Repetitive motion injury considerations




 Short-term hand injury and tension

 Short term, its possible to get wrist and hand aches from being too tense in your left hand while dooming, especially if you play for long periods. Beginners can be super tense, especially, which can also hinder them as they are trying to learn to move. If you start to feel tired in your left hand while dooming, immedietely take note as to whether or not your hand is tensed up, and if it is, realize that you may be playing that way most of the time and have something to work on fixing.

Not the best Doom hand posture, especially for configs with SPACE
Not the best Doom hand posture, especially for configs with SPACE
Note the sharp angle in the wrist and low thumb position




Notes on long term hand injuries

 As far as long term hand injuries from doom, it is a good thing that so far that I have not known anyone to get Carpal  Tunnel syndrome as a direct consequence of dooming. However, it's possible to get a thumb/wrist injury if certain precautions are not followed in configurations that use a lot of spacebar action. Should you use your thumb on the spacebar, try to make sure you are doing part of the keypress by turning your wrist and arm to the right, not wholly by pressing downward with your thumb. Keeping your left hand elevated above the keyboard makes this easier. This is no bullshit. Early in my dooming, I sustained a serious tendon injury at the junction of my thumb and wrist because of this, and it took a cortizone shot to straighten it back out. Cortizone shots hurt by the way, but it worked wonders. From then on and to this day, each and every time I doom, I stack up two wrist support pads, and I position the pads way back, near my elbow. This give me maximum manuverability in doom while preventing the hand injury from recurring.
 
 
 

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