advice in this thread is all over the place. that makes sense i guess, because a lot of different things might work, depending on where the problem originates. so i feel as qualified as anybody to throw my two cents in.
when i was younger, say up to my mid-twenties or so, my wrists were indestructible. i routinely played games of asteroids that would last for eight or nine hours, on one of the original atari stand-up game cabinets circa 1980, that applies just slightly less force than necessary to actually snap your wrists in half. at the time i wasn't even aware that the game was an ergonomic disaster, such was the power of my wrists.
fast-forward to the year 2000. i am now almost 40. i went to california extreme (www.caextreme.org -- great fun if you're into that sort of thing), and they of course had several asteroids machines. i was able to play about five minutes before my wrists were absolutely on fire.
same thing started happening to my mouse wrist, at about the same time. i was all of a sudden acutely aware of all the cables and tendons in there, groaning under the pressure. my wrists would sometimes go numb.
now that my wrists were forcing me to concentrate on them, i noticed that i almost always had my entire forearm really tensed up and cramped while typing and mousing. it had never been a problem before, due to my younger super-wrists, but now it was.
so all i had to do was take it easier on myself. notice when i'm tensing up, and stop it. along with the usual stuff: take a break every few hours. get up and think about something else.
when i was younger, say up to my mid-twenties or so, my wrists were indestructible. i routinely played games of asteroids that would last for eight or nine hours, on one of the original atari stand-up game cabinets circa 1980, that applies just slightly less force than necessary to actually snap your wrists in half. at the time i wasn't even aware that the game was an ergonomic disaster, such was the power of my wrists.
fast-forward to the year 2000. i am now almost 40. i went to california extreme (www.caextreme.org -- great fun if you're into that sort of thing), and they of course had several asteroids machines. i was able to play about five minutes before my wrists were absolutely on fire.
same thing started happening to my mouse wrist, at about the same time. i was all of a sudden acutely aware of all the cables and tendons in there, groaning under the pressure. my wrists would sometimes go numb.
now that my wrists were forcing me to concentrate on them, i noticed that i almost always had my entire forearm really tensed up and cramped while typing and mousing. it had never been a problem before, due to my younger super-wrists, but now it was.
so all i had to do was take it easier on myself. notice when i'm tensing up, and stop it. along with the usual stuff: take a break every few hours. get up and think about something else.