This is the last article in the 3 part series. Here’s hoping you have learned a few of the fundamentals to training for Esports and are able to apply them to how you train for gaming (or at least start to train for it!)
What we will go over:
- Why will these help me with my gaming?
- How to do the exercises?
- How many of each exercise you must do?
- How often you must do them?
Who’s doing these exercises?
Watch Esports players are training like professional athletes
The above clip shows that professionals are taking responsibility for their physical responsibility.
The clip mentions that most professional gamers practice 12 hours or more a day. Now although everyone reading this article may not be a professional gamer, they may train that much. The same pressured and demands placed on the body of those professionals’ gamers, you may be placing on yourself.
If those gamers, who game for the same time each day as you, take care and prepare their bodies, then so should you.
Following is an explanation of some exercises that can be a starting point for you preparing your body. These exercises are focussed on preventing both wrist and elbow pain which are two of the most reported pains in Esports.
Exercises:
Fingers:
For these exercise get a load of putty (or bluetac) as that is more commonly in households) and follow the instructions and if you’re still a bit lost, hopefully the videos can set you straight!
Finger flexion (putty in palm)
- Sit upright in front of a table
- Take a piece of therapy putty in your hand and roll it into a sausage or roll shape
- Push your fingers one at a time into the putty, starting with your thumb
- Aim to keep your shoulder and body still during the exercise
Finger Abduction Resisted
- Sit upright in front of a table
- Roll a piece of therapy putty into a log/sausage shape
- Place your fingers onto the putty
- Slowly spread your fingers and thumb out as far as you can against the resistance of the putty
- Aim to keep your elbow, shoulder and body still during the exercise
Finger Extension Drag
- Sit upright in front of a table
- Take a piece of therapy putty and flatten it into a disc shape
- Bend your fingers and place them into the putty
- Slowly extend your fingers, opening you hand against the resistance of the putty
- Keep your shoulder and body still during the exercise
Wrist:
We are going to give to exercises for the wrist, one for turning the wrist (supination) and one for bending the wrist into the position to hold the house (wrist extension). I will describe these exercises using a thera-band but you can just as easily do the movement holding a can if you don’t happen to have thera-band.
Like all training exercises, these exercises should be done in a controlled manner which usually involves doing it slowly!
Banded Supination:
- Sit with the arm you are train stretched out on a table with your wrist hanging off the edge of the table
- Hold a can (band) in your hand with your palm facing up. If you’re holding a bigger object like a hammer, make things hard by holding the majoring of it extending towards the thumb side of your hands and out over the edge of the table.
- Rotate the palm of your hands so it faces flat towards the ground and then reversing the movement – be sure to control the momentum and rotation of the object you are holding.
Banded Extension
- Start in a seated position
- Grasp a weight (can/band) in you hand with the palm facing down and rest that elbow on your knee
- Start in a neutral position (where your hand is flat with your forearm) and lift your wrist up by moving the knuckles towards the ceiling – this movement should take 3 seconds approximately
- Control the movement as you lower the hand back down to the neutral position – this movement should take about 4 seconds approximately
- It is important to keep your elbow on your knee at all times
These exercises aren’t hard and they don’t take long! It is a matter of getting in a routine of doing them regularly so that you see both the immediate and long term benefit. So how many and how much of them do I need to do?!
Parameters:
The parameters are very basic, I stress this because they are only a starting point. After doing these exercises for 1 month of more you will need to change the intensity so your muscles don’t get used to doing the exact same exercises for the exact same number of reps.
The following parameters however, will be a good start when trying to build exercises into your routine.
- The following is for each exercise:
- 2 sets
- 10 reps
- each rep slow and controlled manner
- 3 sessions per week.
Load management is key for any type of injury – exercises must be as close as possible to tolerable loads. This means the exercises should “feel” your muscles working hard by the end of the exercise sequence!
Now that you have the knowledge, the fundamentals and the exercises under your belt incorporate them into your routine over the next fortnight and see how this affects you’re aches and pain (if you had them to begin with) and your performance.
The video at the beginning of this article mentioned, the difference between a second can be the difference between millions of dollars. If you want to get good at gaming, get good at taking care of yourself.
Any questions please send them to esportshealthhub@gmail.com I’ll happily reply!
Be Well, and keep your ear to the ground for a complete PDF document of the articles collated and preparation for Esports programme so people at home can train like professionals.
Look forward to talking,
Hayden
Article kindly written by and permission to publish:
Hayden Kilgour BPhty, MPNZ
Esports Health Hub
