (many times a day) like putting my arms out straight then pulling the wrists back as much as you can for 10-15 secs, then pulling them down for 10-15s a couple of times, and also just stretching out my fingers and then clenching my fist. I don't have any problems atm so it seems to have worked.
I mostly had pain in my fingers and forearm, not wrists though.
On August 01 2011 00:58 untilMay wrote: I've played video games sense I was 5 years old and I've never had an issue with any wrist injuries and I've not been doing any of the things you suggest. I highly believe wrist injuries are mainly due to a mental fear in people. (To be clear I played Quake 3 at 5 years old, my dad was into it and wanted me to play next to him ^_^ so the games I played were somewhat strenuous even tho I never played at a pro level 10 hrs a day on Quake 3 I eventually got into Unreal and Starcraft and now Starcraft 2 where I play atleast 4 hrs a day and most days playing 10-14 hours a day.)
I think the biggest thing is stretching, Just before/after ladder matches stretch and if your wrists are "feeling" weird for a extended period of time go to a doctor and ask and you won't have any issues.
Also I'm certain this thread has come up before. The big things are just stretch and ask a doctor if you feel pain for extend time even while stretching before/after games (like for a week or so)
RSI is a real problem for people who sit at the computer alot. Trying to just blame it on "mental fear", whatever that means isn't productive.
If you played Quake 3 at 5 years old you can't be more than 20. RSI doesn't show until you're older and just cause you don't have problems now doesn't mean it wont catch up to you in the future. I've played videogames all my life (i'm 27) and had no problem whatsoever until like a year ago. Now i can't play at all and it sucks.
On August 01 2011 00:15 opiemonster wrote: Here is a short practical guide on how to prevent yourself from getting RSI or CTS when playing Starcraft 2.
Mouse Sensitivity A lot of people seem to think that having a very high mouse sensitivity will make you play faster and better. This may be true but in the long term, having a high sensitivty requires a lot of strain on your wrists to maintain accurate control.
As a point of reference, when you move your mouse pointer from one side of the screen to the other, if your mouse moves less than a centimeter I can guarantee you will get RSI if you play at that sensitivity for long periods of time.
Doing other movements It's important that if you have been doing the same motions for hours, its important that you do other motions with your wrists. It may be during downtime or in between games or a combination of both. Stretching, playing guitar or sleeping are great activities to change up your wrist's movement schedule's.
Mouse Positioning A lot of people like to put there wrist on the edge of the table to get a good pivot point to control the mouse. It's a lot better for your wrist if you lay your arm on the table and spread your keyboard and mouse apart to maintain control. It will feel weird playing like this but it will be invaluable in the long run.
Hardware Obviously you want a mouse that suits your hand well. You must make sure that it is not too heavy like a stupid Microsoft gaming mouse though. It can be a good idea to have just a small amount of mouse acceleration so that you don't strain your hand too much when trying to make very small movements.
Simple stretches: Make your arm strait and then pull your wrist back .
Reach behind and grab your thumb and then pull it back. pull your wrist back as well
Do the same stretch but in reverse. So instead of reaching around, flip your hand towards your thumb and then pull your thumb with your other hand
Extra Things like hand warmers, are ok in the short term, but if you are getting carpal tunnel, they are not going to solve your issues. Although nice to have you need to find other solutions
As soon as you feel your wrists are getting sore, start stretching them strait away, even if you are in the middle of a game.
to add to stretches...
squeeze pinky and thumb together (mouse hand), then extend out again, repeat.
Also keep in mind that many get it in their "keyboard" hand. So focusing on easing the problem for only one hand is not going to make the problem go away.
On August 01 2011 01:06 dacthehork wrote: His advice on placing the entire arm on the desk is completely wrong.
I just want to echo this. After learning to play with my wrist resting on the edge of the table, I've felt that my arm has been feeling a lot better. It used to be kinda sore after long sessions.
On August 01 2011 01:06 dacthehork wrote: His advice on placing the entire arm on the desk is completely wrong.
I just want to echo this. After learning to play with my wrist resting on the edge of the table, I've felt that my arm has been feeling a lot better. It used to be kinda sore after long sessions.
Plus my mouse accuracy got a lot better.
i have really bad pain for along time now. i posted my story on first post of this thread. so what is it that you learned about resting the wrist on the edge of the table?
yeah the main ergonomic problems are due to wrong arm angles. Having an adjustable chair will really help in finding the correct angle. I would say 80% of desks/chairs are at the wrong level and will cause wrist problems especially with a game like sc2. Really use ergonomic guides and information and get the correct angles/placements.
It's actually pretty simple to get an idea for ergonomics. Just air type with different elbow and wrist angles. Anytime you air type with a wrist angle other than flat you will note less comfort and morre weird feelings.
the whole point is to be in a neutral and unstained position as possible (flat wrist angle) and not hunched over. This is basically elbow at 90 degrees and wrist angle flat. Which really requires exact height adjustments (usually on the chair).Basically as long as you are in good angles / neutral state you should be well off. Arm rests are okay if you have them and they are adjustable so you can get correct angles.
Also it depends on each person if they get problems and how serious.
Man I've been to RSI land and back just recently. Basically had to stop playing all together for about two months, and was really careful at work from that point on.
Try to be extremely mindful of your posture while at the computer for long periods of time, and be especially careful not to be making all of your mouse movements from the wrist. It's very uncomfortable, and feels like you're lacking a bit of control at first, but moving the mouse with your whole arm is much better.
The other thing that really, really got me, was hunching my shoulders in front of the computer. Especially while playing SC2. It's hard to notice when you're in the heat of a game, that suddenly you're pushing your shoulders way forward and hunching your back. Bad, very bad.
Be mindful of how you move your mouse, and your posture. You should be good to go, and be on the road to healthy in no time with a decent break from computers if possible.
I should also point out that the chair you are using is an important factor as well! If your chair is busted, or just a piece of crap... toss it! Get a new one. Part of the reason my posture went haywire at work was because my chair was broken, and I had no back support. I also had a shitty chair at home, so I didn't even notice. One day the cleaning crew came in and ended up switching all the chairs around and I got a new one. That was amazing, and I haven't had troubles since.
EPT
