This and the book in the comment previous have both been helpful to me, along with good physiotherapists who understand trigger point release.
I use a split keyboard with a graphics tablet in the middle and a mouse either side of the keyboard - this gives me a good variation of hand position. Right hand mouse is vertical.
I find stretching, weights and cardio to be beneficial. The stretching helps to keep the nerves free from impingement, the cardio keeps a good blood flow, and the weights are rebuilding strength and muscle that atrophied during the year where it was too painful to use my hands & arms.
Thanks everyone in this thread for sharing your techniques - it's always good to hear what other people find effective.
The real solution is we should only work 30 hour weeks. Try telling that to your boss though, it's often hard enough to get an ergonomic pencil.
But like others in this post I would recommend CS unplugged.
And depending on how long he is in there for he might want to look at:
How to Design Programs - This is a good book, and although it's in Scheme, it teaches how to create appropriate levels of abstraction, which seems to be something many programmers struggle with.
Concepts, Techniques & Models of Computer Programs - Discusses the different paradigms and how they are inter-related.
Also something a bit more vocational like The Pragmatic Programmer or Clean Code / Clean Coder probably wouldn't hurt either.
If he can read all of those he will be very well prepared to do some actual programming when he gets out.
SICP not a bad shout either, although I've not got past the first chapter.
I use a split keyboard with a graphics tablet in the middle and a mouse either side of the keyboard - this gives me a good variation of hand position. Right hand mouse is vertical.
I find stretching, weights and cardio to be beneficial. The stretching helps to keep the nerves free from impingement, the cardio keeps a good blood flow, and the weights are rebuilding strength and muscle that atrophied during the year where it was too painful to use my hands & arms.
Thanks everyone in this thread for sharing your techniques - it's always good to hear what other people find effective.
The real solution is we should only work 30 hour weeks. Try telling that to your boss though, it's often hard enough to get an ergonomic pencil.