In every professional sport you see people running around taking care of the athletes to make sure they are warming up and cooling down properly and getting stretches in. I am of the mind to say that the same should happen with eSports.
A lot of people don’t think of gaming as a dangerous thing when it comes to your health (unless you read about the random person who died from too many hours of some game) but it IS important.
I suffer from mild carpel tunnel issues from working the Information Technology field and from being an avid gamer. I would say on a work day I may spend 10+ hours in front of a computer. I first noticed major issues when I wasn’t able to open a jar of pickles one day and it had seemed that all my strength had left my hands. I gave the jar to a friend and they opened it with no problem. It scared me and I started looking into things to correct the problem.
If things get really bad like they did with me you will feel the pain in your fingers, wrists, forearms, shoulders, neck and even your back. I had a massage therapist tell me she couldn’t imagine that I was even able to type with how bad things were. Let me tell you, the pain I felt when she was getting the toxins out of those muscles might well have been gunshot wounds because it hurt that bad.
Anyways, let’s get on to a few things you can do to make this better. I am in no way a medical professional and you are following this at your own risk. I would recommend that you do stretches for 5-10 minutes when you start/end any long period of gaming. I would also say some light massaging of the pressure points and muscles I’ll show you between matches or during break won’t hurt either.
Stretches

Pressure Points/Muscles
I also ended up getting splints that I wear at night that force your wrist and forearm into a position where there isn’t pressure on the muscles. This has helped a LOT. I’ve also read that a low gluten/dairy/sodium diet can reduce swelling and help with the pain.
The above charts are things that I do and they help me but with all medical issues please be sure to see a doctor or medical professional about your problem. Also remember that proper posture and ergonomic gaming additions will lower the risk of you having any problems. Stay healthy and Frag well!
