in 2020 i got my first injury by playing taiko for 6 hour timespans with no breaks, in my bed, back against the wall, wrist down, back hunched. no idea how that would get me injured

i never got this diagnosed, but it was some sort of compressed nerve thing like carpal or ulnar tunnel. tightness and needles in the wrist and tingles and numbness in some fingertips.

i couldnt really play taiko because both my hands kept seizing, and i couldnt even play like catch 3 stars or minecraft lol. i also play the drums and piano and couldnt really do that. i was lucky enough to heal this myself (as ill discuss) but if you get something like this, try and help it immediately because you might just lock yourself out of tons of hobbies and life opportunities. like imagine working in an office and having it hurt to type. dont do that

four things seemed to help: a wrist brace, rest, some stretches, and technique changes.

my sister had a wrist brace from her old office carpal tunnel injury. i wore it for like 2 weeks along with doing the other stuff and it basically completely went away. a general wrist brace helps keep your wrist still and neutral, preventing movement. my understanding is a lot of these pinched nerve issues come from either pressing on it repeatedly (like playing wrist down) or strenuous bending of your wrist. wrist brace helps by not letting it bend. not sure what i had before but heres the brace i have now from amazon. if you buy this, make sure you buy it for the right hand

rest was just as important as the brace. firstly the brace makes it like impossible to play osu so dont do that lol. generally i could play chill games like a lot of puzzle games dont require much strain or inputs, as long as your wrist is still. but also dont mess with it outside of gaming. so dont crack your wrist a ton, or bend it, or do other wrist intensive hobbies. if some stretch or wrist cracking helps relieve the pressure, then do it, but make sure not to overdue it because it will start to hurt while doing that eventually. if you need to for work, still wear the brace and make your setup ergonomic with a good chair, foam wrist pad, right keyboard/desk/monitor height, etc.

there were some stretches i found online from dr levi harrison that maybe helped. i cant really tell if they helped but i did them anyway regularly in the middle of class and stuff, and it didnt seem to harm me, so ill recommend them. also i know a lot of people have been helped from this video so yeah. just follow what he says

finally for technique changes, firstly i got a desk and external keyboard. it was blue switches which are hard to press but anythings better than a laptop keyboard in my bed. secondly, i went from wrist down to wrist up, aka no longer resting my wrist on the desk but keeping them afloat above my keyboard. this stops you from pressing your wrist hard on the table, which will pinch your nerve eventually. the downside is now you need to use extra muscle to keep your hand up, and if you do it wrong you can still injure yourself. make sure your wrist is neutral, aka straight, aka youre not bending your palm towards yourself and its facing downwards. its like your hand is flat on a table, and not like youre playing piano.

doing all of these at once helped and i came back as a stamina stream player. i dont think anything i suggested would injure you at all unless you do them improperly. generally, if something hurts, stop doing whatever is making it hurt.


little carpal tunnel diagram from john hopkins medicine

i used to play sitting in a bed with my back against the wall, hunched over. once i got a desk i didnt have an office chair, instead i had a wooden dining chair. both of these have like fucked my posture and i now have lower back pain and neck tightness.

three things helped heal this: a more ergonomic setup, basic daily stretching and posture changes, and physical activity

firstly, get a good desk and a good office chair. i dont know a lot about ergonomics but theres stuff online about how you should set up your desk and chair. avoid chairs branded as gaming chairs, and get an office chair instead. i have a $200 staples office chair (this is on the cheaper end) and it feels very nice. you can ask friends/family or go to thrift stores/warehouse stores/recycle stores to find cheap desks and chairs.

for stretching, i dont really do any anything daily besides just like reaching up and stretching every once and a while after each hour sitting down. cat/cow and childs pose ive found to have helped, but again i dont really have a routine. my back and neck problems also arent really thhaaat terrible and its not chronic. if you have chronic pain or something debilitating definitely reach out to a doctor to get the right treatment. ergonomic setup should still help tho.

for physical activity, again if its something chronic ask a doctor first, but working out and some sports helped. i used to be pretty sedentary so any physical activity helped, but for back and neck generally stuff that decompresses and works the back/core has been the best for me. stuff like running can be rough because you are causing a lot of instantaneous force with your feet which can shoot up into your back. deadhangs have always felt good, letting gravity pull my spine down. proper form lat pulldowns/rows/pullups also have helped. its important to be very careful and stop when you start feeling pain/discomfort: i cant really do bicep curls all that often because it fucks up my front shoulder (idk why but probably because is still shit lol)
i also play badminton, which is a lot of core and leg work. this is running, but my back is good enough that i can run a lot, and generally i feel much stronger in my upper body and the stronger i feel the less pain i feel. its also fun and makes me happy. go outside.
of course make sure you are doing proper form. lat pulldowns took a long time to get proper form, and they used to suck while i was doing them poorly. if you play osu kinda seriously, hopefully youve tried to optimize your technique (ive spent a lot of time optimizing my hand and sitting positions for speed and stamina lol) so you should be good at self-coaching your form. if not, then you can self-coach your lifting form and translate that skill to osu! if you care. it can feel kinda dumb . lol

so yesterday (2/19/2026) i went to a pt to get my left wrist checked. my left wrist has been uncomfortable since september, where i had a crazy farm session and then havent really been able to play properly since. i cant do any stamina maps cause my left hand just stops moving as much and gets really tense, and after like 20-30 minutes of playing anything with high strain my left hand will just be super uncomfortable.

weirdly enough tech and burst maps dont feel that bad, but then like navi feels like shit to play lol idk i think its just constant strain sucks

anyway the pt made me do some specific stretches from my neck to my fingers and basically: my wrists have higher mobility than most people, meaning theyre a bit unstable since it takes more to support it. my ulnar nerve is a bit compressed and i think in general my forearm nerves are a bit tight. in my case, they made it seem fairly reversible and that with enough rest and the right treatment itll get better.


ulnar nerve diagram from orthoinfo

how it feels for me: rotating towards the ulnar nerve tends to make it feel tighter, so rotating my hand left (pinky towards the floor) and down (palm towards the forearm) tends to feel a bit tight. when it was worse, rotating my hand would give me needles right at that "zone" intersection in that image. i believe this region is called the tfcc. sometimes my fingertips will get a little tingly.
(i wouldnt use this to self diagnose, just go to a doctor. just describing what it feels like in case you have something similar)


image of tfcc from hand therapy academy

they prescribed me a few things. first are some exercises. ill make a separate entry detailing what they gave me and how to do them. most of them are harmless as in you can do them whenever, but some of them can actually make things worse if you do them wrong so ill make point of that.

next is ice. ill be icing it once a day. yay.

next is a specific kind of wrist brace. ive been using a normal wrist brace (i mentioned in the general stuff box) every once and a while, to sleep and while playing first person games. the pt suggested a [url=www.amazon.com/WristWidget-Patented-Adjustable-Triangular-Fibrocartilage/dp/B00AEDGVL0]tfcc brace[/url] to specifically support that one area. i got this one cause good reviews and on sale. they said to basically wear it at all times except when like showering or washing hands so ill do that once it arrives later tonight.

next they also suggested i buy those keyboard pads to rest my wrists on. [url=www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Grip-Wrist-Rest-for-Keyboard/dp/B08W9N38PC]i got this pad[/url] cause it also came with a mouse pad and was on sale. i usually place wrist up, but they told me a pad should be better since i can keep my wrists neutral, aka my palm is parallel to my forearm, not pointing up or down.

in general they told me to keep my wrists neutral, or keep them "stacked" with my forearm. they said lifting will generally be good and that "nerves dont like to be stretched, they like movement". so ill keep this in mind going forward