My Cure: Yoga type stretches

At Self Care for RSI there are several ebooks for download that outline stretching programs designed for repetitive strain injury resulting in pain in certain parts of the body. I have downloaded the neck and shoulder pain book and the forearm pain book. ( I used to only have neck and shoulder pain, but now that I have minimal pain in my neck and upper back and can work as much as I want to every day thanks to the virtual cure provided by the stretches, I get a lot of forearm pain, burning, and tingling).

The books are long, broken up into a 6 week program. There is a detailed explanation as to where the pain is coming from, new stretches each week, tips to eliminate body positioning and guarding mistakes that may be furthering your pain, and advice to keep you well for life.

My chiropractor asked to see a few of the stretches in the program and then told me that a lot of them were similar to yoga moves. I have never been into yoga, but saw an inexpensive book on yoga moves and decided to get it. Just trying a few of the most basic moves, or postures has convinced me that the fascia in my whole body is tightly adhesed and that I would really benefit from frequent yoga conditioning.

Stretching is much more important than resting

2 examples:

1: I took a three week vacation two years ago - didn't even touch a computer for three weeks. This was before I knew about stretching so I did not stretch at all - I just rested. When I got back, there was absolutely no improvement. I did not have any pain while we were gone, but when I got home and back on the computer, I started getting a headache within 20 minutes of work.

I just got back from a week's vacation. I did not touch a computer the entire time. I did do all my stretches twice a day. I thought I would be completely cured when I got back (because of all that rest and stretching together) but I'm not. :( I felt great when I got back and I did a lot of work yesterday with no pain in my neck, back, shoulders, or forearms but this morning I did not do my stretches until about noon and I have some pain on my left side.