Healthy Typing can help individuals suffering from all types of repetitive strain injuries. We’ve worked with children, adults and the elderly and have successfully treated all levels of injury, from mild discomfort and fatigue to injuries so severe that opening a jar or turning a doorknob were impossible.
People who use their hands on a regular basis are especially prone to RSI:
- Office workers
- Musical instrumentalists
- Graphic designers
- Chefs
- Dentists
- Surgeons
- Factory workers
- And many others
- Healthy Typing is superior to other services because it addresses and cures the underlying causes of fatigue, tension, pain and injury, rather than simply trying to treat the symptoms. With correct instruction, the problem can be eliminated, thereby preventing it from interfering with the individual’s career and personal life.
- Healthy Typing is non-surgical and non-invasive, removing the need for risky and expensive surgeries, break-reminder software, massages, wrist rests and other modalities that have either been unsuccessful or have worsened the condition.
- Healthy Typing provides the individual with the information and tools to enable life-time trouble-free keyboarding.
Healthy Typing has two primary goals:
- Eliminate symptoms such as tension, pain and fatigue that interfere with typing.
- Help identify the harmful movements that cause the problems and better understand the proper ways to correct them. This gives the individual the knowledge and power to eliminate pain and discomfort permanently.
Repetitive strain injuries, also known as repetitive motion injuries and cumulative trauma disorders, are caused by repeating incorrect motions. RSIs include carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, dystonia, tennis elbow, trigger finger/thumb and iPhone thumb.
RSIs occur in the fingers, hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, neck and/or back and manifest themselves in one or more of the following symptoms.
- Muscle fatigue or weakness
- Feelings of tightness
- Swelling
- Tingling or numbness
- Nocturnal numbness or pain
- Intermittent or chronic pain
- Loss of grip strength
- Difficulty or inability to write, drive, open doors, garden, use knives, pick up small objects and do other everyday tasks
- A general sensation of discomfort and loss of motor freedom
Playing the piano is one of the most complicated hand activities in the world and pianists rely on their hands and keyboarding abilities more than the practitioners of almost every other profession. It’s not surprising that they work diligently to prevent and treat repetitive stress injury.
In the 1950s, pianist and teacher Dorothy Taubman developed a revolutionary approach to piano playing that cures pianists struggling with physical problems. Since then, pianists have used this approach to successfully eliminate tension, pain and injury. Applying the principles of this approach to a much simpler keyboard, Healthy Typing specialists have become the world’s leading experts in curing RSIs.
The primary causes of RSIs are:
- Finger isolation
- Curling
- Stretching
- Hand twisting
- Dropped wrist
- Incorrect seat height
- Elbows and upper arms held too far out or too far in
- Other breaks in alignment
The problems must first be diagnosed by a specialist trained in the Healthy Typing System. Armed with an understanding of the problem, the specialist can now teach the positions and movements that correct it.
The first step is to accurately diagnose the underlying cause of the RSI: typically, an incorrect position or movement in the fingers, hand, wrist and/or forearm. At times the problem is obvious; other times, the problem is so subtle as to be almost invisible. When the cause of the problem is understood, the Healthy Typing specialist teaches the client the proper positions and subtle and mostly invisible movements that will eliminate it. Once the client practices, learns and incorporates the correct positions and/or movements into his keyboarding technique, he or she will be able to type without pain from then on.
Treatment should start as soon as one feels any discomfort, such as fatigue, tension, numbness, tingling or pain. The longer someone suffers with these symptoms, the more difficult it is to treat and the longer it may take to cure. If left untreated long enough, the pain can intensify, leaving one unable to perform basic daily tasks without complication. Some people have even lost the use of their hands and fingers. Therefore, anyone with even mild symptoms should seek treatment immediately and begin working toward recovery.
Healthy Typing techniques can also be used as a preventive or early intervention method to eliminate potential injuries.
A person who wants to learn how to drive a car might be able to drive around a parking lot at five mph after the first lesson, but it takes practice and additional lessons to drive safely and quickly. Healthy Typing works the same way. On average, treatment takes three to six training sessions (approximately thirty minutes each) and at least fifteen minutes of independent practice per day until the new habits take hold and the symptoms disappear. Serious injuries may take longer.
The number of treatments and the results of Healthy Typing depend on:
- The specifics of the injury
- How quickly one adopts new habits
- The effort put into maintaining these new habits
- The consistent use of the new techniques