Repetitive Motion Injury - Stretches for Gamers

[Thalanox]

Hi everyone.

I finally registered a little while ago, so I figured I'd make a more generic, and hopefully useful topic first, while I slowly lurk and take in the forum culture here.

Like a lot of you, I used to spend a decent amount of time gaming, or otherwise screwing around on the computer. To the point where my arms and wrist sometimes feel a bit stiff. I've been spending a lot of time studying and working on the computer, so a lot of the problem is still probably coming from the same source.

The problem of trying to find time or a good setup for the game is something I haven't been able to figure out myself, so you're on your own there. 

Here's a video that should be a bit useful for people who want to avoid carpal tunnel, or some other kind of repetitive stress injury. Along with frequent breaks, this should hopefully help stretch the amount of game time you can have before you feel strained or tired from it.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/B9OCxQgmfL0

I wish I could embed the video, but I've no idea how to do that.

[eRe4s3r]

I am playing table tennis as hobby to prevent RSI, worked so far

The first thing he showed (hands facing upwards to the sky, and moving them downwards as much as possible and holding this for 30seconds being the only real "physical" element of my anti-RSI practice. Every hour that is. And I hold for a minute.

But really most important thing is not to have fixed sitting positions, moving around, standing up, moving elbows and arms specifically (fingers don't have muscles after all) in non repetitive patterns is also a good idea

Welcome to these forums here and enjoy the lurking Alas not much activity here and as usual best to avoid political topics in this day and age

[crazyroosterman]

I am playing table tennis as hobby to prevent RSI, worked so far

The first thing he showed (hands facing upwards to the sky, and moving them downwards as much as possible and holding this for 30seconds being the only real "physical" element of my anti-RSI practice. Every hour that is. And I hold for a minute.

But really most important thing is not to have fixed sitting positions, moving around, standing up, moving elbows and arms specifically (fingers don't have muscles after all) in non repetitive patterns is also a good idea

Welcome to these forums here and enjoy the lurking Alas not much activity here and as usual best to avoid political topics in this day and age

yea unless your interested in ai war 2 most of the activity here's been focused there since its kick-starter don't be afraid to start threads about random games in this sub forum though if you feel like it.
I've done it multiple times in the past and its usually been pretty enlightening.

edit. forgot to mention that the star ward rogue sub forums been very active pretty much forever
it helps that its a pretty dope game in it self especially with constant volunteer work that goes into it.

[Cyborg]

Welcome to these forums here and enjoy the lurking Alas not much activity here and as usual best to avoid political topics in this day and age

Yes, expect censorship.

[Misery]

Welcome to these forums here and enjoy the lurking Alas not much activity here and as usual best to avoid political topics in this day and age

Yes, expect censorship.

Yes, pretty much.  No, I'm not relenting on that one, either.

It aint just me:  I asked Chris about this after the incident happened, and he stated we should NOT get into political topics on this forum.  Mainly, because that sort of thing can make Arcen look... not so good as a whole, and can push people away from here.  Not only are explosive topics bad for business, but even just differing political views are bad for business.  It'd be silly to have someone go against Arcen as a whole simply because they're PERCEIVED as having a specific view (even if the actual developers never actually participated in any of it, people WILL look at it that way). When they COULD be coming to an otherwise very friendly forum related to a good developer.

So, might be considered an outright rule at this point.

Which frankly is for the best.  I've *never* seen a political topic not go that way.  Not once in all the years I've been going to forums.  Too poisonous, so it doesn't really belong here, and honestly I should have put a stop to it so much sooner... my own damn fault that it went that far. 

There are other places that everyone can go for this.  Or if you'd like to debate it with a specific person on here, use private messages for that.



And yes, I know he cant see my messages:  I don't really care.  I bloody well posted it anyway.  I'm in that sort of mood, I haven't had my caffeine yet.  Besides, it really should just be stated outright so people are aware of it.

[TheVampire100]

Welcome to these forums here and enjoy the lurking Alas not much activity here and as usual best to avoid political topics in this day and age

Yes, expect censorship.

Yes, pretty much.  No, I'm not relenting on that one, either.

It aint just me:  I asked Chris about this after the incident happened, and he stated we should NOT get into political topics on this forum.  Mainly, because that sort of thing can make Arcen look... not so good as a whole, and can push people away from here.  Not only are explosive topics bad for business, but even just differing political views are bad for business.  It'd be silly to have someone go against Arcen as a whole simply because they're PERCEIVED as having a specific view (even if the actual developers never actually participated in any of it, people WILL look at it that way). When they COULD be coming to an otherwise very friendly forum related to a good developer.

So, might be considered an outright rule at this point.

Which frankly is for the best.  I've *never* seen a political topic not go that way.  Not once in all the years I've been going to forums.  Too poisonous, so it doesn't really belong here, and honestly I should have put a stop to it so much sooner... my own damn fault that it went that far. 

There are other places that everyone can go for this.  Or if you'd like to debate it with a specific person on here, use private messages for that.



And yes, I know he cant see my messages:  I don't really care.  I bloody well posted it anyway.  I'm in that sort of mood, I haven't had my caffeine yet.  Besides, it really should just be stated outright so people are aware of it.

That's why political forums exist. To discuss political stuff there. This is a gaming forum. So I think we should keep it as good as possible at gaming topics.

[Cyborg]

Vampire on ignore to more effectively ignore misery. FYI so no misunderstandings.

[TheVampire100]

Vampire on ignore to more effectively ignore misery. FYI so no misunderstandings.

This guy is laughable. I cannot take him seriously anymore.

[Misery]

Vampire on ignore to more effectively ignore misery. FYI so no misunderstandings.

This guy is laughable. I cannot take him seriously anymore.

Wait, did he just ignore you because you quoted me?  He's gonna have to ignore half the freaking forum then.  I get quoted ALOT.  It's how forums work, right?  Good grief.

Honestly, from a mod position I kinda wish I could do something about this, because it's getting more than a bit ridiculous (as you definitely seem to agree), but... aint how the rules go, bah.  Not about to invent my own.

And really?  I don't even have anything against the guy.  Never did.  But this is getting more than a bit out of hand.  Not to mention that from a "forum rules" point of view it's not really a good idea to have a moderator or admin on ignore, too (from an "in case I need to say something important" sort of view here, such as relaying something from Chris since he usually hasn't the time to come here much right now).  Ugh. 


But yeah, people really should just take stuff like the Trump topic to political forums, as you said.   That is indeed what they're for.

I mean, being honest here, if someone wants to discuss something OTHER than gaming?  Hey, that's fine.  This is called "off topic" for a reason.  That's absolutely okay with everyone, I should think.  But political topics really are out of bounds at this point.   I seriously hate to have to restrict anything, but from this incident, and the gun topic, and all the evidence that many of us (certainly not just myself) have seen on other forums, political topics just have no point here.

[Misery]

Anyway, to get back to the topic at hand (yes I'm making a separate post for it, it's easier for me to follow what I'm typing).

I get repetitive motion injury myself pretty badly.  Well, it's a bit different in my case (nerve/tendon issues, they're kinda inherent so I cannot completely rid myself of them) but I can definitely stress that stuff like this is important.  The stretches and whatnot.

Another really nice thing I've found:   A standing desk.  It aint just the repetitive injury bits, but you also have to deal with the effects of sitting in one place too long which can cause other problems.  I've had that before, and it led to the occaisional day where I couldn't even walk because nerves in my lower back had flared up real bad.

After so many experiences with this kinda thing, I always think that gamers in general should think about this stuff more seriously.  A lot of people just ignore it, and then later on they'll regret it.  Not just gamers though but people with a career in computing should think about this stuff.   Because seriously, this stuff HURTS.  I'm on two very strong pain meds, cyclobenzaprine and Tramadol (and if you look up Tramadol, you're likely to find horror stories about it, which says something about how strong it is).  And even that's not enough some days (most of the time though, they do their job well).  It really is the sort of pain you seriously don't want to screw with, take it from me.

[TheVampire100]

Nah, it's probably also because I don't share his opinion.
It's funny how hypocrite he actually is. He detests "head in sand" mentalities but what he does right here is exactly this: he puts his head into the sand because he does not want to see people that disagree with him.

It's his choice but because of this I cannot take him seriously anymore. This is not a mature way to handle things.

About the topic: I never had this problem but maybe I don't play that hardcore so much. I have an aching back simetimes though.

[Misery]

About the topic: I never had this problem but maybe I don't play that hardcore so much. I have an aching back simetimes though.

Some people seem more resistant to it than others.

I may play a lot of games myself, but I don't do the hardcore super-long sessions like some do, and I tend not to play games that involve clicking 8 trillion times (with very rare exceptions like Path of Exile) or loads of button mashing. 

But even something like a turn-based strategy game can set me off, on bad days (which seems oddly connected to the weather).  That's actually why it took me so very, very long to get around to playing Dungeon of the Endless:  The day I fired it up for the first time after I bought it months ago, was one of those days where the pain got bad after like one hour (and then stuck around for a few days).  My memory being what it is I then forgot the game was there (and considering how good it's turned out to be, that was definitely a shame, but at least I got to it eventually).  And there's certainly no wild clicking in that game, it's kinda like AI War in that it's designed for macro focus rather than micro, and can be paused.  Granted some players do that door-dance trick (which is wild clicking) but that's a bug/exploit/oversight, so I don't do that.

Honestly it gets very freaking frustrating when it happens.

[keith.lamothe]

Please stop complaining about fellow forumites, regardless of how justified it may appear. It's not helpful to our common goals.

The ignore feature is fine. Ignoring a mod shouldn't normally happen, but if a mod gets personally involved in a controversial discussion, it's a possible outcome. On that note, I advise against moderating a discussion you are participating in; mod-hammers are hard enough to use wisely in the normal case, it's basically impossible to know you're making the right call if you're involved.

All that said, I think recent tensions here are largely the result of an uncommonly high and broad degree of real-life tension combined with there not being a lot else to do on the forums before the AIW2 alpha starts (the SR work is awesome, but it's not on everyone's radar). So I wouldn't expect us to be running into this degree of problem normally.

Let's just focus on "how to be vaporized by robots".

[Draco18s]

Wait, did he just ignore you because you quoted me?  He's gonna have to ignore half the freaking forum then.  I get quoted ALOT.  It's how forums work, right?  Good grief.

This is getting ridiculous.

[Misery]

Please stop complaining about fellow forumites, regardless of how justified it may appear. It's not helpful to our common goals.

The ignore feature is fine. Ignoring a mod shouldn't normally happen, but if a mod gets personally involved in a controversial discussion, it's a possible outcome. On that note, I advise against moderating a discussion you are participating in; mod-hammers are hard enough to use wisely in the normal case, it's basically impossible to know you're making the right call if you're involved.

All that said, I think recent tensions here are largely the result of an uncommonly high and broad degree of real-life tension combined with there not being a lot else to do on the forums before the AIW2 alpha starts (the SR work is awesome, but it's not on everyone's radar). So I wouldn't expect us to be running into this degree of problem normally.

Let's just focus on "how to be vaporized by robots".

I sure didn't want to get involved in actually having to use a mod action, I can tell ya that.  This (the original situation) happened during the middle of the night though, and everyone was getting all fired up, and I could see where it was going, and nobody else was going to be up for hours yet, so...  locked it.  I also figured, Cyborg was going to block me regardless of any of it (that happened well before I locked it) so that damage was already done.

As it is I messaged Chris about it immediately after, and his thoughts on the matter were that the forum as a whole needs to just avoid political topics from now on.  I mean, the only two locked topics I've ever seen on here now were both that type... that stuff is nothing but trouble.  And honestly that last incident was my own darned fault for not doing something about it MUCH earlier.  I should have said something from a moderation standpoint (like "let's all calm down" followed by going quiet myself0, but nope, didn't occur to me.  Me having my usual trouble spotting social issues I didn't see how far the debate had degraded until it was too late (it had seemed a totally calm debate to me up to that point). 

Wait, did he just ignore you because you quoted me?  He's gonna have to ignore half the freaking forum then.  I get quoted ALOT.  It's how forums work, right?  Good grief.

This is getting ridiculous.

It was ridiculous LONG before this.  That type of topic pretty much ALWAYS gets that way though... doesn't even matter who is involved.

I've just been mostly trying to avoid thinking about it.  One way or another, it's over and done with though.  I hope. 

Let's just get on to any other freaking topic.  Could have a conversation about poodles, or road trips, or poodles on road trips.  Just anything but more of this incident.