Are Mechanical Keyboards Better For Wrists? (Yes And No)

Are Mechanical Keyboards Better For Wrists? (Yes and No)
Ever had wrist soreness and fatigue after sitting at your computer for a long time?
You probably already know your KEYBOARD plays a huge role in how wrist stress can interfere with your work and productivity (or gaming).
Here’s the answer:
Yes, switching to an ergonomically designed mechanical keyboard that fits your hands and posture can be a game-changer for you! However, it’s important to consider the size and height (and a few other factors) of your keyboard, else it could actually cause more wrist pain.
Below, we’ll be delving into the aspects that make a mechanical keyboard easier and more comfortable for typing and how you can AVOID that dreaded wrist pain.
Each time you press a key, you’ll get that satisfying tactile feedback which further enhances how you type. (A regular keyboard will feel weak and unsatisfying to you after you get used to typing on a mechanical keyboard.)
You can choose keycaps that are sculpted with different heights, shapes, and curves (to be more comfortable!)
The benefit? You’ll be working more efficiently with less wrist and key travel (hand and finger movement).
They’re More Customizable
The possibilities for customizing mechanical keyboards are literally endless! And that also means you can have a mechanical keyboard design that’s especially suited to the needs of your hands and wrists!
Some keyboards will come with a detachable wrist pad, but if not, you can easily purchase them separately (and trust me, it’s WORTH it).
Wrist rests work to support your hands while you’re typing by minimizing the pressure. The awesome result is less strain on your wrists, especially if you are someone with smaller hands.
If you’ve never used wrist pads before, they may take some time to get used to (having a large object at the bottom of your keyboard), but you’ll soon adjust after a few days – and you’ll probably wish you had a trusty wrist rest sooner!
Pro tip: Make sure you pick the right size pad to match your hands for the very best typing experience. And have fun with it! Choose whatever color and design fits your aesthetic – they are widely available these days.
Pro Tip #2: Before you spend money on a wrist rest, experiment with household objects to see what difference it makes (a thin book with a sock on it mimics a wrist rest fairly well!).
Keycap profiles
Another way to avoid straining your wrists with a mechanical keyboard is by choosing the right keycap profiles for you.
It’s how you describe the angle, flatness, or relative curve, at the top and sides of the keys, and also how curved or flat the keyboard’s layout is in general.
Ever seen those cool-looking curved keyboards? Besides looking stylish, they actually make for a much more ergonomic typing experience! Keycaps in different rows are set to a specific height and angle to create an ergonomic shape.
Other than these “sculpted keyboards”, you get “uniform keyboards” where all the keycaps are flat and the same height. These aren’t considered a great option if you have wrist pain. (These are harder to get used to and lead to lower accuracy in my experience—which usually means more stress on fingers and wrist.)
Then there’s keycap height:
Cherry: These are low-to-medium height and very popular
OEM: These are a bit higher, though not noticeably so
SA: These keycaps are TALL and take getting used to!
Generally speaking, if you suffer from wrist pain, you should choose shorter keycaps (regardless of sculpted, uniform, etc), like DSA, Cherry, or OEM.
Here are some lower-profile keycaps that you can put on your mechanical keyboard:
Swap out your mechanical switches
You can actually remove the mechanical switches on mechanical keyboards individually, and insert new ones!
(This is easiest on a “hot-swappable” keyboard. This means the switches are soldered into the actual motherboard (PCB), and you can simply yank them out. Non hot-swappable keyboards required a soldering iron to desolder the switches first, and it takes more time).
There are 3 broad types of switches:
Linear switches: These switches are smooth all the way down the keystroke, and generally preferred by gamers (though they work fine for general use, too!)
Tactile switches: Unlike linears, tactile switches have a small “bump” you can feel halfway through the keystroke, giving your fingers “tactile feedback” that the key has actually been pressed.
Clicky switches: These are tactile switches that have the bump, but with a small audible “click” mechanism, just for noise purposes.
Tactile switches are generally preferred by typists, as the “bump” helps you feel when the key has been pressed—meaning your fingers have to do less work! (And this can possibly lead to more accuracy as well).
In addition, they make switches with different levels of “resistance.” In order to reduce wrist pain, you might look for “lighter” switches that are easier to press down.
This is referred to in terms of “actuation force,” and is expressed in grams.
35g actuation force: Usually lighter and easier to activate the key
55g actuation force: More resistance, smoother, and quieter, but requires more finger action to activate the key
There are other factors like spring size & length, etc, but these are minor for our purposes here.
Here are some custom mechanical switches we recommend for light action (to help wrist and finger stress):
In addition, keycap profiles can range in height from only 2.3mm up to 16.5mm tall! If you feel like your keycaps are still too high for your liking (and causing you wrist pain) – it’s actually possible to swap out your keycaps to a lower profile.
Go for a low-profile keyboard that’s shorter than “regular keyboards”.
Following all of the pointers above will be highly effective at reducing muscle strain in your hands, fingers, and wrists. You won’t have your hands floating in the air as much, and your key travel will be less while you type.
These adjustments might affect your typing style, but it’s only temporary while you adapt – and you’ll soon be on your way to pain-free typing!
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