Skipping stretches in favor of getting more work done results in less work getting done

My most effective means of combatting repetitive strain-stress injury to date has been the stretches I learned from http://www.selfcare4rsi.com/. However, they take a long time - at least 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening, plus I take a break and do 5 to 10 minutes of stretching every 35 or so minutes. I'm sure I won't always have to do this much stretching, but now, while I am still healing, I do.

I forget sometimes that taking all this time to stretch is the main reason that I can work at all these days, and I try to skimp on my stretches to have more time to work. and I'm paying for it. My right arm and side and back are all locked up like cement and no amount of stretching is helping. I'm just going to have to sleep on it to get anywhere. Tonight and tomorrow, I'm stretching for 45 minutes! I promise!

I knew I wasn't the only one

Ergoblog: Back & Neck Pain - Hah, of course I knew I wasn't the only one, but this is still a fantastic read. This blog has product reviews and other solutions to all sorts repetitive strain injury problems. I still think the most important solution is the frequent breaks with stretching, but this blog does address that too. It even talks about 'nerve gliding' something I've never heard of.

the worst times

In August of 2002 I quit my job as a police dispatcher and went back to school. I remember feeling some discomfort in my neck and shoulders when I would sit for too long in those uncomfortable chairs. I chalked it up to being pregnant (oh yeah, I was pregnant) and getting older. I still did not think I had any sort of "problem" or "injury". In the spring of 2003 I took less classes and toned it down on the computer a bit so I wasn't feeling too bad. I was too busy getting ready for the new baby to work as much. The fall after my boy was born I went back to school and took several computer classes (I am a computer science major). My pain started getting progressively worse and worse with all the work .. and then my boy started gaining weight. He was almost 30 pounds by the time he was a year old, so now, besides all the computer work, here I am hauling 30 pounds of child around on one hip all the time.

By early 2004 I started realizing I had a major "problem" and some serious "injury". :( I did not, however, know what the injury was called and had a very hard time finding information on it.

The beginnings of my repetitive strain-stress injury

So, I guess I first started feeling pain back in 1999. I would come home from work at an extremely stressful job as a police dispatcher and spend another 5 hours on my home computer trying to get my business going. At some point I started coming home with a headache. Looking back, I guess they would be described as "tension headaches". I would take a handful of motrin, set my alarm for 30 minutes, and take a nap. Then I would get up and work on the computer, usually headache-free. I never thought that my headaches were anything more than the stress of the job, but eventually I started getting them every day.

I was working out a bit - in fact that is another thing I discovered would get rid of a headache - a quick run, 10 or 15 minutes at a consistent pace would usually do it. Probably something with the increased circulation. So, I was working out a bit - sometimes doing strength training, but almost never stretching my neck or back related to a workout.

A couple of times I tried a regimen of "desk-stretches" like you sometimes see in industry magazines or handouts, but they never did any good. I know now that I was doing them incorrectly, and if I tried them now they probably would work ok. Sharon's explanation about fascia and how it is involved in creating your pain really made me understand what was going on when I stretched. Now I feel my fascia moving around the muscle when I stretch. I can tell what stretches still work for me and which I no longer need.

to be contd...

ok ... so I haven't *quite* beat my RSI yet ...

... but I'm damn close. I have made about a 96.5% recovery and I feel 3000 times better than I did this time last year. I can work for about 7 hours at a time with minimal pain, compared to September of 2004 when I couldn't work for 20 minutes without getting a headache so severe that I had to get off the computer. Here's what I did quick and dirty:

1. I followed the neck and shoulder stretching program at Self Care for RSI (it's an ebook that is worth every single cent - and it's cheap!)

2. I use thermacare heat wraps on my trouble areas when I am going to be working for a long time.

3. I started getting graston technique treatments from my chiropractor

4. I stretch after every 30 minutes of work

5. I am extremely conscious of tension in my neck and shoulders. I constantly scan my body for it and release it if I feel any.

So, I expect to be 100% cured within another 2 months - to the point where I can work for 8 hours with no pain, no motrin, and no heat pads. In subsequents postings I will explain my successes and failures in treating my pain in more detail.