Creative Warrior Tendinopathy – #2 Gaming Wrist & Thumb Pain with Fortnite

This is the SECOND most common pain pattern both the team and I have treated and confirmed with the recent questionnaire. It is what the team calls “Creative Warrior Tendinopathy”

It is a wrist & forearm tendon issue not specific only to fortnite but also many FPS games which requires consistent mouse movement & high mouse APMs. The tendons irritated involve the muscles which help in index/middle clicking along with moving & lifting the mouse. These are some of the movements the muscle is involved in!

Finger Flexion with Clicking	Mouse Lifting and Gripping Activity

Now lets get to management. To keep things simple – we’ll talk about the main causes (THE BIG 3)

1. Poor Wrist & Hand Conditioning – These muscles do not have the endurance or strength to handle the X amount of hours you are gaming and the X actions you are performing in fortnite as you grind creative or arena.
2. Wrist Position & Posture – Please reference my posture article along with this key video on why wrist position and how we hold our mouse matters
   1. How we hold our mouse matters
   2. Posture Article
3. Playing schedule – you are likely playing too much without proper breaks. Your muscles need time to recovery from repeated loading! Reference the video above to learn more about the big 3. 

Exercises to help prevent & manage your pain

Now that we understand the big 3, here is a simple strengthening & stretching routine you can implement DAILY to help prevent & manage your pain. Strengthening exercises should be performed in the morning and/or before you sleep. Stretching can be performed after your gaming session or in between your games when there is downtime. Here is a visual approach for how to perform the exercises.

Try this regular strength & stretching program and let us know how it helps you! If you want to check out some of the other pain patterns head back to the main guide. Share this with anyone you feel like it might be helpful for!