{"id":4770,"date":"2020-01-13T15:40:33","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T15:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/?p=4770"},"modified":"2025-10-28T10:28:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T10:28:23","slug":"repetitive-strain-in-everyday-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/repetitive-strain-in-everyday-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Repetitive strain in everyday life"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The term repetitive strain injury (RSI) is used to describe a range of painful conditions stemming from repeatedly working the same muscles, tendons and soft tissues. This can include repeatedly reaching at an awkward angle, lifting, pulling or pushing, badly designed equipment, remaining in a certain position for hours or putting a lot of pressure on a certain movement. A lot of the time, it is caused from out work lives although it can also be related to leisure activities. RSI can persist a lot longer than a general strain.<\/p>\n

Symptoms:<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Pain, aching or tenderness
\n\u2022 Tightness
\n\u2022 Dull ache
\n\u2022 Throbbing
\n\u2022 Stiffness
\n\u2022 Tingling and numbness
\n\u2022 Weakness
\n\u2022 Cramp<\/p>\n

Why does it happen?<\/strong>
\nCertain activities are thought to increase the risk of RSI, including:
\n\u2022 Repetitive movements
\n\u2022 High-intensity activity for a long time without rest
\n\u2022 Poor posture or activities that lead to you to look in an awkward position
\n\u2022 Stress, It\u2019s important to work in a comfortable environment which has been appropriately adjusted. Your employer has a legal duty to try to prevent work-related RSI and ensure anyone who already has the condition doesn\u2019t get any worse. The symptoms tend to develop gradually. At first the symptoms may only occur whilst you are doing your repetitive activity and ease of when you are not doing it. After time, symptoms can eventually happen more frequently and could happen all the time. Symptoms can range from mild to severe.<\/p>\n

What can you do to prevent it?<\/strong>
\nBy taking breaks regularly, this can allow time for your injury to repair itself and not just make it worse. Even though it\u2019s not always practical, try to reduce the amount of consecutive time you spend on such activities. For example, if you work in an office and your main job is typing, you should be taking regular breaks and do other tasks which are not of the same nature. Make sure you keep your body moving to stop muscles from weakening.<\/p>\n

If you are in an office environment why not invest in some ergonomic furniture, including chairs and
\ndesks.<\/p>\n

Self Help<\/strong>
\n\u2022 If you work on a computer, make sure your seat, screen and mouse are all adjusted so that it doesn\u2019t cause you any strain.
\n\u2022 Stretch the affected muscles and joints regularly, not just when you feel pain, a regular routine of stretching can improve flexibility and strengthen the muscles.
\n\u2022 Lifting weights strengthens your affected and supported muscles, e.g. squeezing a rubber ball strengthens your wrist
\nand muscles in the forearm.
\n\u2022 Applying hot or cold packs to the affected area help ease pain. However, do not apply ice directly to the skin as this can damage it. Always wrap it in a towel before applying.<\/p>\n

We recommend having a physiotherapy session to assess the primary cause and help with treating the problem.To find out more about Kent Sport Physiotherapy Clinic, visit\u00a0www.kent.ac.uk\/sports\/physio<\/a>\u00a0and to make an appointment speak to a member of staff at the Sports Centre reception or call us on 01227 824375 or email\u00a0physio@kent.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)? The term repetitive strain injury (RSI) is used to describe a range of painful conditions stemming from repeatedly working … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5725,"featured_media":5011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[240597],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4770"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5012,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions\/5012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}