[SanMar]

I know that my wrists are weak, something about my middle-hand bones being too small and my catrilage too weak, and I have to live with doing a few exercises every day to strengthen my muscles so they can support my hands better.
My ongoing battle with hurting my wrists resulted in me developing my ambidextrous ability so far that I can draw left just as well as right.

My doc said it this way: If you want to keep your dexterity and full use of your hands, take care of them. No tennis, no weight training apart from a few things the specialist showed me, no heavy lifting.

Now, I draw every day for HOURS (and I'm sore the next day but no burning) but three hours on the tablet (wacom intuos 2, pretty old but I like it) and I have full blown carpal tunnel syndrome. Is this a known issue for people drawing on the tablet?
Are there special exercises one can do to keep that from happening? What are your experiences?

[Zentrope]

Intuos is not that much different from the pencil/pen we use.(which we are using for a long time)

When you are working with the Tablet, Always consider the desktop arrangement the top priority.

The relationship between your monitor and drawing tablet is very critical.
keep your keyboard, track ball (or mouse), and drawing tablet as close to each other as possible to avoid large arm movements or reaching.
Sitting posture along with the table positioning can put a lot pressure when you are drawing.So fix that thing when you are working digitally.

Use only a small portion of the drawing tablet(if you have a large Intuos) as the "active" area as this will allow you to use your fingers instead of your wrist to cover a large area on the monitor. Limiting arm and wrist movement will prevent conditions like you mentined.

Get the good worksation mount that will help with the ergonomics.
And see these links which will guide you

http://www.ncsu.edu/ehs/www99/right/...ergonomic.html

http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/DEA651...rgo12tips.html

http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/ergoguide.html

Exercises and physio-therapy can improve these condition

[SanMar]

Thank you! I have large Intuos and I prefer working on a tilted surface so I put it between my lap and the desk with the monitor mounted above the desk (or my laptop, depends where I am) I thought it might be the uncommon surface and the different pace, faster skribbling and the short stylus instead of long handled brushes and coals. I have more breaks when I work on the easel because of the lack of a back button and zoom. If I want to get a view from farther back I stand up and move across the
room....

But I guess posture plays into it too. I will have to prepare a separate work station if I intend to dip more deeply into virtual drawing, I don't want to risk my wrists, they are my livelyhood, at the moment my work room is fitted for traditional media. I'm developing a fondness for drawing with the tablet but I don't think I will do more than dabble. I had to give up every notion of doing engravings because of my damn wrists thi smight be another limitation -.-

I was just curious if other people have similar problems and how they solve it.
Thank you again for your helpful comment and suggestions.

[Marucha]

I have fibromalygia with other things so I've had to problems figuring out how to get my space to be comfortable. I get a lot of pain in my wrists, arms and back, neck... really anywhere I'm bending and moving a lot and I've found that too much leaning and bending (bad posture) will put excessive strain on your wrists/arms. For me, it wasn't easy to realize it was a problem at first because I'm used to working through the pain, but it's caused enough of a problem that I quit using my computer for a while

Long story short, I really love my tablet and I had to do a little experimentation to find a solution. These are the things that weren't helping me...

For one, I have a really large/tall desk that is executive size. I'm a petite person so most desks are really tall for me so I'm having to spread my body across it to get to stuff. You can only imagine the unnatural positions this caused when painting and my intuos 4 large used to lay flat because it was just too big for lap work. I was worried about the ports becoming broken too since mine was one of the earlier models I picked up on the release date.

What I did is I went to Microcenter and picked up a laptop stand for $5 (They have a $10 version in the store, it's the exact same item though weird). It's just a basic non-cooling tilted stand and I sit my i4 large on top. I had to make a little bit of modification to it since it rotates, I put a piece of tape on the bottom to stop it. I also found some of the rubber things that a lot of keyboards and such come with, so I found an old keyboard I wasn't using and pulled a couple off to put it on the lip on the bottom to keep it from sliding. Now it's propped up 24/7 and I can move it with the stand. It's kinda like having a mini Cintiq, hehe

Because the tilting was directly on the text and sitting higher than my waist, it helped take the pressure off my shoulder, which then took the pressure off my elbow and I found I wasn't straining my wrist nearly as much to work on detail work. Before I was getting sharp pains and pulling muscles in my shoulders because I was trying to anchor my elbow and pivot my wrist which was really not helping.

I got better line control out of this because it's propped in front of me instead of under me and this kept me from straining trying to correct my work. I can use my arm now for lines which is perfect for what I bought the Large for in the first place.

I also put a couch pillow on my chair so that I'm sitting higher lol. I raised myself high enough off my chair so that I'm not lowering my elbow too far and not leaning to work. I also don't want to bend my neck...I'll probably buy another desk after I move in a month or so though since this desk is still too tall for me. And it's not the best solution sitting on couch pillows all the time

Long story short, I think posture has a lot to do with arm strain sometimes... your wrists are worse than mine though it's not my joints that are the issue, it's muscles. I've taken up very light weights (8 lb), stretching and I did swimming this past winter to try to get my endurance up, and then walking. I understand your doctor saying you can't do much exercise wise for your wrists, but I know whatever little you can do does help... what's weird is I type 140 WPM with proper home-row keys and I used to code. I have used tablets for 10+ years and I've never developed full-blown carpal tunnel.

You mention the tablet causing some issues, but don't forget about your keyboard. If you don't have a keyboard with a wrist bar, that'll cause strain. A wrist pad helps for you to have a place to rest when you type. Every little bit you're not adding to it per day helps. I also had hand braces for a while, but this was with some minor wrist/hand pain I had a few years back... don't know if it was signs or carpal tunnel or not but the hand braces seemed to help.

You could look into taking Glucosamine Chondroitin regularly, as it will help lubricate your joints and this may even help with your wrists where it sounds like a lot of your problems are with muscle and bone? It's not very expensive and it's used commonly for that sort of thing. It'll also help if you exercise and I think it helps with injury sometimes too.

Article about it: http://www.howtodothings.com/health-...pplements.html

[Zentrope]

As what SayasPerception said regarding the importance of Keyboard and Palm Rest
Also look at the following Ergonomics Furniture with different adjustable settings...
http://www.anthro.com/furniture.aspx...paign=SitStand

I think working digitally can be less hectic as you don't have to move your hands that much...
In digital medium everything is on the click of the button which make things less cumbersome.(use Lots of Macros and shortcuts)

Furniture like this will surely help!
And i hope to see more of your digital work now!

Acupuncture and Acupressure should help you

[SanMar]

Sayas, thank you so much for your help, some of your advice has already helped me a lot in combination to some ergonomic changes to my desk. I'm working standing now. Instead of sitting; with something that looks like a barstool and a ball on top.

Your health issues sound much harsher than mine, I admire your resillience. I'm healthy as a horse but for two 'little' things, my wrists and some allergies. Both can be managed more easily than yours. I'm just a big crybaby.

I'm blown away by the detailed advice and the links. As far as I have figured it out it was a combination of bad work ergonomics and well trained muscles that suddenly had to work differently than normal. I just have to take it a little bit slower and take breaks and change hands more often instead of only working right handed.

[toukairin]

I dont have much wrist problem but more on my shoulder blade lol. I do exercise but as my muscles endurance improve, I spend even longer duration on my tablet thus my shoulder blade still aches lol~
But good discussion =)

[tobz]

Originally Posted by toukairin

I dont have much wrist problem but more on my shoulder blade lol. I do exercise but as my muscles endurance improve, I spend even longer duration on my tablet thus my shoulder blade still aches lol~
But good discussion =)

I believe shoulder pains could come from the static posture when sitting infront of the computer.
Doing repetitive motions with your hand/s but keeping your shoulder in the same tense position.

A physical therapist told me to try leaning back, and/or resting my elbow on something, this could possibly reduce the tension created in the shoulder..