When you're in your mid-twenties and get the first few wrist aches on your mouse hand and get anxious about possible carpal tunnel syndrome... I can't be the only one.

Act now before you do any damage. I got a wrist doughnut when mine started to get sore; made a world of difference and no problems since.

start sporting. my wrist is fine but my lower back is like 80 years old or something. I'm 32

taking care of your physical health is more important than backups in our job.

It's been actually four months or so since I last had any pains! Corrected my seating/monitor height and started some special stretching every so often. If it flares up again I'll be sure to have it looked at.

Stretching! Yes, that's something else we do (when we can tear ourselves away from the monitor!).

I was exactly I'm your position. I didn't wait. Get a vertical mouse, and a gold ergonomic keyboard. Like... now.

Yep, deal with it now. Ergonomics wasn't a 90's fad! ;)

It's likely strain and not carpal tunnel. Examine your desk, chair etc. Limit your session length, taking regular breaks. Lay off the game-pads for a while too.

Getting good habits now will prevent you ever having to worry about it again.

I was in same position as you a few years ago. Had problems until last year when my company got visit from ergonomic guy. He informed me and showed me some tricks, now the pain is gone!

Change the mouse to left handed. It takes a few hours to get used to but most of the pain is gone.

another very simple trick: when you're waiting for something (loading, compiling, thinking, reading, etc.) take your hand of the mouse. very simple but effective.

start training with your feet it's hard but cool.

Oh, and move your mouse to between you and your keyboard! It's a much more natural position, especially if you have a numpad on your keyboard.

Even more natural with a vertical mouse, it feels like you have your hand on your belly.

@Gauthier are vertical mice really helping? Seemed to me like overpriced meme tech. I do understand the natural orientation of our hands but damn, it those mice seem to weird.

@veruz I would class that as an assistive device. There's no way you can work with speed/precision in a dragon punch pose.

...says the guy who's never used one!

@veruz I feel it's very natural, solved aching arm. Many are too large, with mine I can rest my hand on the desktop.