🫲🏼 Confession inside

In this email:

🫲🏼 My hands are angry. How about yours?

👍 Tech recs

🗓️ Events and resources

➡ read time: 4 minutes

👋🏼 Confession:

I, Marlo Fisken, a lifelong movement explorer, former international pole dance champion, and advocate of juicy joint practices, have hand injuries.

Not from wight training, pole acrobatics, or doing bat yoga.

marlo appears to hang from the ceiling rafters — 🦇 🦇 🦇

💻 My issues are from typing on my laptop and phone.

A brief history of screen-related aches:

In 2020, my work went VERY online, and I became fully initiated as a "person of the screen."

👎🏻 My thumbs were the first to revolt.*

I was showing all the searing signs of De Quervain’s tenosynovitis—a thumb & wrist overuse injury also known as:

🎮 gamer’s thumb
👩🏾‍🍼 mommy's thumb
📲 texting thumb (more like "caption, DM, and email thumb." But yes, that's me.).

👇🏼 a visual of the unfun

Drawing of the inflamed tendons of DeQuervain's Synovitis — Source

**BURN, OUCH, SNAG.**

I took the hint, minimized cell phone use, and opted for the keyboard instead.

Then, about an hour into the positional confinement of my laptop, my neck would start sizŽzling in protest.

At forty, I bought my first computer mouse. But still, the morning after a keyboard-intensive day, my hands feel gravelly, sludgy, and claw-like, which I would not call "thriving."

An owl sprawling it's talons — Me in the morning, re-mobilizing my talons.

At this point, perhaps you’re thinking,

“You need to fix your screen-time posture! Be more dynamic!
Eat more mountain berries and read articles about ergonomics!”

Perhaps. And, we are not prepared to thrive like this. 👈🏼 evolutionary mismatch theory

Even with the most dynamic, most office-inappropriate positioning, being a mostly online movement educator is hard on my body. The actions are too uniform, and the volume is too high.

These arms want to rip, dance, clamber, and throw (which I have not done but would like to).

So, how do I feel less rickety?

I type less 😮

Did I quit computer work? not at all.

Did I take up toe typing? not yet.

GIF of creepy being typing with extra long big toes in the dark

🦄 Here’s how I still make words appear on screens without having to type (as much).

1️⃣ Voice dictation

📲 When I make Instagram stories, I’m talking to my phone.

🗣️ When I write you this email, I’m talking to my computer.

💬 When you text me directly, asking me about my knack for fashion…

I kid. No one ever does that.

I mainly "write" on my computer and phone with dictation.**

hey, look, it's a soap bar in a wine glass / a dictation icon

Besides offering positional relief, I often feel more alive when I speak to write.

I can stretch my arms while I run my mouth lalalalala.🙆🏻‍♀️

While I still need keyboard contact for editing, for putting words down, I'm hands-free, baby.***

2️⃣ I reply to emails with embedded voice memos

👇🏼 Save time and your hands. Use Vocal to reply to emails verbally.

⬇️ click to hear & read my memo (in a different window)

I enjoy it so much that I became an affiliate.

Try Vocal for Free 👍👍

💟 Also, Loom is an extraordinary tool for video responses.

Particularly If you want to forego speaking and dance your response instead.

Remember these tools next time you find yourself aching while spending way too much time replying to an email.

➕ Other hand-rejuvenating practices:

✨ While taking walks, gesticulate and finger-sprawl
Go ahead and be that person who walks around hand-dancing.

marlo walks down the street in Va;encia, Spain while finger waving — It's not just for the camera; this is a regular occurrence.

🤛 Seek opportunities to challenge hand strength and dexterity
Choose to carry and climb stuff the "awkward way."
Rip up a cardboard box (so fun).

🎱 Massage out the crunchies on RAD balls (affiliate link)
While you can get little bouncy balls for 10x less $, I love the texture of these plastic-free, eco-friendly 100% silicone balls.

three small black balls in a line — RAD "Micro Rounds" get IN there

save 15% with code: MARLORAD15

Have you noticed that we humans sometimes continue to do things that reduce function and flow for months, if not years, before taking action?

why do we do that?!

Let's talk about you, Reader:

Do you have a recurring pesky ache?
What might be causing it?

Is there something you wear, sit on, practice, or interact with that regularly causes aggravation?

🍿 It's harder to enjoy moving when we keep doing things that make us feel candied popcorn residue, texturally speaking.

How does it impact other parts of your life?

What could you do differently to create some relief?

↪️ Hit reply and let me know

Notes:

* Arguably, my spirit revolted before my thumbs

**On my (Apple) computer, when I want to use dictation, I just tap the control key twice and start speaking. (Here’s how to turn that on)

*** I played with full-on voice control as well - a screen accessibility feature will allow you to navigate and work on your screen completely hands-free.

꩜ Flow Zone Weekend- Boulder:
October 25-27

Three days of multi-genre fluidity play.

☝️ This one is for the floor lovers, the sensual squirmers, the partner dancers, the pole dancers, and the "down for whatever" folks.

Registration Opens Soon.