What's In This Issue?

• Letter From The Editor
• Tips and Techniques For RSI Recovery
• New Resources at Selfcare4rsi.com
• Questions From Readers
• Helping Hands
• New Classes and Workshops

Repetitive Strain Injuries are injuries of habits and body use. In a thousand different ways, people create new habits for themselves that can and do impact the health and functioning of the soft tissues in the body. Over time, these habits become "normal" and can no longer be felt. But, the effects on the body continue to build and change how the body operates and what feels comfortable. Over time, injury results.

For the best and most effective way to recover from these injuries, I highly encourage you to try one of the Self Care Programs found at Selfcare4rsi.com. Each program is highly effective, easy to understand and follow, inexpensive and fully guaranteed. I have taken my 13 years of RSI treatment experience and condensed it into each of these programs. I am sure you will be delighted with the changes you can make in your own injury.

Tips and Techniques For RSI Recovery

The Reverse Stretch

Recovering from a repetitive strain injury requires vigilance. When symptoms are at their worst, or you are just beginning your path toward recovery, the more you stretch gently and consciously, the better.

Restoring your body to a more normal state appears to be a very front-end loaded process. By that I mean that you have to spend more time in the earlier stages of recovery doing things that enhance the restoration and healing of your injured arms, hands, neck and shoulders. This requirement will shift as more and more tissue returns to its normal state. You’ll eventually need to spend only a few minutes a day maintaining the balance you’ve achieved. But first, there’s a lot of work to do.

Here’s a good stretch to practice periodically throughout your workday. This exercise helps eliminate the stresses that build as a result of how you use your body in your job. Fortunately, it can be customized to help you whether your job is in front of a computer, on an assembly line, or you spend much of your day carrying a baby.

This is an exercise of reversals. Reversing your common body positions helps undo the physical stresses that build as a result of the constant postures and positions required by your job or your waking hours activities. Here’s how to do it:

First, choose a posture to reverse-stretch. A good starting point is to choose a position you find yourself in frequently during your day.

Follow these steps:

• If your fingers are curled and close together, straighten them and spread them apart.
• If your wrist is bent, bend it in the opposite direction.
• If your elbow is bent, straighten it.
• If your arm is forward of your body, extend it behind your body.
• If your arm is down below shoulder level, raise your arm above your shoulders.

Putting all these position changes together, hold the reverse-stretch for ten seconds, then put your hand in your lap and rest there until all stretch sensations fade completely. If possible, repeat the same reverse-stretch at least one more time.

Customize the reverse-stretch for your own personal situation. Make as many position reversals as you can without causing pain. Moderate your position so that you never experience pain with this stretch. Resting your hand in your lap at the end of each repetition helps prevent delayed discomfort from the stretch, while at the same time allowing the body time to register the changes that have been asked of it and enough time to actually accomplish those changes.

What's New At Selfcare4rsi.com?

Each issue of Self Care For RSIs will include information about new additions and changes to the Selfcare4rsi.com website.

This month, I have added a Table of Contents from each Self Care Program that will help you see what is included when you purchase a Self Care Program of your choice at Selfcare4rsi.com. To see what's in a Self Care Program that you might be interested in, go to Selfcare4rsi.com and click on the link to the Repetitive Strain Injury of your choice. You'll be amazed at what's included in each program!

Questions From Readers

Here is where you can ask me anything you want about RSIs. I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.

To send a question for consideration, click Questions From Readers. Answers to your questions will appear in an upcoming issue of Self Care For RSIs.

Helping Hands

Each issue, I will report where I have spent this month's charitable contribution.

As each Self Care Program is purchased, I am setting aside a portion of the sale to donate to charitable causes that elevate and educate the less fortunate.

This month, I have purchased a goat through the Heifer Project (Heifer.org). This goat will be given to a needy family in an underdeveloped country to supplement that family’s food needs and to help generate income for them.

Each goat is able to give several quarts of nutritious milk each day which can be used to make cheese, butter and yogurt. Since goats often have 2 - 3 kids each year, this goat can be bred to other goats in the community to develop a herd of goats. Proceeds for the herd are used by the community to pay for education, healthcare and human services.

I encourage you to visit Heifer.org to see the wonderful programs they offer using agriculture and farm animals to elevate the lives of the less fortunate throughout the world.

And, thank you for purchasing your Self Care Program, which has made this contribution possible.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve you. I hope you find this publication useful in your recovery from Repetitive Strain Injuries.