How to Prevent Wrist Pain While Gaming

Sitting down at home to play a quality video game and vanquishing challenges or competing against other players is fun, but you might also end up with hurting wrists after a while. In the short term, it’s easy to ignore the ergonomics of gaming since it can take some time before you feel any discomfort from your body’s positioning. If you continue to overlook the physical aspects of gaming, though, the aching you develop can eventually get in the way of your enjoyment of it. Learn how to prevent wrist pain while gaming with these pointers.

Stretch Your Hands and Wrists

Similar to how stretching loosens you up when you play sports or work out, it can also relax the muscles in your hands and wrists. As you hold your wrists and hands in the same orientations over prolonged periods while gaming, they can become stiff. You may stretch them by placing your arms out in front of you and facing the palm of one hand away from your body. With the other hand, pull back on the fingers of the first and hold for several seconds, then switch hands.

Next, do the same motion but face your palm toward your body and grip it with the other while pulling it to a ninety-degree angle (or as close as you can get). You can repeat these stretches in multiple sets before you start gaming and afterward to relieve your wrists and maintain their range of motion.

Adjust Your Setup

It’s common for gamers’ setups to contribute to sore wrists as well, so getting essential PC accessories and changing your position at the computer can help to alleviate this. Ideally, you should have your back straight and your arms bent in a ninety-degree angle at the elbow with the wrists straight while your hands sit above the keyboard and mouse.

If your chair is too low or too high relative to your desk, your arms may bend outside of that angle, which in turn causes you to bend your wrists to compensate. Therefore, you should use an adjustable chair that will allow you to attain the proper posture. In addition, some keyboards can cause you to bend your hands slightly up while your wrists sit on the desk, resulting in wrist pain. Invest in an ergonomic keyboard that supports your wrists so you can keep them level with your hands.

Take Periodic Breaks

Even after finding out how to prevent wrist pain while gaming with the previous methods, you may still feel discomfort when you play for many hours straight. It may be difficult to stop yourself when you are so engrossed in a story or a string of matches, but you should take breaks every forty-five minutes to an hour. Don’t start up again until at least five minutes have passed. This will give your wrists a chance to recuperate and move around a bit before you start again. If you have trouble remembering to take pauses, set an alarm to remind you at the proper time.