The Mouse: The Forgotten Culprit of Shoulder Pain

Like most massage therapists, I treat many people who have aches and pains from long, stressful hours in front of their computers. Tight upper backs, shoulders and necks are all too common in the information age.

Quite often, I’ll hear something like “I don’t know why my shoulder is bothering me, my desk and chair are set up correctly.”

That’s when I say: “What about your mouse?”

Where the mouse is placed on your desk can cause a lot of havoc on your body. When I worked in the corporate world, I developed what I call “mouse shoulder.” My keyboard and screen were set up perfectly. To move my mouse around, however, I was reaching my arm in front and away from my body, diagonally from my torso. While my keyboard was on a tray below my computer, my mouse was up on the desk, forcing me to elevate my shoulder to reach it. Over time, my shoulder started to ache, pain was shooting down my arm, and sometimes my arm would feel numb. The pain was waking me at night.

Our shoulders are inherently weak joints. They are built to do a wide range of movements, but the compromise for that flexibility is stability. Holding our arms diagonally away from our torsos and conducting fine movements with our shoulder muscles for 5-7 hours (or more) a day is not something they were built to do.

The result overtime can be strain to the rotator cuff muscles, small muscles that work like crazy to stabilize the shoulder joint, or bigger muscles such as the deltoid or trapezius.

Here are some ways to cope with or prevent mouse shoulder:

• Keep your elbow tucked in by your side. The intent is to keep your mouse as close to your body and your keyboard as possible so you don’t have to reach.
• Avoid “mouse creep.” I have noticed that during a long day working on an important project, my mouse tends to creep back and away from my body. This is when it’s time to catch yourself and move the mouse back to the optimal position.
• Change your mouse hand. If you are right hand dominate, try using your left hand for a while. It likely will be a challenge at first! And it may not be something you can do all the time. However, giving your dominant hand a break every once in a while can help, and over time, your other hand might start to catch up to speed.
• Get a trackball. Often used for people with wrist pain, a tracker ball can help with shoulder issues, too. Since it’s stationary, you won’t need to move your arm around as you do with a mouse. You can keep it close to your keyboard and avoid mouse creep.
• Take breaks! Do some shoulder rolls and neck stretches every hour at least. Check in with your posture: Are your shoulders back and your shoulder blades gliding down your back? Get up and walk around the office.