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Professional gaming injuries include back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome according to the Washington Post.
When we think of professional sports, we think of tennis, football or games such as baseball. Few think of professional gaming as a sport, but it has become a high paying spectator sport where the superstars can make millions of dollars through winning tournaments and professional endorsements. Many of these athletes are affiliated with gaming teams which would make gaming a team sport.
Are professional gamer’s athletes?
Gamers will spend hours playing different games and they compete in tournaments that are attended by their fans who love to watch them play games such as Call of Duty or Counterstrike according to PC Mag.
Playing games for hours requires fast movements of the hands and wrists and with it comes overuse injuries such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as well as back pain. Competing to make it on the professional level requires commitment, sometimes of up to 15 to 18 hours a day playing these games.
While physical conditioning as required in football or basketball may not be required, playing video games requires sustained postures that can result in back pain and hours of usage with the hands and arms which will result in problems in the hands, arms and elbows which includes carpal tunnel syndrome.
There are doctors who now specialize in gaming injuries and treat the syndromes and health problems associated with competitive gaming. Chiropractors are a great choice due to their training in both the evaluation and treatment of the musculoskeletal system.
Hyper competitive gaming, as it grows into a sports that the players can earn money in a public arena will result in more doctors seeing more patients who put in hours sitting with a controller and a screen.
Read more about it below
Carpal tunnel, back pain and social anxiety: Inside the injury-plagued world of professional gaming.
By Peter Holley May 30
They train for up to 10 hours a day, practicing new moves, quickening reaction times and building chemistry with teammates for the chance to earn millions.
And while the professional, six-player team known as Magic Gaming — members of the NBA 2K esports league — will never set foot on an actual basketball court, that doesn’t mean their bodies aren’t being pushed to the limit, according to Dr. Todd Sontag, who was recently unveiled as the team’s official doctor.
Sontag, a physician at Orlando Health who oversees the players’ physical and mental care, says that despite being in their teens and early 20s, professional gamers are at risk for injuries that most people associate with middle-age office workers who spend their days planted in front of a computer screen: carpal tunnel syndrome, elbow, shoulder and neck pain, eye strain, as well as musculoskeletal injuries like tendinitis and back pain.
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