The Concept of Wrist Rests
If I had a dollar for every time, a client asked me, " is it good to use a wrist rest?" I would have literally paid off my student loans by now. You are probably familiar with a wrist rest. They are usually filled with foam, gel, or beads. People plant their wrists on them when operating the keyboard and mouse. I'm going to keep it 100% with you; I have a personal vendetta against wrist rests #shade. My hatred for wrist rest stems from my idea that they tend to do more harm than good. Stick with me, and I will explain why.
So first, let's start with this, wrist rests are supposed to be called PALM RESTS. This is because they are meant to support your palm and not your wrist ( for the rest of this post, I will now refer to wrist rests as palm supports).
Now let's take it back to anatomy class really quick. The palm of your hand is the fatty part of your hand. Your wrist is skinny, and it bridges your hand and forearm together. There are nerves and tendons inside your wrists that we do not want to compress. This is because one of the causes of carpal tunnel syndrome is the compression of the median nerve, which is where???? Your wrists. Are you starting to follow me now?!?
I'm going to really break it down for you now. If you are misusing a palm support, i.e., using it for your wrist, it causes compression of the nerves and tendons inside your wrist. Now I am sure you are thinking," but the palm support is soft, so it must be okay?" If you thought that, then you are as wrong as Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMA's in 2013. Just because it is a soft surface does not mean that it is safe. Over time, misusing a palm support will compress the nerves and the tendons in your wrists.
#Inmyopinion, palm supports give people a false sense of security and lead them to think that they do not cause damage when they do.
It would be #fake of me to point out the problem without giving a solution. So here are my recommendations :
Get rid of the palm rests #obvi.
Use a semi-vertical or a completely vertical mouse. This will ensure that you are not planting your wrist when operating the mouse.
People tend to plant their wrists when they are resting ( usually when they are reading emails) when this occurs try to rest your hands on you lap or roll your hands so that your thumbs are facing up to the ceiling #thumbsup7up
Use keyboards such as the Kinesis Freestyle that have designed the palm support in a way that does not allow you to plant your wrists.
Use the floating typing technique to prevent compression at the wrists. Pro Tip: You should always be able to fit at least a Post-it note under your wrists.
***DISCLAIMER: My participation trophies have taught me that everyone is special, so I would like to say that there are some special people in the world that may need a wrist rest. This is super rare. I do not see these causes very often.