A recent survey from Virgin Mobile has revealed that mobile phones are now the cause of a reported 3.8 million* cases of repetitive strain injuries per year.

British Chiropractic Association (BCA) spokesperson Dr Matthew Bennett has compiled a range of simple exercises to combat effects of repetitive strain injury through texting:

Sensible advice

• If texting starts to hurt. Stop. Use the other hand or call instead
• Vary the hand you use
• Vary the digits you use
• Don’t text for more than a few minutes without a break
  Exercises

Stop these exercises if you feel any pain otherwise you can do more harm than good.

In your texting hand: -

• Tap each finger with the thumb of the same hand. Repeat x 5
• Pull your thumb firmly with the other hand. Repeat x 5
• Wrap an elastic band around the tips of fingers and thumb and open your hand against the resistance. Repeat x 20
• Palms down wrap an elastic band around each thumb and force apart. Repeat x 20
• Tap the palm and back of your hand on your thigh as quickly as you can. Repeat x 20
• Massage thumb web, back of forearm and front of forearm. 2 minutes.
• Press and rub in a circular motion the painful nodules in those muscles. 30 seconds for each nodule.
• Reach up high with both arms and shake your hands. Reach down low with both arms and shake. Repeat x 3.
• Arms at 45 degrees squeeze them behind you.
• If it still hurts after a week of doing exercises wrap an ice pack on sore hand and arm parts. Do not put ice directly on the skin but wrap in a thin cloth or piece of kitchen roll. 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Repeat x 3.

Other statistics from 72 point.com reveal that over 4 million people suffer from either numb thumbs, a sore thumb or an achey wrist joint at some point from texting, with over 5 million revealing they have had to stop texting due to discomfort in their thumbs. This figure looks to increase as the MDA has forecast texting will continue to rise this year to deliver an annual total of 36.5 billion text messages for 2006 in the UK alone, with an average of 3 billion messages being sent per month and 100 million per day, compared with an estimated 82 million per day in 2005, 68.5 million in 2004, and 56.2 million in 2003.

But fear not, Virgin Mobile have the solution. February 21st 2006 is national Text Message Injury day. Street teams will be coming to a train or tube station near you distributing goodies to help prevent against thumb and wrist strain with specific exercise information and products.