What You Should Know About Wearing a Wrist Pillow

Wrist pain happens to nearly everyone at some point in their life. It may be because of typing, playing too much tennis or golf, or practicing martial arts. It may start as nothing more than a twinge that goes away, or it may degenerate into an acute pain or numbness that wakes you in the night.

Consulting your doctor can help. Finding the proper response and treatment for wrist pain can vary depending on what sort of injury you have; these can go from RICE protocols to surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. However, there’s a lot you can do before you get to the point of a doctor’s consult, by using a simple pillow for your wrist.

What It Is

Anything that’s soft and cushions the bones of the wrist, and encourages you to keep your hands more or less straight from the wrist bones can work as a wrist pillow. Most of them are soft and molded to a comfortable shape with a smooth texture that keeps them comfortable. Many can be bought online, and you can even buy them at places like Best Buy or WalMart. They’re pretty reasonably priced, though commercial ones are usually available in neutral (boring) colors. Online shops may offer the chance to screen print a company logo onto them.

If you’re a bit short on cash, you can make a decent do-it-yourself alternative wrist pillow; even a rolled up towel will give you most of the benefits. The advantage of doing one for yourself is that it’s customizable; you can make it to exactly the size you want or need, and in whatever colors you like. Plus, if you’ve got odd bits of yarn or fabric about, they can serve as the stuffing for the project.

What It Can Do for You

As cheap as they are, the benefits of wrist pillows is great. They’re one of the best ways to ameliorate or proactively prevent repetitive stress injuries brought by hours of typing and using the mouse. For commercial ones, the soft gel absorbs most of the impact and minimizes the stress, and they can relieve tension quite nicely.

For another thing, its non-skid base can help in your computing. Just imagine how slower your work will be when you constantly seem to be playing a game of slip-and-slide with your mouse. And it may even help in improving your typing posture!

In addition to these immediate benefits, your wrist pillow will help ward off medical conditions. Carpal tunnel syndrome is becoming ever more prevalent, and more common in younger people, many of whom have been typing with poor form since grade school. Prevention is much less expensive and painful than physical therapy, and wrist pillows are a great (and affordable) method of preventing injury.

Even more than the pain to your wrists, physical therapy is also expensive, and time consuming - it’s a real pain in the wallet to get wrist pain fixed when it’s gone too far - and that’s the best reason to get a wrist pillow.

Tom Nicholson spends his time helping carpal tunnel sufferers. Please click here to find out more about having asore wrist.

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