How to avoid/beat Repetitive Strees Injury?

[Jose Milan]

Hello,

I recently got hired editing audio, cleaning speach, I have to spend hours doing repetive task over in Audition: using the tools over and over again, selecting, etc...well I'm starting to feel strain on the base of my wrist and sometimes in the base of forearm...I wonder what other editors do to avoid having problems.

I use a tablet pen (at home) and that hand is out of trouble for most part, but the hand on keyboard (regular keyboard) is the one that bother, at work I have you use a regular mouse and that also bothers. I wonder if a trackball mouse can be better but I don't if I can work as fast as with normal mouse, in the office I can't use the pen stylus because they say its not as precise and fast (I haven't been using the pen too long, just 2 month and I wonder if I can gain more speed if I get more experience).

Anyway I still have to use keyboard and mouse so I wonder what special keyboards and mouse you recommend to avoid suffering and also how to use them and what stuff you do in your everyday work to avoid this stress.

Thanks in advance

[Richard Crowley]

There is a very wide variety of mouse, trackball, tablet, and keyboard products to make your workplace more ergonomic to avoid repetitive stress injury. Do you have access to consult with an ergonomist?

[Seth Bloombaum]

There was some recent dicussion on this here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/open-dv-...ductivity.html

[Nicholas de Kock]

Jose I use the Evoluent VerticalMouse 4. Helped me with my RSI.

Evoluent VerticalMouse, Vertical Mouse, ergonomic mouse, ergonomic computer mouse, computer mouse, optical mouse, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress disorder, RSI

[Jose Milan]

Hello ,

@ Richard: I'm new there I can't ask for it.

@ Seth: I will check it out.

@ Nicholas: don't you then start to have problems with your thum with such a mouse?

Thanks for answering.

[Jose Milan]

I checked the discussion, I'm amazed so little people comment cause now that I feel this pain it seems logical so many of us run into this problem right?

[Richard Crowley]

Originally Posted by Jose Milan

@ Richard: I'm new there I can't ask for it.

Many employers are HYPER SENSITIVE about workplace ergonomics because it puts them at serious legal risk (and financial penalty) if they so anything that puts their employees at risk. Where I work, new employees are REQUIRED to have their workplace reviewed and approved by an ergonomist.

If your employer won't do it, then at the very least investigate what alternative mice or track-balls, etc. are available. They aren't all that expensive even if you have to pay for it yourself.

[Jose Milan]

Hello,

I'm new and since they told me to just use a rest pad and keep using the normal mouse I see I will have to look myself, that is why I'm asking here, to find answers/solutions of working professionals with more experience...I'm willing to invest myself since health on the long run is more worth and getting some lasting pain.

So yes I'm looking, but it seems that using a track ball mouse would just take the problem from some place to other: the thumb joints. Some people said is better that regular mouse, but would be on the long run bad solution also?

Anyway it seems this wont be easy to solve or just pick a product.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Jose Milan

...but it seems that using a track ball mouse would just take the problem from some place to other: the thumb joints. Some people said is better that regular mouse, but would be on the long run bad solution also?

Anyway it seems this wont be easy to solve or just pick a product.

There isn't one solution, in my opinion.

If repetitive motion is causing you pain and concern, change it for a different one.

For me, after various trackballs, and the contour shuttle pro, I started using the mouse with my left hand (I'm right handed) at home. Now, years later, I am equally skilled with either hand. If I experience pain I switch for a while.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I also use as many keyboard shortcuts as I can. Audition isn't great for that, but you can set J-K-L shuttle speed to "half" in the playback section of prefs, and that will help you to scrub to many of your edit points. Knowing the shortcuts for navigating the timeline, especially zoom-in/out is critical, too.

Dialog editing is very repetitive, but there are various methods you can switch between. If you are already having pain into your wrist, you need to switch up now. These injuries have taken me and others months to recover from.

Richard is right though - what a full ergonomic review will point out is that it's not only the pointing device, but also the chair and height, the work surface height, monitor height, it all works together.

[Nicholas de Kock]

Jose nope no thumb pain, the vertical mouse puts your hand in a very natural position. It's also important to keep your arm in a straight, elbow 90 degree position so your not working at weird angles I do this by resting my elbow on my chairs arm rests. I had serious wrist/hand pain which got so bad I had to go see a doctor after getting the vertical mouse it went away. Took about a week to get use to the design but after that it's smooth sailing. The mouse also has 6 programmable buttons that you can link actions to.

[Jose Milan]

Hello again.

First of all thanks for answering.

I'm sure that these pains have to be mainly also because bad posture and settings, now I'm working from home, next week is when I start in the office, and I'm making many mistakes, I have my screens on the side (narrow desk), no rest pads and put my hand wrist in weird angles, so in the office will make sure I don't make this mistakes.

For editing in Audition I use mainly key shortcuts: H, T, E, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, + and - and from Premiere: X, V, Q, +, -...etc.

I'm left handed and with the pen in that hand I mostly have no problem, is with my rigth when I use the keyboard or mouse.

I will have to improve my sitting and setting and hope to improve, I would like to keep using the pen but my employer says that using the mouse is more precise and faster (selecting parts of the voice spectrum).

When I see my co-workers do the job they indeed go extra fast with the mouse, it looks like a movie play forward, they seem they go 3 times faster than me using the regular mouse and anyway I see myself trying to go as fast in the future and doing thousands of times a day with regular mouse not being healthy.

I wonder if with practice I can achive such a speed with the pen (I have use the pen not too long), I go much faster than before but not as fast with them. Do any of you use a wacom and go as fast with mouse expecially selecting and such?

Anyhow if I have to be obligated to use regular mouse, I would try the mouse Nicholas is suggesting, to use at work.

Nicholas, can you go very fast using your mouse? did it took you a long time to get use to it?

p.s.: Please forgive me for any writting or expression errors, English is not my mother tongue.

[Nicholas de Kock]

Jose yes I go very fast with my mouse it's basically the same as a regular mouse at a resting angle. I almost don't even have to touch my keyboard while editing as I've set my buttons to copy, delete, undo, cut, ripple delete, play, stop, cycle tools. I got use to the mouse in a day & after a week was fully accustomed to it. Give it a try, I had the Logitech Performance Mouse MX before I switched & no regrets going to Evoluent.

[Greg Miller]

If everything is positioned so that my lower arm (ulna and radius), hand, and fingers are in a straight line, then no problems.

To achieve this, I rest my elbow on the armrest of my chair, and adjust the furniture so the armrest and mouse pad are the same height. This also means that my wrist is not supporting the weight of my upper arm, and only half the weight of my lower arm.

If my wrist is flexed backward, with my fingers above the axis of my lower arm, then my wrist quickly becomes cramped. This happens if the mouse is flat on the pad, and my elbow is raised.

On the other hand, if my wrist were bent downward, so that the end of my ulna and radius were always resting / rubbing on the edge of the table, that would be very bad. The junction of those bones and the wrist is exactly where the "carpal tunnel" is located. I certainly do now want any pressure on that region! That would happen if the desk were too high in relation to my chair, and my elbow were lower than my wrist. So I keep my mouse and keyboard on a "keyboard drawer" that is about 3" lower than the top of the desk.

By the way, I use the mouse with my left hand. This allows me to use the numeric keypad with my right hand, without taking my hand off the mouse. (The same is true of the shift, control, and arrow keys, for zooming in both axes.) And also it keeps the alphabetic part of the keyboard centered on the screen, so that my trunk, arms, head, and neck are all aligned straight ahead, rather than being twisted to the side.

If you are absolutely forced to use just a regular mouse and keyboard, you might get some help from the above arrangement.

[Jose Milan]

Thank guys for answering and giving some insight!!! Hearing from experience people is priceless...;-).

I see its better that I take consideration in position of the elements and myself. About the mouse, it seems if I understand I could program the hotkeys I use in Audition and Premiere and avoid having to almost entirely use the keyboard, I think that is superb...If I fet better with the stylus and faster if I can convice my boss to use it at work in conjuction with this mouse, it'll mean I can select with the pen and use the mouse for the keys and avoid many of the problems.

[Jose Milan]

...btw I just ordered the Evoluent....;-)...hopes it helps me as much as you Nicholas...hope to improve and get aproval with the use of the wacom.

Cheers.