Office Aches & Pains

Q:  Repetitive motion injuries of the hand and wrist are common where I work. Are there any exercises my co-workers and I can do to help prevent them?

A: The last thing anyone needs is aches triggered from work that prevent you from doing your job. But many jobs require that you spend too much time repeating the same motions. This can overload body parts and lead to pain, numbness, stiffness and/or tenderness in affected areas.

People in computer-related office jobs, factory and construction work, as well as dress-making professions typically report a high incidence of strain to the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck. The variety of problems ranging from the wrist-nerve injury known as carpal tunnel syndrome to elbow pain known as lateral epicondylitis, are commonly referred to under an umbrella term, repetitive strain injury. They’re also known by a variety of other names, including upper limb disorders and occupational overuse syndrome.

When it comes to desk jobs, ergonomically unfriendly work stations—incorrectly placed computer monitors and desk chairs, for example, or poor arm and back alignment—are thought to exacerbate the already-stressful motions of keyboarding, moving a mouse around and other hand/arm actions.

A 2007 review in The Lancet, a British medical journal, found that exercise may provide relief, but the researchers note that strong evidence to support any specific treatment is lacking because there have not been enough well-designed studies. Still, you may be able to decrease stress with the following wrist-friendly strategies.

Rest more often

The first step to preventing or treating this type of strain is to curtail what’s causing it—overuse. Try to integrate more breaks into your work day if you can. Rest your arm and get up from your desk and move around.

How often you give your arms a rest depends on what you do, of course. But if you’re at a computer much of the day, try to limit your time on it. That means no procrastination Web surfing and limited personal e-mails. Instead of e-mailing a co-worker, go speak to them. Organize your day so that you’re not at the computer all morning and in meetings all afternoon. Instead, plan your schedule so that you alternate duties frequently. When you are at your computer for long periods, take a hand break every 30 minutes to an hour and do these hand stretches to relieve some of the built-up tension:

1. Stretch your fingers out wide and move your hands in all directions.

2. Make a fist and rotate your wrists to stretch out tightness in the upper hand.

3. With your arm outstretched, bend your hand inwards and point your fingers down to stretch the top of the hand and forearm.

4. Open both arms in a T position to the sides. Make a fist and point your thumbs up, then rotate then back and open your arms a little wider to stretch out the chest and biceps.

5. Clasp your hands behind your back and raise them an inch or two as your open your shoulders to stretch the chest.

6. Massage the palm of your over-worked hand, as well as the top and bottom of your forearm with your less-used hand.

Get ergonomically correct

Make sure that your computer screen is at eye level, or slightly below—move the screen, your chair, or both. When you use it you should be facing it directly, not twisting your torso in a strange way. Experiment with different types of mice and keyboards for the most comfortable fit.

Pay attention to non-work activities, too

It’s easy to flex your wrists too much when you work out, especially during some exercises such as Pilates or yoga—positions like the plank, for example, or downward dog—that require you to rest on flex hands (palms flat on the floor), or when doing exercises such as triceps dips on a bench, or even weightlifting moves where you allow your wrists to bend rather than stay straight in line with your forearms. Even gripping the handlebars of a spinning bike or other exercise machine can strain your wrists if you position yourself the wrong way so that you’re leaning on flexed wrists.

Always check the alignment of your wrists and try to keep them straight. Avoid bearing weight on them; when you do put weight on them, try to do so in a way that can avoid too much flexion. So in a pushup or plank pose, support your weight on your knuckles instead of flat hands. Or use a tool such as pushup bars with handles for each hand, or a big dumbbell in each hand to grasp as your prop your body up on arms and your knees or toes.

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Martica is a Manhattan-based exercise physiologist and nutritionist and an award-winning fitness instructor. She has written for a variety of publications including Self , Health , Prevention , The New York Times and others. Martica is the author of seven books, including her latest, - Cross-Training for Dummies . (Read her full bio.)