Recently started trying to use an ergodox ez as my daily driver instead of just doing typing practice, and on the very first day I started getting shoulder pain that I did not have when using a regular keyboard.
I tried to look closely at what I was doing with a normal keyboard that I wasn't doing with the ergodox, and I have a fairly strong suspicion.
Most of my day is spent either not typing, or using the keyboard for navigation (I use vim). Typing is just done in short bursts. I dont use palm/wrist rests, and I float my hands above they keyboard while typing, which seems to be the general ergonomics recommendation. I also took off the armrests off my chair, as they were bumping into the desk, generally didn't fit me, and weren't adjustable.
However, I have noticed that in both of the above non-typing situations my palms rest on the desk. Even for navigating with a keyboard, most of the keys I need are reachable without having to float my hands. So most of the time, my arms are somehow supported.
I don't have the palm rests for the ergodox ez as many people claimed them to be useless. When tented, the keyboard is fairly elevated so you can't rest your palms anywhere while not typing, and quickly return back to typing. You can move them away from the keyboard, but if you want to type, it's a somewhat large movement to bring them back, which I don't think is great.
Because of this I ended up keeping my arms in the air, hovering above the keyboard for long periods of time, without any support. The suspicion is that this is what's causing the shoulder pain.
So what I want to know, is what do you do with your arms when \*not typing\* on the ergodox? Do you use the palm rest and keep your arms there? Do you use your chair's armrests? Do you move your arms away from the keyboard and back every time you switch between typing/not typing? Or do you just keep hovering them in the air and find that this causes no issues to you?
I love the keyboard in general, but this shoulder pain is really going to be a deal breaker if I can't fix it.