The mouse is a key peripheral in the PC, as it is what helps us move through the different elements of the screen, whether for work, for leisure or to play. However, it is a peripheral in which some people do not pay too much attention with the premise that “anyone is worth it since everyone does the same” when the reality is very different, and there comes a time when they must use the PC more than normal and they are in the position that the mouse is not comfortable for them and even suffer pain after using it for a while. In this article we are going to tell you about the good practices to make the mouse as comfortable as possible.
When you use your PC sporadically, maybe any cheap mouse you find out there will do. However, when you have to use it for many hours a day many days a week things change, and it is a peripheral that if it is not the right one for you can even cause pain or carpal tunnel syndrome, without going any further. For this reason, we are going to tell you what you can do about it to feel more comfortable.
There is a mouse for every type of grip
There are countless models of mice on the market, as well as countless types and sizes of hands. It is important that you buy a mouse that adapts well to your hand in terms of size, and if, for example, you are a user with fairly large hands, do not buy a small mouse because you will feel uncomfortable. Similarly, no matter how many different mice and hands there are, there are only three ways to hold the mouse, also called types of grip (okay, you can hold the mouse however you want, but only these three are correct according to good practice).
- Palm type : in this type of grip you put your whole hand on the mouse and the wrist hardly rests on the table. If you hold the mouse like this, then ergonomic right-handed mice are convenient for you and, if possible, they have a piece that protrudes in the left area on which to rest the thumb.
- Fingertip type : this type of mouse grip does not put the wrist on the table at all, and is the one that causes the greatest fatigue unless you have a wrist rest for the mouse or you have the armrest of the chair very high. With this type of grip, small and light mice are convenient for you so that it involves less effort to move them.
- Claw type : this is the most common type of grip among gamers, and great pressure is applied with the wrist on the table, so it is advisable to have a fairly soft mat to avoid pain. The mice recommended for this type of grip are symmetrical and ambidextrous if possible.
Wrist position makes a mouse comfortable
Even if you don’t have a mouse that adapts perfectly to your hand, the posture of the wrist can cause you not to have the performance you want to have, and in fact it is the number one source of pain in the hand. In this regard, you simply have to make sure that the arm is completely perpendicular to you, holding the mouse straight. In the following graph you will see it very clearly.
Among gamers it is quite common to hold the mouse diagonally, since we always want to have the WASD area of the keyboard in front of the left hand for better control in games, and the width of the keyboard means that we have to have the mouse much more to the right of what we should. Try to avoid this, you should always look for a position as comfortable as possible and, above all, that the wrist is not forced (so it should be straight as the image shows, basically).
Configure your mouse correctly
There are many mice, especially cheap ones, that have a single resolution that is not configurable. Each user has their preferences, but what is important is that you configure the sensitivity of the mouse so that you feel comfortable. If your mouse supports setting the sensitivity, we recommend that you first try with low sensitivities (800 DPI) and go up from 800 to 800 DPI until you feel more or less comfortable. When you find the value that best suits you, try again to increase and decrease the sensitivity but in this case in jumps of 100 at 100 DPI until you find your value.
You should know that if you have set a sensitivity of, for example, 800 DPI, you need to physically move the mouse an inch for the cursor to move 800 pixels on the screen. If you have the mouse set to 1600 DPI it means that for every inch that you move the mouse, the cursor will move 1600 pixels on the screen, and therefore the effort you will have to make will be less.
This does not necessarily mean that the higher the sensitivity, the more comfortable you will feel because you will have to move the mouse less, since the more sensitivity you have less precision and it costs more to point where you want. It is a matter of practice, but in any case the recommendation here is that you look for the resolution that best suits you, and for that of course you need to have a mouse that allows you to modify its sensitivity (you can do it in Windows, but it is an artificial change that doesn’t usually work too well).
