ergo-pedals

I started experiencing similar forearm pain a few years ago. The split keyboard seemed to help a ton. I also programmed[0] an Arduino with two foot pedals. Left pedal for CTRL, right for SHIFT, both for ALT. Worked wonders. I mostly have the pain manageable now, but it still flares up sometimes, and it was really scary there for a while wondering if I might have to stop programming. To you young guns out there, an ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure. Invest in an ergonomic setup and stretches/exercises now, and don't push yourself into pain while typing. Take more breaks. Once you push your body over the edge it may never quite be the same. [0]: https://github.com/anderspitman/ergo-pedals

My physical therapist's best guess is that I have pinched radial nerves in both arms. Things that have helped the most: 1. Stretches and nerve glides every couple hours. 2. Ergo keyboard[0], focused on separation so my arms are more squared with my body, and on keys that are easy to press (no more mechanical keyboard for me). 3. Foot pedals for CTRL/SHIFT/ALT. I hacked together[1] a custom solution with an arduinio and a couple industrial pedals. My advice is start working with a PT as soon as you notice any pain or numbness in your arms or hands. I'm to a sustainable point now but I should have taken action months before I did. Maybe I could have beat it completely. Still hoping I will at some point. You're probably going to need to take some serious rest. It can be hard with deadlines or other work pressures, but try to think long term.

Started getting fairly severe RSI about a year ago. It's at a manageable level now, but was really scary there for a while. The things that I credit (this is difficult to measure) as most helpful, in descending importance: 1. See a physical therapist and get a stretching/nerve glide regime from them. 2. Take lots of breaks to do the stretches. 3. Ergonomic keyboard (I'm using a Kinesis Freestyle 2). 4. Use foot pedals for CTRL, shift, and meta. I rigged up a simple 2-pedal Arduino solution for myself. Code here [0] [0] https://github.com/anderspitman/ergo-pedals