Today, Adam Steer from Better's Better and BodyweightCoach.com offers
up some tips to prevent common overuse injuries associated with work
in the digital age. Make sure you take advantage of his exclusive free
offer for Probloggers at the end of this post.
The myth of the internet lifestyle depicts the easy life. Four hours
of work per week will suffice to bring you the riches, entourage and
lifestyle you desire. But the reality is quite different isn't it? All
the successful bloggers and internet entrepreneurs that I know spend
hours every day bent over their keyboards - at least in the beginning.
If you've broken through, and are living the glamorous internet
lifestyle, I'd like to congratulate you. But if you are still working
on your ten-year overnight success story, you're going to need to take
care of your main asset - your fingertips.
Carpal tunnel syndrome, compressed joints, postural distortions and
all sorts of other nasty conditions can creep up on the ProBlogger.
Whatever we do repeatedly, we will adapt to, whether we like that
adaptation or not. Just as the sprinter will adapt to training and
he'll become faster, so the ProBlogger will adapt to sitting in front
of a computer.
I've written previously on several malaise of the Desk Jockey. But to
put it bluntly, if you spend enough time in your desk chair, your body
will eventually take on the shape of that chair. It's not a conspiracy
authored by your body. It thinks it's doing you a favor. If you're
shaped like that chair, it should be easier for you to stay in it for
long periods of time.
Your body is also going to adapt to all that tap, tap, tapping you do
on your keyboard. Which is why it's important to take care of your
number one asset - your nimble fingertips. OK, so your number one
asset is probably your head full of ideas, but the only way to get
them out to your readers is through those fingertips, right?
Why do athletes stretch and partake in other recovery methods? Because
their training results in positive performance benefits, but also
causes over-specializations that need to be compensated for. So our
sprinter might develop super-strong hamstrings, but also need to
devote time to the tissue quality of those hammies through stretching
and massage to make sure that his body does not become imbalanced.
Bad Stuff That Can Happen To The ProBlogger's Fingers, Hands & Wrists
Carpal tunnel syndrome - This is the most well known villain and the
bane of many a Desk Jockey. It's caused by the compression of nerves
that pass through the carpal tunnel of the wrist and is thought to be
brought on or exacerbated by working with a keyboard (eeks).
Compressed joints - If you don't move your joints through all their
potential range of motion, they get compressed, forcing out the
nourishing synovial fluid. Joints don't have blood circulation, so
they rely on that fluid to bring in nutrition and wash out toxins.
Compressed joints will get dry and brittle over time.
The "claw" - If the fingers stay curled in the "keyboard tapping"
position for too long without compensation, eventually the tissues
will adapt and it will be hard to fully extend the fingers.
Writers Cramp - The fancy name for this is dystonia. Involuntary
muscle spasms, twisting movements and tension in the fingers are a
telltale sign.
Three Exercises To Maintain Your Nimble Fingers
Now that I have you thoroughly terrified –– machinations of total
decrepitude roiling through your mind –– I want to reassure you that
there is an easy fix. Through years of experimentation, a man named
Scott Sonnon hammered out and codified a system of health, wellness
and fitness that pre-incorporates recovery and compensation. It's
called the Circular Strength Training® system.
Below, you'll find three exercises borrowed from the Intu-Flow Joint
Health and Mobility ring of the CST Three Ring system. Regular
practice of these three exercises will go a long way towards
preventing the terrors mentioned above. But daily practice of the full
Intu-Flow program will prime your entire idea generating pumps and
have you churning out blog content like never before!
So without further ado, here are your three compensatory exercises. Do
these daily to keep your fingertips tapping at the speed of a fiber
optic pulse.
1. Elbow Circles
Top circles - hold the elbow relatively still out in front of you.
Move the fist in an imaginary circle parallel to the floor above your
elbow. Notice how the elbow pit rotates around from facing the ceiling
to facing slightly inwards or outwards. This gives us the full range
of motion in the joint, combining flexion, extension and rotation. The
same principles apply for the bottom, inside and outside circles. Make
sure you keep your shoulders packed throughout by pulling them down
away from the ears.
2. Wrist Circles
Imagine holding the knuckles and the elbow fixed in space. Your goal
is to move the wrist itself in space. Start by moving it up and down,
moving to your full range of motion. You can hold your knuckles with
your other hand to close the chain and make it easier to move just the
wrist if you need to. Do the same moving the wrist side to side. Then
join all 4 points together - top, side, bottom, side - in a fluid
circle
3. Finger Rolls
Hold your hands in front of you, as if hovering over a keyboard, with
the fingers extended. Beginning with the thumbs, start making circles
one digit at a time. Do four or five circles in one direction with the
thumb, then move on to the index fingers, making four or five circles
in the same direction. Continue on down the line until you get to the
pinkies. The last two fingers may be tough at first, until you develop
the coordination to isolate the movement. Once you get to the end,
change direction of the circles and work your way back from pinkies to
thumbs.
Speed of implementation…
Get up from your keyboard and do these at your desk right now. Then
drop a line or two into the comments section below. Tell us how you
feel when you're done. These are just the tip of the iceberg. A full
session of Intu-Flow will leave you feeling loose as a goose, and ––
done regularly –– can actually turn back the ravages of time and untie
the knots made fast by your desk chair and keyboard.
Adam, co-author of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution, is offering a free
follow-along joint mobility session to ProBlogger readers. Visit
BodyweightCoach.com to access your video download. You can also grab a
free copy of the highly acclaimed Bodyweight FUN-damentals workout
ebook for free. Adam has been blogging for quite some time at
BettersBetter.com where he debunks the mainstream fitness myths and
offers improved health, vitality and fitness, one better decision at a
time.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
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