I have recently tried to pay attention to the ergonomics of my computer using habits. I have invested time and money on hardware, software, practice and exercise. All of which have paid off but the overall effect has been greater than the sum of the parts.
On the hardware side, I invested on a quality 27" screen that is at a good height w.r.t. head position. I use it with my laptop and my desktop computers. I also got myself a nice, more expensive keyboard, although I'm not quite sure it's the one I want to stick with.
On software, I invested time on finding an ergonomic keyboard-only user experience. I can live without the mouse but I need the keyboard for programming so the choice was obvious. I have almost completely changed the software (desktop, editor, browser, terminal) I use, but I did it gradually, one software at a time.
Regarding practice, I actually spent time practicing typing. I normally use qwerty-fi layout (the least ergonomic of all layouts) but I learned more ergonomic typing with the dvorak layout. I haven't used it before or a lot since, but I spent about a month doing dvorak exercises almost daily and in the end I wrote some boring documents with dvorak.
Finally, exercise. I play the guitar, which makes excellent exercise for the muscles in your fingers, palms, wrists and all the way up to the elbow. The bad thing about guitar playing is that it's asymmetric. I don't always play something musical, sometimes it's just geometric patterns when I'm watching the TV. Piano playing must be good too. Practice instensely until you can feel like your muscles have been exercising, and do stretching and mobility exercises in the end and remember to rest afterwards. (I like fast metal guitar so to build up speed and strength I do my exercise drills until my hand hurts like after gym all the way up to my elbow when doing strength training).
I've used dvorack for around three years... after I started to develop pain in my hands.
The paind would like one or two weeks and then go away then come back after a couple of months.
Since I changed to dvorack, no more pain...
The first 3 weeks were really difficult... but after that, no more pain ever!
On the hardware side, I invested on a quality 27" screen that is at a good height w.r.t. head position. I use it with my laptop and my desktop computers. I also got myself a nice, more expensive keyboard, although I'm not quite sure it's the one I want to stick with.
On software, I invested time on finding an ergonomic keyboard-only user experience. I can live without the mouse but I need the keyboard for programming so the choice was obvious. I have almost completely changed the software (desktop, editor, browser, terminal) I use, but I did it gradually, one software at a time.
Regarding practice, I actually spent time practicing typing. I normally use qwerty-fi layout (the least ergonomic of all layouts) but I learned more ergonomic typing with the dvorak layout. I haven't used it before or a lot since, but I spent about a month doing dvorak exercises almost daily and in the end I wrote some boring documents with dvorak.
Finally, exercise. I play the guitar, which makes excellent exercise for the muscles in your fingers, palms, wrists and all the way up to the elbow. The bad thing about guitar playing is that it's asymmetric. I don't always play something musical, sometimes it's just geometric patterns when I'm watching the TV. Piano playing must be good too. Practice instensely until you can feel like your muscles have been exercising, and do stretching and mobility exercises in the end and remember to rest afterwards. (I like fast metal guitar so to build up speed and strength I do my exercise drills until my hand hurts like after gym all the way up to my elbow when doing strength training).