Forearm extensor muscles, wrist position and RSI
When you position your hands at a keyboard as discussed in an earlier article referring to ‘typing with clawed hands’, bad positioning of the wrist can lead to overuse injuries caused by strain in your forearm extensor muscles.
The common position for hands hovering above a keyboard is as shown on the right, which I refer to as the ‘claw’. This position elevates the tension in the aforementioned extensor muscles, causing them to become fatigued over prolonged periods of time. Typing whilst the hand/wrists are in this position (another common posture mistake) will further increase the muscle and tendon stresses making the situation worse.
What may not be so obvious is that moving the wrists into a more neutral ‘level’ position (see image) can still create enough continual tension in the forearm extensor muscles. This is not always apparent unless, like me, you already have a bad RSI condition and can notice the pain in already injured muscles.
This is a much better position than the ‘claw’, and the forearm extensors are far less tense. They are however still in tension which may lead to forearm extensor fatigue when held in this manner for long periods of time eg 6-8 hours a day hovering your hands over a keyboard at work.
