I hurt the ulnar nerve in my left hand in 2013 bicycling. The doctor put me into a brace and put me on some strong muscle relaxants for 2 weeks. I went to work and typed with the brace on under the influence of the drugs. I already had a long history (20+ years of regular weight training) and was really fit. I had previous moments of discomfort over the years from bad keyboards or overly cold office environments and such but nothing serious. This was at a point where I'd been on the computer a lot for 20 years or so.
When I got out of the brace and off the drugs I immediately had full blown RSI in both arms. According to the doctor it looked like I had tendonitis in the flexor muscles.
I went through everything they asked and nothing worked. I could "manage" but was annoyed every day at work. All kinds of keyboards and pointing devices didn't help much. The most helpful thing was using a foam roller to massage the muscles of my forearms. This was not something suggested by the doctors or PT, which was really annoying. The foam roller works better than having a person massage your arms or use the ultrasound treatment on your arms. Most of the physical exercises they prescribed & stretching made things worse!
At some point I discovered drinking black/green tea was causing the muscles in my arms to tighten up. It was causing it throughout my whole body but for some reason that didn't really cause any symptoms in other parts of my body.
When I eliminated the tea the symptoms started going away within a day or two and then my forearms slowly got stronger and stronger over time. I was able to get back to all the exercise/weight training/cycling, etc.. pretty quickly. I had never really stopped the exercise anyway but it always caused inflammation until I got off the tea. Maybe the tea had a circulatory effect on me, who knows.
It was not caffeine. I can drink all the coffee/soda/energy drinks I want without the symptoms returning. I don't drink that much of them but whatever it was, it's not caffeine, it's one of the other compounds in tea, of which there are a lot and of which most are not that well understood.
I hurt the ulnar nerve in my left hand in 2013 bicycling. The doctor put me into a brace and put me on some strong muscle relaxants for 2 weeks. I went to work and typed with the brace on under the influence of the drugs. I already had a long history (20+ years of regular weight training) and was really fit. I had previous moments of discomfort over the years from bad keyboards or overly cold office environments and such but nothing serious. This was at a point where I'd been on the computer a lot for 20 years or so.
When I got out of the brace and off the drugs I immediately had full blown RSI in both arms. According to the doctor it looked like I had tendonitis in the flexor muscles.
I went through everything they asked and nothing worked. I could "manage" but was annoyed every day at work. All kinds of keyboards and pointing devices didn't help much. The most helpful thing was using a foam roller to massage the muscles of my forearms. This was not something suggested by the doctors or PT, which was really annoying. The foam roller works better than having a person massage your arms or use the ultrasound treatment on your arms. Most of the physical exercises they prescribed & stretching made things worse!
At some point I discovered drinking black/green tea was causing the muscles in my arms to tighten up. It was causing it throughout my whole body but for some reason that didn't really cause any symptoms in other parts of my body.
When I eliminated the tea the symptoms started going away within a day or two and then my forearms slowly got stronger and stronger over time. I was able to get back to all the exercise/weight training/cycling, etc.. pretty quickly. I had never really stopped the exercise anyway but it always caused inflammation until I got off the tea. Maybe the tea had a circulatory effect on me, who knows.
It was not caffeine. I can drink all the coffee/soda/energy drinks I want without the symptoms returning. I don't drink that much of them but whatever it was, it's not caffeine, it's one of the other compounds in tea, of which there are a lot and of which most are not that well understood.