A Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) – also referred to as a Repetitive Strain Injury – is one caused by repetitive tasks in any of a number of different environments. The one thing that is consistent with this type of injury is that it is caused by manual labour of one kind or another.
The modern interpretation of RSI is one that revolves around issues such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) caused by years of repetitive typing, but RSI injuries are as likely to impact those in both sedentary and non-sedentary roles. So while office workers might suffer from Tendinitis or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, carpenters and engineers can just as easily suffer from conditions such as Bursitis.
Examples of repetitive stress injuries include wrist, back, and shoulder injuries caused by poor office ergonomics, or elbow and shoulder problems caused by manual labour tasks. Martial artists can also be prone to repetitive stress injuries, particularly where their strikes are not directed at bags or dummies, often leading to hip replacement procedures and shoulder surgery later in life.
The most common types of repetitive strain injury are:
- Bursitis
- Tendonitis
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Raynaud’s disease
- Cubital tunnel syndrome
RSI Causes
Any repetitive task which a person potentially performs millions of times can lead to one or more of the above conditions. Other causes for RSI include excessive vibration, mechanical compression or placing your body in awkward positions for prolonged periods of time.
Futurists would have had us believe that the more technology progresses the more our health will improve, but the unforeseen side-effect of modern electronic devices is that they have contributed directly to RSI injuries becoming thousands of times more common than they ever were before.
Simple things like using a smart phone, tablet or games console, places your hands, wrists and other joints at unusual angles for hours on end. When you then combine this with depressing the same buttons, or tapping the same areas of the screen, over and over again you can see why these types of injuries are now very common.
The root cause of all these problems is that you are forcing your body to repeat motions that have an adverse effect on other areas of your body such as your back, neck or shoulders. That’s why when you’ve been typing on a computer all day that your fingers aren’t tired but you find that your neck, back and shoulders are extremely stiff.
Increased psychological stress and monotony have also been shown to have a direct impact on the frequency with which RSI injuries occur, so there are more than just physical factors involved.
RSI Symptoms
You can tell if you are suffering from an RSI injury if you have ongoing pain or tenderness in a particular muscle or joint. Another key indicator is that you have a throbbing sensation in your wrists, neck, hands or whatever limb or joint you\’re experiencing most pain in. Other more worrying symptoms include a loss of sensation, especially in your fingers, and this can also appear in conjunction with a loss of strength in your hands.
RSI Prevention
Most RSI injuries can be quite easily prevented by a number of means. The first of these is to follow proper ergonomic procedures when sitting at your desk, standing on the assembly line, or even just stacking boxes. Manual handling courses might seem completely unnecessary in your working environment, but they are necessary to help prevent RSI and other injuries.
It is your employer’s responsibility to ensure that you do not suffer from a repetitive strain injury, something they achieve by providing you with adequate ergonomic training and equipment, as well as implementing up-to-date health and safety procedures in your workplace.