Rest supports

[Androme]

I'm looking for a 'good' rest support for my mouse and for the keyboard.

I'm tired of my wrists hurting after a few hours - even if I have a break after 1 hour and come back later on in the day, they start to hurt again..

Anything anyone can suggest that's actually good? I tried this mouse pad with wrist support built into it but it was crap.

Ta.

[Structural Integrity]

Do you have a chair with arm rests? If so, make sure they (the arm rests) are at the same height as the surface of your table.
Also using a table with rounded edges eases the use of keyboard and mouse.
I found that those gell-pad thingies cause more RSI than they solve because they limit the downward strokes you can make with your mouse and they force your wrist in an uncofortable position.
Also, very important, make sure your mouse sensitivity isn't too high. Higher sensitivity means you have to aim more precise with your mouse. High precision hand-work for longer periods of time is very straining for your wrist.

Anyways, here's some guidelines I got at the place I worked before.
- monitor at eye-height
- adjustable chair: both armrests and sitting height
- feet flat on the floor, upper and lower leg make a 90 degree angle (determine sitting height)
- armrests at the same height as the table surface, shoulders should be at normal height when resting arms at rests.
- Comfortable table edges

If you have all this, try taking your hands off the mouse and keyboard when you are reading stuff.

Taking micro-breaks helps too. Every 5 minutes, 30 seconds hands off. A tool called workrave can help you with that.

Doing non-stop keyboard work for long periods of time is a big no-no if you want to stay healthy. The micro-break thing helps tonnes, but it all starts with a good work environment.

[Luckeh!!!!]

sounds like your wrists need more exercise, mine get plenty.

[meglamaniac]

Expanding on what S/I said:

Your chair should be positioned so that your lower arms slope very slightly down towards the keyboard; in other words, your elbows should be very slightly above the height of the desk.
Your feet should also be flat on the floor. If your desk is too high for this, you should buy a foot rest.
A chair with good lower-back support is also highly recommended.

I recently ditched a horrible old computer chair I had which was at the correct height etc but had no lower back support. My new chair is a nice £80 leather job which is very supportive and also nice and comfy, while still having adjustable height, back, and tilt - makes the world of difference.

Computing is the one area where the health and safety guidelines actually seem to make sense.