The Best You

I want you to be the best software engineer you can be. To always be at your A-game. To rarely if ever get sick. To ride the ebb and flow of a project with minimal stress levels. To mentally and physically be healthy, so you can do this thing we do for as long as you want to do it.

The mental part gets a lot of my attention - a lot of everyone's attention - for example in talking about patterns and practices, in talking about mastering technologies, in talking about lean methodologies. All necessary and part of the program. But what gets much less attention is the physical part. Maybe no attention at all? To truly be the best you, your physical self must be attended to just like you do the mental.

In Right Steps I talked about my personal experience going from years of sitting at a desk to a walking desk - and how it changed my day. This was me attending to my physical...and once I did, I was being the best me. In that post I encouraged you to take the same steps. In this post I want to talk to you about a very specific thing you should be doing if you log consistent time behind a keyboard.

Gua Sha

As a software engineer we throw a beating on our forearms. Heck, aren't almost all of us behind a keyboard all day these days?? So it's not just us coders. You would be amazed at the (negative) adaptations that have occurred over the years. Our forearm muscles and tendons are literally sick. But the good news is that we can easily do something about it. And one of the easiest treatments is Gua Sha - or the gentle scraping of skin to induce improved blood flow to soft tissue.

Before I summarize how-to, I'm going to very briefly explain the benefits. I encourage you to use this post as an introduction, and then read more on the web. Now, the benefits. Like I mentioned, our forearms behind a keyboard take a beating. Their muscles and tendons have chronic reduced blood flow. By inducing improved blood flow, we are giving the soft tissue exactly what it needs to be healthy. By gently scraping the skin of our forearms we are stimulating the fascia and breaking down calcification. But ultimately, the benefit is that your keyboard muscles and tendons will feel alive rather than deadened. And an alive body is an indivisible part of the best you.

Now, how to scrape. It couldn't be more simple. Find a serving spoon - or anything with a long-ish blunt handle. Find some body oil or lotion. Apply a little lubricant on your forearm and holding the spoon at a 45 degree angle, gently scrape in one direction using short strokes (3" or less). Repeat this over your whole forearm. If you feel a "crunchy" spot - and you will - then stay on that spot. You want to break that gunk up...slowly over time. Once you see a pink-ish color to your skin, you have reached the hotness level needed. Oxygenated blood is already healing your forearms.

Beyond Gua Sha

Of course there are virtually limitless ways in which you can improve the health of your keyboard body. You can keep a lacrosse ball next to your keyboard and every now and then roll out your forearms (both sides). You can use elastic bands to restrict blood flow, and then upon releasing the bands you flush the area with oxygenated blood. You can even achieve this blood flow induction through specific types of breathing. Whatever you do, I guess my main point is that we Must Not neglect our physical selves, just like we Must Not neglect our mental selves. When we do both, we achieve our Best Self.