Gamed hard for years, top <0.1% Starcraft 2 and a few other strategy games, and now work in the industry<p>My right shoulder and hip lock up at the drop of a hat, thanks to the years of constant tension.<p>If I had known to take care of my physical health, it would have saved me lot of pain and improved my performance - I feel gamers are often the victims of mind-body dualism, and neglect the latter.<p>15 minutes of deep stretching and some daily pushups go a lot further than you'd expect.
Periodic reminder that, as a programmer (or anyone who uses a computer professionally/extensively), you need to take ergonomics seriously or you might regret it. The earlier you take it seriously the cheaper and less painful it will be. I was once out of commission for 10 months because of a severe coding-related tendonitis, it was miserable.<p>I've not spoken to anyone else who was out of commission for so long, most cases of tendonitis clear up in like 6 weeks (not a doctor, not medical advice), but I've met many programmers who hurt themselves.
I’ve truly found that (in increasing order of cost) strength training, mixing up input device when using a computer to give other muscles a chance, and more recently getting a motorised standing desk to be great helps in working against tendinitis. Some days are better than others, but those should good days never be seen as a reason to drop all techniques against that numbing feeling in the arm.
When using gamepad(PS3, Xbox 360)or steam deck I'm loosing feeling in my hands while playing, but mice(vertical) and keyboard (FPS and programming) doesn't cause such problems. I'm thinking if there are more ergonomic gamepads I could use instead?