a soft touch is very important

When working on the computer, I have found that relaxed shoulders and hands, and a very soft touch on the keys are as important as stretching. My physical therapist recommended some relaxation exercises before starting to work - I'll go one step past this and say that besides trying to relax, and doing exercises that should relax you, you actually need to sense the level of tension in your forearms, shoulders, neck and back while you are working. Set a timer for every few minutes and then actually "check in" with thoses muscles.

I know this all sounds very flaky, and I am actually resistant to flakiness most of the time, but I have had to adopt a few flaky, crunchy attitudes in order to continue working. So - just try it - put your fingers on the keyboard like you are going to type and stop - think about the muscles in your forearms and fingers and neck and back. Try to feel what they are feeling - assign them a descriptive word like relaxed or tense or light or heavy. If they are tense or heavy you've got to stop and stretch till the feeling is gone. Working with tense muscles will give me pain within minutes, but constant checking in to be sure my muscles are relaxed will let me work all day with minimal pain.