What technical communicator hasn’t felt aches and pains after a long day of working on a computer?

Dwayne Van Eerd from the RSI Clinic will focus on methods of preventing this potentially career-ending injury. After a brief overview of the latest information about RSI symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment, Dwane will focus on a practical demonstration and discussion of simple but effective exercises and ergonomic tips. All of these exercises are designed to be done at the workstation with minimal disruption to productivity.

Meeting Report

--by Colette Theriault, Newsletter Co-editor

The topic for January's general meeting was Preventing Repetitive Strain Injury and the guest speaker was Dwayne Van Eerd of the RSI Clinic.

Dwane began by outlining some of the risk factors associated with RSI, but most of the presentation focused on exercises we can do to prevent RSI or to alleviate pain. These exercises are to be done at your desk and each exercise takes no more than 30 seconds to 5 minutes for the group of exercises Dwane presented. He also suggests that we do these exercises every hour but, if you cannot find the time, 5 to 10 minutes per day is better than nothing.

Dwayne's handout includes an explanation and diagram for most of the exercises. One of the more useful and popular exercises for people who type or use the mouse a lot is a forearm stretch.

Dwayne emphasized that being gentle was very important and that the exercises are meant to stretch the muscles, not to overexert them. So, if you experience pain, during this or any other exercise, you're probably stretching too much.