For several years (starting with my senior thesis), I was having a lot of arm and wrist pain when typing. I tried all sorts of things, but what finally made the pain stop was rock climbing. I joined a local climbing gym, and all the pain just went away. If I go for more than a few weeks without climbing my wrists start getting stiff and then hurting again, but as long as I climb regularly the pain stays away. Climbing is also a lot of fun!
Interesting. Can anyone explain why this works? My best guess is: by climbing, you exercise your muscles in that area, thus making them more resistent to damage from typing. But I don't really know anything about medicine.
It isn't even just the muscles in your hands. As I mentioned elsewhere in the thread, my wrist pain is caused by inflamed neck and shoulder muscles. Anything which builds torso strength can improve your posture and solve a lot of second- and third-order problems.
Plus, exercise helps muscles heal and stay healed. They like moving around. Exercise helps keep the blood and lymph flowing through muscles, both directly (I believe that moving around keeps fluids sloshing about and causes blood to be directed to the moving muscles) and indirectly (exercise builds cardiovascular health, which leads to better circulation and oxygenation). It even improves your sleep, which has many excellent side effects.
