Owww! Ow Ow!

[blufive]

At approximately 1500hrs this afternoon, a person or persons unknown operated a temporal distortion device in the vicinity of our offices in Stockport. While my colleagues and I were frozen in time, these malicious entities hit me repeatedly about the shoulders with a large blunt instrument, leading to my present situation, whereby I suffer considerable discomfort whenever I attempt to turn my head or perform complex shoulder movements.

Well, that's the best explanation I can come up with, given that I've undertaken no serious physical exertions in the last 72 hours.

Comments

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

A few ergonomics suggestions:

1) Check the the height of your desk & your chair - your forearms should be almost exactly horizontal when you type.
2) Check the height of your monitor. When your arms are in a typing position, you should be able to get a good view of the monitor by looking straight forwards. If you can't, then pile stuff under your monitor until you're at least close to being able to do this. Having this one wrong is particularly good at screwing up your neck and shoulders.
3) If your office chair has arms, think about what they actually do. Usually they just get in the way of your arms, stopping you from being able to drop your upper arms to a relaxed position (vertical, at your sides. If they can't do this then your shoulder muscles will be working overime to stop your elbows banging on the arms of the chair all the time. best bet? Take the arms of the chair. You're probably not using them anyway, they're only really there to make the chair look more expensive.

Lessons originally learned in ergonomics/anthropometrcs classes at uni. Lessons re-iterated in the srongest manner by several months of RSI hell.

hmmmm

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

was your computer doing something annoying at the time, perchance? Did you have a long and difficult phone call (while cradling the phone between your shoulder and chin)?

Offices can be lethal places, you know.

I have a few exercises that can clear that

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

--- cartoonists get it a lot. But they're a bugger to explain so unless you're still in agony I'll not go impart ing wisdom ;D

[numbat.livejournal.com]

The logical explanation is elves. Don't know how you solve it though.

[blufive.livejournal.com]

Thanks all for the suggestions. The thought of RSI had crossed my mind, especially after I teetered on the brink about 6 months back (pains in my arms). Most of the worst problems were addressed then, and I've taken a few more steps today.

Right now, I'm somewhat better - "ouch, perhaps I shouldn't have moved that suddenly", as opposed to the "OW! FUCK! OW!" experiences I was having last night and this morning. It's mostly my neck muscles - I can only assume I was very deep in The Zone yesterday afternoon.

My immediate prescription is lots of R&R this weekend.