What causes repetitive motion injuries?
Repetitive motion injuries generally involve damage to nerves, and sometimes t tendons, caused by irritation, compression and restricted blood flow. As the term implies, no single event is the cause of these injuries. They are an accumulation of minor, often unnoticed stresses. Such stresses might be sitting in a posture that does not support your back, holding your hands or arms in a sustained position, or movements that are repeated without variation. Carpel Tunnel syndrome is probably the most familiar example of repetitive motion injury. In this condition, compression of the nerve at the wrist is caused by swelling in the surrounding tendons. (see figure 2 for an illustration of the site of nerve compression.) Irritation of the tendons may be caused by repeated hand movements. However, before tendons become irritated the health of the nerve may be compromised by restricted blood flow in the wrist area, which can be caused by the hands being held in an extended position. Carpel tunn
