After years of playing SC2 and Brood War as well as other strategy/video games, the first telltale signs my wrist is going from me. I've been getting that stabbing pain in my wrist over the past week or so.

Any body have any good stretches or things they do to lessen the strain?

Deathstar

9150 Posts

November 27 2015 00:16 GMT

No advice besides trying not to use your hand too often. You're getting old now

OtherWorld

France17333 Posts

November 27 2015 00:42 GMT

Does your pain appear when you are actively using your wrist, or do you feel it constantly?
Do you feel that pain at night and does it make it difficult for you to fall asleep/make you wake up during the night?
Does your pain worsen when using your wrist and lessens when putting it to rest?

For now, try to put your wrist to rest as much as you can for some time, let's say one week to begin with. Not only concerning computer-related things, but also any other activities that put stress on your wrist such as handwriting, lifting/holding things >2-3kg, practicing musical instruments, using screwdrivers, doing pushups, etc.

Additionally, try to stretch (without overstretching it) your wrist regularly. Extend your arm, elbow towards the floor, then extend your wrist towards the floor, possibly using your other hand to help it stretch (don't hurt yourself though). Then flex your wrist towards the ceiling.

Poo

Canada536 Posts

November 27 2015 03:12 GMT

Aside from stretching, I found that compression wrist bands were quite helpful. I couldn't live without them during my sc2 days.

QuanticHawk

United States32024 Posts

November 27 2015 05:18 GMT

There's a couple fixed mentioned but number one is not doing the motion that caused it for a while. Take a week or two off from computer gaming at least and try to avoid using that hand asuch as possible. It's a repetition injury

FFW_Rude

France10201 Posts

November 27 2015 07:31 GMT

On November 27 2015 08:45 showstealer1829 wrote:
After years of playing SC2 and Brood War as well as other strategy/video games, the first telltale signs my wrist is going from me. I've been getting that stabbing pain in my wrist over the past week or so.

Any body have any good stretches or things they do to lessen the strain?

Go to the doc.

But don't stress yourself. Your gaming days are NOT over.

Topin

Peru10031 Posts

November 27 2015 15:05 GMT

day9 had a nice tutorial

Quenelle

2 Posts

November 27 2015 15:25 GMT

Eat plant-based

pebble444

Italy2495 Posts

November 27 2015 19:19 GMT

100 % Arnica cream, apply all around the wrist after you use your wrist; it will give you some relief.

and yeah, dude sorry to hear this, you are gonna have to change your habits from now on. If you are seriousy concerned go and see a fisiotherapist. They are specialists about muscles and a chiropracter is a specialist about bones. Talk to someone about how this is making you feel. This is a serious thing, and you should take some serious steps, light-heated but still serious.

Shapelog

United States5184 Posts

November 28 2015 03:13 GMT

#10

I don't know about wrist, however, in 2012 I broke my right elbow. Course (with my amazing luck) I broke the smallest bone in the elbow that connects the forearm to the upper arm and is responsible for being able to bend the arm. After getting out of the cast (was a week early IMO) I got back into SC2. I queued up for ladder (zerg) after not playing for almost a month. The pain was unbearable, a twenty minute game would kill my arm. And although I had problems with it outside of gaming (football and futball) It wasn't as unbearable. It forced me to play more passively instead of doing zerglings run by and doing damage.

After awhile, I decided to try fun builds (cheeses, weird comps, even did a 4 hatch b/4 pool on metaloplois). And I realized something. My arms weren't as in much pain, since I was more focus on timing then mircoing. And if I did mirco it was only for a few mins top. This slowing allow me to get more and more use to the pain. And even though my APM avg. and APM during battles dropped (was 80 before I broke my arm 150-250 or so during a battle). I start slowly claiming back to those standards.

Course this was 3 years ago (WOL). I've decided to start to play ladder more solid instead of fun (mix in some here and there). I now use a brace that just apply pressure to it. I also use some creams and stuff, but for me at least they don't work well. The best things I learned to do is this

1: Rebind and change how you play, Simple way to fix a lot of the problems. I often used my right hand a lot and clicked around the map with a passion. I decided that that had to stop if i was ever to play and enjoy playing. So I taught myself to rely more on using control groups (double tap) and arrow/wasd movement control. I also decided to use Grid instead of standard hotkeys.

If its both wrists, I would recommend moving the Entire hand instead of stretching out your hand as much as possible. Rebind Hotkeys as you wish.

2. Compression Braces, nothing fancy but it works.

3. Heat dipping, Just dipping your wrist in hot water. I dip my arm in water if it flares up too much.

Idk if this will help you. But just because your wrist are giving out doesn't mean you should stop playing. Experiment and find new ways to play that help with the pain. Some days I can only play a game or two do to pain, but these are rare (one in a fortnight prob). And if it gets bad, don't play around. get a doctor to check them. They might not find anything (happen to me), but its worth to be safe.

Best luck to you mate.
Also sorry for the long post, got passionate there. (And now my arm is flaring up >_>)

Vivax

21682 Posts

November 28 2015 21:27 GMT

#11

It's called inflammation, of your tendons. Put your hand in cold water, give it a rest and find a better posture.

Mouse and keyboard should require low pressure to be clicked in order to keep tendon strain to a minimum.
Typically you want your forearms on the table, so you shouldn't have to extend your wrist upwards to use your gear.
As someone mentioned, try to use your forearms for movement instead of your wrists.

Not sure how compression braces should help,except that they might hinder your wrist moving around, at best they're good for getting a habit not to move your wrists.

JieXian

Malaysia4677 Posts

November 29 2015 06:37 GMT

#12

i had this problem. it was terrible, I couldn't even use a mouse for browsing let alone gaming
i saw a bone setting guy who realigned/raised my shoulders and it went away