Do you remember the 1993 cult classic movie Groundhog Day? Bill Murray somehow gets stuck in a bizarre time loop that has him reliving the same day over and over again for a grand total of 12,395 days (or just shy of 34 straight years).
Cause I’m a dork and memorize movie lines.
Seriously, Google it. The 12,395 days part, not the me being a dork part. You already knew that.
Imagine for a second doing repetitive tasks for that much time – once you get past the sheer horror of it, anyway.
Imagine your days looking more or less the same for 34 years.
Doing the same things over and over again. Waking up at the same time. Talking to the same people. Having nearly identical workdays and tasks.
Except…
That is what most working adults do for most of their careers.
*cue dramatic DUN-DUN-DUN!!!*
It’s a bit of a shock to think of your working life as being distressingly like Groundhog Day, so take a moment to breathe. Deeper. Here’s a paper bag.
Feel better? Cool. I was worried about you for a second there.
Most of us work for 30-40 years before retiring (those of us who are fortunate enough to retire, anyway) and do more or less the same repetitive work tasks for much of that time.
Things like typing at a computer, sitting at a desk, writing notes, sitting in meetings (or Zoom calls). Maybe working with your hands if you’re in a trade like plumbing or installing tile flooring. But for most of us, the majority of our modern working lives involves a LOT of sitting and a LOT of using our hands, usually in the same hand position.
Over and over again.
That’s enough to give anyone a massive headache. Or wrist ache, in this case.
You’d almost think that training your body to do one thing really, really well (like typing for 8 hours a day) would be a good thing. Except it isn’t. It’s terrible. It’s terrible horrible no good very bad and will, in fact, ruin your day.
There’s even consensus in the medical and sports world that athletes should spend the majority of their training time doing stuff other than their main sport to reduce overuse injuries.
Things like mobility work (which we focus on here on my site), recovery activities like walking and yoga, and cross-training like weight lifting, swimming, and rowing for professional runners, as an example.
The coolest part? It works.
Teams like the Seattle Seahawks are incorporating yoga into mandatory team practices, and the Washington Football Team and Pittsburgh Steelers both have mandatory Pilates sessions. I also used to train several of the sports teams for a Division I university in Atlanta (mostly cross-training and mobility sessions). In every case I can find that recorded data, injuries are down – like WAY down – since incorporating these changes.
You’re no different. You need to incorporate other types of movement to reverse overuse pain – especially in places like your upper back, lower back, hips, and wrists.
In today’s mini-class, we’re zooming in on hands, wrists, and fingers to reverse pain from typing all day.
I’ve got two mobility drills you can do right now at your desk (I’m assuming you’re at your desk, aren’t we always at our desks?) that are guaranteed to help your wrists instantly feel better.
Watch the mini-class now to see how you can reverse years of wrist pain. Maybe even 12,395 days’ worth of pain.
Wishing you a great week filled with lots of variety and spices (cause apparently variety is spicy and spices are delicious),
– Lindsay
Leave a comment below, have you ever had an overuse injury (like carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, any form of tendonitis, etc.)?
