If you have arrived here it’s because you have also experienced the gaming cramps. It’s not unusual for gamers the need to stop playing in order to flex your hands and your wrists to stop the cramping. Gaming is responsible of a lot of stress on your hands and wrists and it can result in pain and some injuries.

Numb fingers, throbbing wrists… And you start thinking you might have carpal tunnel. Don’t worry, that’s likely not the issue even when the symptoms are quite similar to that and tendonitis: numbing, wrist pain, tingling and even a little bit of swelling.

Luckily for you, we’ve got some hand exercises you need to start practicing if you want to break free from that pain and to be able to play for hours without having to stop to stretch.

7 hand exercises for gamers

Prayer Position Stretch

This is the perfect stretch to loosen up both your wrists and your forearms. You need to put your fingers and palms together. Your fingers should be pointing up and your elbows outward, as if you were praying, that’s why it’s called like this. When you get the position, you will need to hold it for 30 seconds, at least. If you think you can hold it more time and more intense, increase the intensity by raising your hands slowly while keeping them together and make sure your elbows are still pointing outward.

Reverse Prayer Position Stretch

We like to put this strictly after the Prayer Position Stretch, since you will need to remain in the same position but with the difference that now you will press the backs of your hands together with your fingers pointing down. Again, hold this position for 30 or more second and slowly raise your hands keeping them still together and with the elbows pointing outward.

Wrist Joint Circles Stretch

Extend both your hands out and rotate clockwise your wrists gently in a circle. Do this up to 10 or 15 times and repeat the same exercise but counterclockwise now.

Thumb Twist Stretch

To be able to perform correctly this stretch you will need to keep your elbow bent and close to your ribcage. Now, turn your hand to make your palm face the sky and with your other hand, grab the thumb of the first hand and gently twist it to the opposite way. Do it gently until you feel a soft stretch, but don’t force it or you will cause unnecessary pain.

Supined Flexors Stretch

This is a stretch you need to perform on each hand separately. We recommend you to start with your left one. Keep your elbow extended and your palm facing up. With your other hand pull on the bottom half of your fingers so that your wrist gets downward. Yes, you will feel discomfort, it’s quite normal when moderate. If you feel pain, stop and ease up a bit on your pull. Hold this position for 30 seconds or a little bit more and repeat the exercise with your right hand.

Pronated Extensors Stretch

Exactly in the same position you were in for the last stretch but with your hand point downwards, not upwards. Now, like you did last time, use your other hand to pull down on the outside of your fingers. This will make your wrist to slowly lower and will allow you to feel the stretch in your forearm. Hold this position for another 30 seconds and repeat on your other hand.

Joint distraction stretches

This stretches can be performed on your fingers and on your wrists, both with both hands. We will explain first how to perform then on your fingers.

Get your hand with your palm facing towards your chest and with the other hand get the tip of your index and pull it outward until you feel how it separates from your knuckle. Hold five seconds the position and repeat with every finger.

Now, to perform this exercise on the wrists, you will start with your hand again pointing towards your chest. With your other hand grip the first hand and gently pull out until you feel separate from your wrist. Hold five seconds and do it with your other hand.

Depending on the way players interact with a game, this game will be assigned to a category or genre or to another. This way, the first thing you need to understand is that games are not classified the same way as books or movies, since games do not depend on the content or the scenario but it depends strongly on the player’s activity.

If you were to ask us what is a video game genre we would answer that is a category of games that share similar gameplay features or what is the same: that share how the player exists in the game’s world. To better understand this concept, we will next explain the most popular video games genre that exist. Let’s go!

Action Games

It’s one of the most popular video games genres and the most basic of all of them, we could say.

Action games have their focus on physical challenges that require hand-eye coordination and, of course, quick reflexes. Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter are perfect arcade examples of this kind of video game genre, but also some other games like the platform ones, or first-person shooters or survival games. This way, we can also include as action games Call of Duty or even Fortnite, with features a battle-royale style.

Adventure Games

In this kind of games, it’s the player who has the control of a character who moves through the game’s plot and has to complete some tasks. Being like this, we see that adventure games also include the need to pay attention to the game and use the logic, especially to solve some riddles and find clues to the next step of the scenario.

Adventure games can also feature minimal combat but they will definitely focus on the puzzle-solving characteristics to progress in the game.

Action-adventure Games

Action-adventure games are a perfect mix of both the previous genres we explained. They have the high physicality of action games but also the narrative puzzles and the need to solve some obstacles of the adventure ones.

To mention some examples, we can talk of Resident Evil or The Legend of Zelda.

Role-playing Games

Also known as RPGs, this games are the ones where players are connecter with a specific character or team leader, making the experience a lot more immersive and using an accurate worldbuilding with details and more details of the game’s world.

Some of the most popular games inside this genre are Final Fantasy or Pokémon, but also Diablo or World of Warcraft.

Role-playing games are often combined with action games, but the most popular subtype of this genre is MMPRPG (which stands for Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) where real players interact with each other through the Internet.

Strategy Games

As you can imagine, strategy games focus on using strategic thinking to go through the game, rather than physical features. This games are often based on building a defense and can be turn-based or real-time, but also can be played on a multiplayer online battle arena, like happens with League of Legends, a strategy game where you need to use your cleverness and that or your group in order to succeed and beat your rivals.

This kind of game genre need for the player to develop a strategy and the player will not only control one player but an entire army or universe. Some examples of this genre are Civilization or Age of Empires.

Simulation Games

Games that simulate some aspects of real life are included in this genre. These kind of games simulate feature like building cities, creating people with their own lives or operating businesses. Simulation games allow the player to form an idea of reality and can be technical, arcade, sports game, etcetera.

Some clear examples of this kind of game genre are The Sims or even Animal Crossing.

Sports game

Even if the vast majority of this genre can also be considered as simulation games, we thought it correct to have a whole entity to itself. Sports games allow players to compete with the machine or real-life players and also compete against them. A great example of this kind of genre would be FIFA.

Even if computers may look to you very different, the components installed are quite standard, being the major difference among most machines the brand of the hardware they have installed. This way, even if the brand changes, the main hardware components –video card, processor, memory, motherboard and hard drive- are always the same for all computer systems.

5 parts of a computer

It doesn’t matter if we are speaking about a home PC or a gaming system, the five main components that build a computer are the next ones that we will explain next.

Motherboard

To better understand this part of the computer you need to know that all components of a PC communicate through the circuit board, which is called motherboard. It’s the bigger board in a computer chassis and serves to allocate power and to allow communication to and between the CPU, RAM and the other hardware components, providing connectivity to all of them.

The motherboard is located inside the computer case and is the place where most of the parts and computer peripherals connect.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

The CPU is considered the brain of a computer because it has a direct plug connection to the motherboard, but also because it has communication with all the other components. Its function consists in translating the lines of code you write (being C++, Java, Python or any other programming language) into assembly language, the one the processor can understand. This way, the CPU fetches the code, decodes and executes all the instructions –calculations, actions, running programs, etc-.

CPUs are present in all sorts of devices from laptops and computers to smartphones, tablets and even your smartTV. They are usually located onto the motherboard.

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

The GPU is one of the most important parts of a computer for gamers, who obsess over graphic cards. The reason is that the GPU makes possible for computers to generate high-end visuals, which is really important in many video games.

But the GPU is not only important to video games, optimal graphics are also important for many professions like designers or 3D modelers who use resource intensive software. It is also important to understand that GPUs are often communicated directly with the display monitor, so a very much potent graphic card won’t be of use if you don’t also have a good monitor connected to it.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

The RAM stores data about the accessed programs and processes of the computer. It is also called volatile memory because this data gets erased every single time the computer restarts itself. This way, this component helps programs (or games) to start up and close quickly.

It stores information that your computer is actively using for a short-term, so this data can be accessed easily and fast. It is obvious to understand that the more programs your system is running, the more memory you will end up needing.

Storage

As you can deduce, this part is where the computer stores its data. The computers today can use a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD). The first ones are cheaper, but it looks like they are getting more and more obsolete every year. They are made with and actual disk where the data is stored and that is read by a mechanical arm.

SSDs, on the other hand, have no moving parts and are way faster than HDDs since there is no need to wait for a mechanical arm to find data on the disk.

Basic parts of a computer

Of course, if we have to talk about the parts of a computer, we cannot forget the most basic ones, which are the case, monitor, keyboard and mouse. We will explain them all next. Do keep up!

Computer case

It’s nothing more than the plastic and metal box that contains the main components explained before. The front usually has the On/Off button. The case can come in many sizes and shapes like desktop cases or tower cases, but there is one kind of computers that come with all the main components built into the monitor, so there is no need to have a separate case.

Monitor

The monitor displays both images and texts on the screen. The newest options have LCD (liquid crystal display) or LED (light-emitting diode) displays which makes them very thin and flat.

Keyboard

There exist many types of keyboards, the main way to communicate with a computer, but almost all of them accomplish the same basic tasks. There are some keyboards specialized on video games so that the gaming experience gets better.

Mouse

This is another of the main ways to communicate with computers since it lets you point objects on the screen, but also click on them and move them.

There exist two mouse types: mechanical and optical. The first one has a rolling ball to detect movement and the optical one uses an electronic eye instead.

Also, there are some alternatives to the mouse, like the touchpad or trackpad, a touch-sensitive pad that allows you to control the pointer with your finger. This alternative is very common on laptops.