Shoulder Problems with pc FPS's

jonski

Surely I can't be the only one that is having problems with my right shoulder since the launch of COD4 ?

I have had frozen shoulder and tendinitis before to the point where I had to go to hospital and have cortisone injections and manipulation . I have spent that best part of the last year playing rts games like company of heroes and rome total war but now that I have COD4 I notice my shoulder is starting to go again after a few hours of gaming .

Anyone else have this or showing signs of it ? Anyone found a good way to stop it ? anyone found a good website showing better ergonomics than the usual ?

L31mr0d

WTF??? Why is CoD4 to blame? How are you sitting at your desk?

jonski

L31mr0d wrote: »

WTF??? Why is CoD4 to blame? How are you sitting at your desk?

Calm down there buddy . I never said COD 4 was to blame , other than that is the game that has me playing fps's for sessions that are far too long for crippled oldies like me .

The question I am asking is does anyone else have this problem .

L31mr0d

well my job is being on computers for pretty much 8 hours a day and then when I come home I usually play games on the PC and i've never had any issue with my shoulder. I don't see why you would I mean your shoulder is pretty much motionless while on the pc you should only really be moving your fore arm, wrist and fingers.

I've heard of people getting CTS from too much keyboard use at a non ergonomic desk, but thats more to do with the wrist then the shoulder.

Only issues i've ever had was I used to start feeling a little motion sick if I played an FPS for more than 5 hours, but this was for games that had a lot of head bob or anti grav like Prey. The other thing was a sore spine from sitting for too long in a bad chair at a horrible desk at home. After giving the chiropractor €300 I decided that enough was enough and paid the money for a good desk and an executive high back chair with great lumbar and neck support. Best decision I ever made. Don't skrimp when it comes to ergonomics, you'll end up spending the same amount of money later in medical bills.

jonski

Agree , I have a good chair and an ajustable desk , the problem is I don't know which way to adjust .... where should everything be ? should my forearm be resting on the desk ? should it be hovering above it ?

While most may not have heard of this type of thing before neither had I until I bought a pc from a guy that is a qualified sports trainer . Now I had this problem before as I said but I was always reluctant to blame any portion of it on the pc gaming for obvious reasons but while talking to this guy it was himself that brought it up as being a common enough problem .

tony 2 tone

jonski wrote: »

Agree , I have a good chair and an ajustable desk , the problem is I don't know which way to adjust .... where should everything be ? should my forearm be resting on the desk ? should it be hovering above it ?

While most may not have heard of this type of thing before neither had I until I bought a pc from a guy that is a qualified sports trainer . Now I had this problem before as I said but I was always reluctant to blame any portion of it on the pc gaming for obvious reasons but while talking to this guy it was himself that brought it up as being a common enough problem .

The information on this website here could help you.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/internal/safety/1section_4-1-08c.htm
Have a look for VDU(visual display unit) or DSE(display screen epuipment) risk assessments for more info, but that page explains it well.

KamiKazi

My mousemat is around 14" x 20" and I use every inch of it and I never have any shoulder / arm problems so you must be getting too old

L31mr0d

Also, another thing I found recently when getting a new desk was that it has a stand for the monitor to sit on so it is raised up to about head height. This has single handedly changed the way I sit infront of a pc. You don't realise that when the monitor is sat on the desk, around colarbone height your neck is actually arched forward and down, I found that eventually I would end up slumped over the keyboard from constantly having my head hang forward. Now with the monitor up high I always naturally sit up straight at the desk and actually make use of the head rest on the back of my chair.

Zillah

I sit in a big ass swivel chair with arm rests. Without the arm rests I'm sure I'd be in agony. Are your elbows resting on something or is your shoulder taking the weight of your arm the whole time?

dazftw

Is it like a stinging pain? I use to get that playing CS all the time just behind my shoulder! I just thought it was the way I was sitting for a period of time once I stopped playing it was fine!

Saying this I haven't had pain like in well over a year it seem to work itself out!

K.O.Kiki

Maybe there's a patch to play it with the 360 pad...

KdjaCL

your sitting too high at your desk lower your chair or keyboard.


kdjac

Cuddlesworth

Your feet need to be touching the floor when you sit at your desk, monitor needs to be head height. Tbh, its either a pre-existing condition thats being agrivated or one thats being created. Asking here won't improve much, could you get sombody to watch you play? They might have more insight into the way you sit then we can.

jonski

tony 2 tone wrote: »

The information on this website here could help you.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/internal/safety/1section_4-1-08c.htm
Have a look for VDU(visual display unit) or DSE(display screen epuipment) risk assessments for more info, but that page explains it well.

Thanks , very helpful

KdjaCL wrote: »

your sitting too high at your desk lower your chair or keyboard.
kdjac

Seems it was actually the other way round , I was sitting too low due to a leg problem ( yeah I know , I am falling apart ) I had lowered it and never brought it back up .

krazy_8s wrote: »

Tbh, its either a pre-existing condition thats being agrivated or one thats being created.

pre-existing ..... my old line of work involved lifting multiple items with arms out-stretched .

krazy_8s wrote: »

Asking here won't improve much, could you get sombody to watch you play? They might have more insight into the way you sit then we can.

Only thought of asking after the other guy said it was common enough , thought someone might have a good site bookmarked .

Jackabo

I was gonna say this could be up to something else you get upto at your pc desk but i actually tend to get this myself :P .I used to get this in games & maps that i found were closed in areas that made me hunch over closer to the screen ,for example cs:s ,the hidden mod for Hl2,and like yourself Jonski i found most maps in cod4 quite sore after abit.I always blamed it on tightening nuts n bolts all day in work but after skipping a day on one of those games it would disappear or ease off.....thats why i miss the the battlefield games in a way...dont have to sit at my screen like Mr Burns

jonski

Maybe it's just an age thing

A morning playing Rome TW and not a bother , two and a half hours playing COD 4 last night and my shoulder was killing me....along with everyone else .