carpal tunnel
 

this is aimed especially towards high level players - what's your experience with hand/finger pain? do you do anything while playing to prevent future carpal tunnel/arthritis/etc? hand stretching, warming up, only using certain keyboards, that sort of thing

i ask as i've maybe accumulated a measly 10-15b grandtotal over the years, but my left hand aches after playing pretty bad. seeing as people have done 5x that grandtotal, i wonder if it's technique that preserves them

thanks

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I simply stopped playing after getting mild CTS. It was too painful and a video game is not worth possible further and permanent damage and pain. You can look into what playing posture and exercises pianists use to avoid injury. But a lot of avoiding RSI over the long run comes down to anatomical luck.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I don't think I had any CTS, but felt like other RSI type(s) coming on. same as above, just stopped playing. still having fun with other music games.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

Recently I've changed my ffr setup (different desk and chair) and after a good 2-3h session my left wrist was a bit painful + some hand positions would almost lock my hand in place (having to "unlock" it with my other hand. That being said, my twi most recent sessions were also intense and that didnt happen; I always stretch my hand, wrists and arms before playing and also a bit between songs. For reference, I'm 25 years old, been playing for 12 years (?) and I'm high D7/low D8 in FFR standards.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I'm really surprised I don't have CTS by now... have over 500 hours playtime on FFR and almost 700 hours on Etterna :/

Here's a few tips that work for me:
-Try to play soft
-Take your time warming up (don't hop into hard stuff right away)
-Don't play the same songs or pattern types too much
-Try to keep your session time around 2 hours
-After about 3-4 days of playing take 1 day off
-Stretch before during and after

Re: carpal tunnel
 

My arms really only ever hurt after a 4-5+ hour session where I'm hitting the 90's the entire time, but pretty much I'd just be saying what's been said a lot. Try to ease yourself into the harder songs. Try to stay calm as best you can, is another thing I'd say. Take a lil break when you feel yourself gettin aggravated. I really only ever feel strain or pain whenever I'm getting frustrated or when I enter angry gamer mode.

Slightly unrelated though, I don't really ever feel pain in my arms all too often, like I said really only when the sessions get way too long or when I get very angry. It's my legs that hurt the most throughout. I have a footrest under my desk and I constantly shift back and forth from leaning forward, to kinda leaning back in my chair, feet up on the rest. I feel this is what makes my legs hurt as much as they do, probably on top of just how I sit as a whole.

Advice going off of that? I'd say just find a comfortable position to sit in that's also optimal for playing. Since I do a lil worse when I'm leaning back than I do when I'm sitting up straight, for example.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

Note that hand movements circulate all the way through your arms, shoulders and eventually your neck.

I personally never really had issues with hands, but my shoulder eventually got misaligned a bit from having a hand posture that wasn't optimal.

It forced me to stop using close setups and priorize more spread apart ones for comfort and also my left hand.

I used to play with like O,P, Delete, End.
Now I use W,E,7,8 (numpad). I also had to disable numlock.

Closer setups gave me more control overall, but it was also taxing physically. Not worth it.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I always figured that I would be at a high risk to get carpal tunnel given how much I played one-handed (>20 billion), but it never happened. I always made sure to keep my wrist comfortable and at a level position. Whenever I began to feel strain in my wrist, I would take a break and come back later.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

In the 10 years I've been gaming I've switched up my setups as in 2014 my hands were starting to burn when playing. I'm busy so I'll edit this later for those curious

Re: carpal tunnel
 

No long-term injuries after 19.5 billion.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I had issues back when I was playing at a higher level.
Resolved the issues by getting a stress ball, and wrist strengthener.

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I've got a modest 10b grand-total and this is what worked for me:

Stretching, warmup, breaks. Stopping when it hurts rather than playing through the pain. Put some towel-wrapped ice on your wrists to reduce swelling, not to numb your wrists just so you can play more.

I had/have repetitive strain injury. Got pretty bad a couple years back, but it's gotten better over that time. I've got wrist braces and have an ergonomic setup.

Oh.... and I stopped playing FFR excessively. XP

Re: carpal tunnel
 

big true

Re: carpal tunnel
 

i dont have a lot of hours and games in ffr, but i have a lot more in o!m and etterna, especially in playing chordjack and stamina stuff. naturally on those games you try to push yourself to your extreme limits, at least i do for those games more than i do here. ultimately, when ur hands need to stop, you gotta stop

Re: carpal tunnel
 

I hadn't had any prior hand/finger pain until well after I pushed myself for D7. I've never gotten it checked out, but I do suffer pain and I've definitely done damage to it (my left hand).

I have very minimal grip in my left hand, and if I grip something for too long or even too hard, my hand will entirely lock up and I am at a complete loss of control over my left hand for a healthy 10-30 minutes. Luckily I don't think I've had any other physical impairments.

I still actively play rhythm games, and I must do hand exercises prior to playing. Sometimes I'm able to play like I was in my peak but a majority of the time I have to take it easy. If I play easier stuff, I can do it all day, but if I play difficult stuff I have to keep it minimal like an hour at most. As soon as I feel pain, I stop playing. Something that has also helped me preserve my hand condition is playing wrists up and focusing all pressure on my forearms, and I take frequent breaks while playing. I do alternate between two keyboards but that hasn't seemed to have much effect (Blues and Browns).