Physical injuries

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Canada
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Tom_Catastrophic
Has anyone suffered from shoulder injuries using a wheel. I have driven 50,000 miles since July, 2020 and about Sept I started to have pain in the area of the left shoulder bone. It is still with me. I have trouble lifting arm up straight.
 
Has anyone suffered from shoulder injuries using a wheel. I have driven 50,000 miles since July, 2020 and about Sept I started to have pain in the area of the left shoulder bone. It is still with me. I have trouble lifting arm up straight.
Yes, I have too. I ended up with ongoing problems from bursitis and tendonitis that was further aggravated daily by wheelchair use. Eventually it was fixed with a cortisone injection.

Hopefully you can fix yours without the **** I went through. If you think it is bursitis there's plenty of exercises you can do to help. https://www.healthline.com/health/bursitis-shoulder#symptoms

 
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Has anyone suffered from shoulder injuries using a wheel. I have driven 50,000 miles since July, 2020 and about Sept I started to have pain in the area of the left shoulder bone. It is still with me. I have trouble lifting arm up straight.
You may have a similar problem like I have, it's called bone on bone but if I were you I would go check you shoulder out. My problem is not related to a wheel but I ended up getting an cortisone injection, and I was still using the wheel and getting minor shoulder problems. So I decided to buy a lot better wheel and that did work for me :), but now I don't do a lot of continuous racing as that looks after my shoulders.
 
So I decided to buy a lot better wheel and that did work for me :), but now I don't do a lot of continuous racing as that looks after my shoulders.

I use T150 on lowest feedback possible.
 
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Even though you are stationary it's the same as driving and concentration levels are the same as on the road so overall if you put in a long day racing it affects body and mind. I suffer a lot with my back dur to a life of hard work that these days would bring up health and safety issues and I can see now why that is today. If i put in a long stint my back starts to act up and my right wrist (yea yea Q the usual jokes), I know because I have always done mainly physical work and being right-handed over the years there is ware on the joints. I would love to have a proper rig with a good seat and fixed positioning between seat and wheels, this is one way to help prevent some of the discomfort from a long time racing. I have only done a few +500 km days and usually the longest I spend on is with the FIA races as it gets too uncomfortable after 2 hours. I have a few times switched to the controller when just on a track alone to learn the lines.

I have a G29 with force turned down low but not off and use my office chair which the odd time moves in races so not great in that sense.
 
I have a Towing business that has put me behind the wheel for 4to6 hours 6 days a week then I would come home to drive a simulator for 2 to 3 hours 3 to 4 times a week. I have been doing this with a sim rig for 7 years. My first 4 years I drove DIY rig that I made to fold up so I could set it up in any room. It was never rigid the pedals would move on the floor which put stress on my legs , both brake and throttle that gave me leg cramps just above the knees.
Three years ago I built a real sim cockpit with a rigid steel frame and a car seat it help with the cramping but the damage was done with my DIY rig. Part of problem was my karting Days it was the adrenaline of competition that made the pain go a way. The good news is that the camping is less now. I have been waiting to update my sim rig with a PS5 , GT7 and T-LCM pedals. I have the T-LCM pedals installed and has help , but the time away from using the muscle group on my legs was what I needed .
 
I have many sore spots. I'm delicate. :D

Recently I've started a routine of letting the wheel go once a lap. A quick moment where I let the wheel go with both hands. This helps me relax a lot/stops tension. 👍
 
I wonder why the left shoulder. I am right handed.
Not speaking from experiencing this issue but from running issues. If you have any sort of muscle imbalances in your body, your body compensates to cope with the issue, therefore recruiting other muscles to do the assist in doing the job. Being right handed means you're probably stronger on your right arm, meaning your left arm needs to work harder. These things don't affect you much if you do them occasionally, but if you do something regularly and your body is compensating for a physical weakness then it ends up developing into a long-term issue you'll have to deal with for a very long time. Best thing to do is take time away from driving, especially intense driving like sim racing, and when you do race keep your amount of time down and have regular breaks (so maybe every second daily race, instead of every daily race, etc.) There's a reason all the F1 drivers have such intense physical training programmes, and the amount of driving you've done in the last 10 months isn't exactly "normal person" driving distances...
 
Anyone else here a racer with arthritis

The weaker side starts hurting first. I'm right handed but my arthritis is way worse in my left hand.

I don't use a wheel (but will probably have to soon!) and I suffer major problems with left hand, mainly in thumb joint area plus right throttle finger. Put this down to age though!
 
I don't use a wheel (but will probably have to soon!) and I suffer major problems with left hand, mainly in thumb joint area plus right throttle finger. Put this down to age though!
When you do get a wheel setup make sure it has the ability to change wheel size and design that might ease the pain . Thrushmaster and Fanatec have a few to chose from, I use the Sparco R383 on my T-GT wheel setup it works for me .
 
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