4 Hacks To Help You Protect Your Wrist While Gaming

For most people who love gaming, taking a break might seem like losing so many chances. Whether they’re testing their new diablo 2 resurrected builds, racing against friends and family on Mario Kart, or scoring goals on FIFA, they might play the games for several hours, which sometimes leads to fatigue and injured wrists. Besides this, different games will require you to move your hands or fingers several times in a minute, leading to soreness, swelling, and hurting of wrists.  If you don’t adopt proper measures or don’t control your gaming, it might permanently affect your wrist.

One of the common dangers faced by gamers is carpal tunnel syndrome, where there is swelling on the wrist. The ailment involves compressing the nerves and tendons on the wrist and fingers, leading to tingling sessions. How does one protect their wrist while gaming? There are many ways you can do so. This article will talk about four hacks that you can use to protect your wrists. Read on for the list.

1. Using the right gear

Using proper hardware when gaming is among the hacks you can use to protect your wrists. Here, you will use the correct hardware when gaming, mitigating the risks that lead to injuries. One way is by using the right mouse while gaming. It is essential to use a mouse that gets into your hand efficiently and that you don’t struggle to hold it when playing. Not using the right mouse can lead you to force grips, affecting your nerves and tissues, leading to injuries. 

Besides the mouse, you have to get suitable mousepads to avoid struggling when moving your mouse during gaming.  Many companies have come up with different mouse pads, which are comfortable for anyone who does prolonged gaming.  

Besides getting the standard mouse pads, you can customize yours to fit your gaming needs. You can see their options and choose the best according to your gaming needs and preferences.  You can select a full desk pad or a customized one on the options, enabling you to play your game without wrist injuries. 

2. Take breaks on your play

Gaming is an exciting and fun exercise, in which you might forget your timing and play it for the longest time possible.  However, everything, including gaming, has to have a limit. You can continue playing the next day.  You can adapt to micro-breaks and schedule long breaks to enable your mind to adjust to other things and stretch your body parts. This prevents injuries. 

There are several benefits of taking a break. First, you give your body much-needed rest, enabling it to relax the muscles needed for gaming.  While taking these breaks, it is essential to find alternative exercises to make your body active, including stretching and general exercising.

You can start by taking a 5 to 10 minutes break before going for the longer intervals, which can take up to an hour before resuming your gaming session.   

3. Keep your hands warm

You have to avoid the cold environment when gaming to prevent injuries to your wrists. How does this work? In most cases, the cold weather stiffens the muscles, which leads to high possibilities of suffering injuries.  A warmer environment softens the muscles and enables blood to move faster, reducing injury possibilities. 

Suppose you can’t change the environment to a warmer one. In that case, it is recommended to regularly take a warm bath or wash your hands with warm water to reduce the chances of having wrist injuries.  You can also get some fingerless gloves that will help insulate your fingers against the cold.  You can also sit on your hands during a break to warm them. 

4. Stretching

Besides taking a few minutes to stretch your body during play, there are stretching exercises you can fully undertake to reduce wrist injuries.  Doing these exercises enables you to relax your wrists, thus avoiding soreness and pain.  Stretching also allows you to improve on your body muscles and leads to improved blood circulation.  This reduces the tightening of the muscles, thus relaxing your muscles and tendons. 

How does one stretch? Some of the stretches you can perform are:

• Rotating your wrist up and down, and then side to side five times
• Stretching your fingers by pulling them outwards, four times with a 30-second rest.
• Holding your wrists in a prayer session below your chin. Move them to the waistline, then repeat three times with a 30-second break.
• Pulling back the thumb, holding it down gently for at least 10 seconds, and repeating the process four times

You can also purchase some practical tools and massage devices that you can use to massage your hands after each gaming session.

The above four hacks can go a long way to prevent yourself from getting hurt while enjoying your favorite gaming session. However, at one time or another, it is essential to seek a professional checkup, significantly if there is prolonged wrist pain. They will help you check what’s causing the pain and give you proper treatment to control it.