I occasionally get wrist pain. I have found that a lot of changes are not necessarily the ones the ergonomics experts sell. YMMV but these work for me:
1) If I need to, I take a break and soak my hands in hot water.
2) I program in Perl and tend to find that my hands shift positions. In particular my right hand tends to shift at least one place over compared to typing prose. I find standard keyboards, not ergonomic ones, accommodate this best. But the keyboard needs to be at a low, relaxes angle (on one's lap is best) and ideally a wristpad helps.
3) Mice are the root of most wrist pain! Ditch the mouse and get a trackball. This one really is close to universal. I know a number of others who have found this to be true.
4) Pay attention to your body.... If your wrists are bothering you stop and relax them before proceeding. Also pay attention to your arms and make sure they are relaxed. This should be common sense but....
5) If your wrists hurt for more than a little bit, prompt medical attention is a good thing. Chances are if you catch things quickly a wrist brace may even allow you to keep working or at least it did me when I started to develop carpal tunnel briefly. Early attention is very important.
I have tried ergonomic keyboards and found they did more harm than good. I also found that wrist pads did more good than harm at least for me. YMMV which is why I keep coming back to listen to your body.....
Agreed, switching to a trackball is the only thing that solved my wrist pain issues.
Its worth spending money on a decent one, and I'd avoid Logitech units if you have a choice. The main things to look for are ball size and extra buttons - yes, you can get two-button trackballs with no scrolling ability or third button.
I highly recommend the Kensington Slimblade, which has a massive ball and lovely twist-to-scroll mechanism. Ignore the reviews saying the software is terrible on OSX, all the problems have been fixed.
One slight oddity is the hardware "clicker". Twist-to-scroll feedback is achieved by a tiny piezo speaker inside the unit that clicks whenever you scroll. Its worth spending ten minutes with a screwdriver and soldering iron removing it if you want to keep your office mates sane.
1) If I need to, I take a break and soak my hands in hot water.
2) I program in Perl and tend to find that my hands shift positions. In particular my right hand tends to shift at least one place over compared to typing prose. I find standard keyboards, not ergonomic ones, accommodate this best. But the keyboard needs to be at a low, relaxes angle (on one's lap is best) and ideally a wristpad helps.
3) Mice are the root of most wrist pain! Ditch the mouse and get a trackball. This one really is close to universal. I know a number of others who have found this to be true.
4) Pay attention to your body.... If your wrists are bothering you stop and relax them before proceeding. Also pay attention to your arms and make sure they are relaxed. This should be common sense but....
5) If your wrists hurt for more than a little bit, prompt medical attention is a good thing. Chances are if you catch things quickly a wrist brace may even allow you to keep working or at least it did me when I started to develop carpal tunnel briefly. Early attention is very important.
I have tried ergonomic keyboards and found they did more harm than good. I also found that wrist pads did more good than harm at least for me. YMMV which is why I keep coming back to listen to your body.....