I’m so glad they call it “repetitive stress injury.” Way too often a disorder is called some other name that makes it sound permanent.
An “injury,” on the other hand (oops! Was that a pun?) sounds like something that can heal. And it can! Cuts heal. Broken bones heal.
So can syndromes, symptoms, disorders and diseases, at least most of them, most of the time.
Okay–back to repetitive stress injury (RSI). What causes it? How can you make it go away?
1. It’s often not just about doing the same
thing over and over. A repetitive stress injury is caused by doing the same movement over and over…incorrectly. It’s not just the movement. It’s using your body in a way that it wasn’t built for.
It makes your muscles crabby and they complain. You can’t hear them complain but you can feel them yelling at you!
2. The logical thing seems to be to stop doing the movement that causes the injury. Yes, that will help. But if you can figure out exactly what you are doing that your muscles don’t like, you may be able to continue your work or hobby without the muscle strain and pain.
As a long-career massage therapist, I used my hands all day long.
I was fortunate that I had very good instructors who taught me to use my body correctly. Lots of massage therapists injure their back, neck, hands or arms in short order because they work in incorrect positions and develop poor working habits.
Still, there were many times when I looked down at my hands and arms as I was working and thought: “What am I doing with my hands? And who told me THAT was a good idea?”
I got myself into some very strange hand positions which would have caused RSI over time. I didn’t get RSI because I caught myself and corrected my positions.
You can do the same thing–figure out what you may be doing “wrong”.
Figure out how you can change it.
Change it.
Get rid of your repetitive stress injury.