Not directly related to music…

but our kind of music making needs healthy fingers and arms and painless body in general is a good thing. so… it is related.

Using the Bluetooth keyboard and the tripod mobile stand prevents strain by not having to lift the hand up each time to turn the page. This is when we are reading a Kindle book, for example, which I do a lot.

in this case the keyboard is used just for the left and right arrow keys. but it makes a huge difference.

raising arm often, moving it away to take the mouse etc has been repeatedly noted as things to avoid, in order to avoid repeated strain injury that affects the fingers, elbows and arms. maybe it’s not obvious for everyone, maybe you don’t have that problem… but at least for some of us, it is obvious that after a few up arm or arm extension moves, one can feel it on the fingers.

and since we are anyway going to do this activity a few thousand times a year because of the kinds of work we are in, well, the small drops will add up.

to take the slight edge to our advantage, it is useful to be on the side where we are not doing the not recommended move.

this article was typed on WordPress Android app, using the same Bluetooth keyboard and the mobile phone on the stand, sitting outside near the house, while it rains. 🙂

the Bluetooth keyboard of course brings in strain. it think it has to do with the minor adjustment we make to the shoulder to type on a straight, narrow keyboard. I started being more aware after a bad painful week as I ignored this fact. still, though, it is convenient, use with physical awareness.

with the laptop, I use the ergonomic Microsoft keyboard. for now I have a weird set up – German keyboard which types in English… 🙂 that was the easiest to get and it works fine.

like said before, the shoulder position. that is what the ergo keyboard really makes natural to begin with. so our suspicions should be right. the arms can come in from the sides and be typing, even as the shoulders can be as wide as they want.

cringing the shoulders in seem to really make it bad from the complex system of our shoulders. the wonders that we carry inside our bodies…!

along with the ergo keyboard is started using a vertical mouse to avoid the turn we need to make on the forearm when using a usual mouse.

then I experimented with a simple touch pad, an external touch pad, so that I don’t have to click like with the mouse, either. that’s working fine for me… I can keep it where I want, unlike the fixed touchpad of the laptop, for example.

laptop is kept high at eye level. an ergo stool is used to sit.

more than anything, I think, keeping on changing the positions instead of stuck in one seems to be the best to avoid over use and repeated strain injury.

all seems to start with body awareness. general exercises interestingly reduced my elbow pains and upper chest muscle pains.

guess everything is connected, tuned guitar.