Dear Steve,

RSI stands for Repetitive Strain Injury. However, I think RSI is not so much caused by the repetitive movements, but by the continous strain of the body parts that support the moving limbs. In your case, this means that not the movement of your finger tips is the problem, but the tension in the fingers, the fore arm and the shoulder. I have had pain in my arm caused by using the mouse. What helped me is to relax the limbs as much as possible. During surfing, for example, I tended to keep my hand on the mouse while reading. Now I release my hand from the mouse when I don’t need to use it. For relaxing your muscles, you should be aware which muscles you strain and when. In my case I got pain in the hand and fingers sometimes, but the cause is at my shoulder. I discovered tension in my right shoulder when I use the mouse for a long time. These tension blocks the free flow of blood, and may be it hinders also the nerves. When I take care of relaxing my shoulder, I don’t get painful hands and fingers any more.

Once you have RSI, it is most important to take care of relaxing the ignited body parts. Because now you should not only prevent tension of long duration, but you must also recover from the ignition you already have. My advice is to prevent the posture and movements which caused your pain as much as possible. So indeed, replace your trackball by the mouse. And use keyboard commands rather then menu clicks. Once your pain is over, you can cautiously start with the trackball again, but then with more awareness about which muscles you use, and with relaxing muscles as soon as you notice that you strain them without need.

In the same time, you can do relaxing sports or movements. Relaxing the hands can be done by holding your arms slightly bend in front of you, with the hands on shoulder heigth, and then turning your hands around the axes of the forearm. For arms and shoulders you can do the following: Stand with your feet at shoulder width. Then turn your waist to the left and to the right etc. Release all muscles in your arms, so that they sway around yor body.

I hope yourpain will be soon over!

Best regards,

Tjamme Wiegers

Hi Steve,

I actually use both types of trackball, the one you have for the laptop at home and the one Stan Taylor uses for work. I find the thumb controlled one is alot easier to use and I have had no problems or pains with it. However I think you should have your elbow supported at all times.

However I don’t like the one with the trackball in the middle as I find the ball is too big and not the easiest to control, so I keep reverting back to the touchpad.

My Microsoft Trackball was my main mouse for 4 years until I went with a Logitech MX Air… it’s still gets used with my Laptop but it takes forever to cross the screen (1680×1050) as the resolution isn’t that high at 400 DPI. I don’t know of any trackballs with a higher DPI but that might reduce the number of repetitive movements.

Steve,

I’ve had the same experience. I switch my Logitech Marble Mouse (ball-in-the-center kind) between my left and right hands throughout the day, but cannot escape the tension in the muscles on the top of my forearm. I am not yet certain whether this is due to the trackball or the height of my Kinesis keyboard (an outstanding product, by the way, which has completely resolved carpal tunnel symptoms for me). Myofacial massage has helped a great deal to prevent permanent injury and pain in the forearm, but as yet, I have no way to keep the muscle tension from occurring.

I have used a Kensington Expert Mouse (?) trackball for many years – it is the only easily available trackball that is adequate for CAD work, the others’ balls are just not big enough – and find the greatest cause of strain in the arm to be ‘reaching’ to the trackball – try sitting it closer to the desk edge so that your elbow is at a right-angle. I also dispensed with the Kensington wrist pad (too hard and not high enough) and replaced it with a Fellowes gel wrist rest.
Unfortunately, the Expert Mouse will not work with Vista, except as a 3-button + scroll device and Kensington couldn’t care less. I do not know if their new Slimblade version works with Vista 64-bit and I’m not inclined to buy from a company with such a cavalier attitude to support anyway.
Does anyone know of another trackball with similar capabilities to the Expert Mouse – must have scrolling and at least four buttons?