If you’re wondering how to keep your hands warm while gaming – you’re not alone.
It’s quite a common issue whilst gaming specifically and can be caused for a whole number of reasons – so here we’re going to dive into how to keep your hands warmer and make the whole gaming experience more enjoyable.
Lack of Circulation
One potential reason that you feel your hands are getting cold whilst gaming is that your hands aren’t getting the blood flow that they need to keep warm.
This is something that you should consult a healthcare medical about but it could be simply how you are positioning your hands on the desk – if they are leaning against something then it is cutting the blood flow off.
Make sure you’re positioned correctly and you’re leaning your wrists and hands against a wrist pad or just away from a hard surface. This will make sure that you’re getting the proper blood flow into your hands.
Hand Exercises
Another super easy thing to do before any gaming sessions is just to do a warm up with your hands – you will see a lot of pro gamers do this anyway to avoid wrist injuries and the like.
Plus, it will help circulation get into your hands – stretch them in and out – and get the hands ready for some gaming and you should start to after a good 5 to 10 minute ‘hand workout’ start to warm up rather nicely.
If you find them getting cold again, stand up and do some more exercises – chances are the way you are positioned and how you’re approaching the game might be contributing to cold hands.
Gaming Gloves
We know already that gaming gloves can be useful for sweaty hands but they will also be useful for those who are getting cold hands often.
They will act like thermal insulators – I would still get breathable material gloves – but they should help to act as a thermal layer to retain heat that your hands produce and block external cold from getting to your hands.
They will also make gripping your gaming controller whether it be a mouse or console controller easier to do as well. There are quite a lot of good makes out there so it is definitely worth investigating.
Fidget Toys
In a similar approach to the hand exercises above – getting a fidget toy of some kind – that keeps your hands active is another great way of helping to keep your hands warm.
Whether it is a soft squidgy stress ball or something that you can twist and turn, it doesn’t really matter – as long as you’re making regular use of it.
Personally, I’d recommend standing up when carrying out any sort of hand exercises and fidget toy action – just to make sure your overall blood flow is on point.
Exercise with a Healthy Lifestyle
This might go without saying and again – visit your doctor – but if you don’t exercise regularly and eat healthy this can contribute to your body having an issue with temperature regulation.
Having a cardio session – whether it be a quick 20-25 minute jog or even some weights – should help you warm up in the short run as you game. However, it should also benefit you over the long run as well – as your body is more capable of regulating your temperature.
Again, get professional healthcare advice on this – but if you’re finding it is not just your hands that are getting cold but your feet too – this could be a sign of needing to step it up in this regard.
Gaming Ergonomics
Again we have touched on this briefly before but how you are sitting and the way you’re approaching your desk might be to blame as well.
Make sure that you’re upright and not slouched whilst gaming – if you really want to test this theory – I recommend getting a Stand Up desk and see if when you game standing up – do you still get cold hands?
If not, then you know it is the way your set up is organized – that’s what contributing to this issue – if not you can move on from this and try a different tactic.
Ensure your wrists, hands and arms are level with the desk this helps to solve the above issue we mentioned of wresting them against a hard surface – it’s happened to a few of my friends too.
After you raise your chair slightly to accommodate for this and getting some gaming wrist pads for both the keyboard and mouse you should have your main gaming ergonomics set up sorted.
Take Breaks
It sounds obvious that you should be doing this anyway – for a whole number of reasons – but taking regular gaming breaks is beneficial as it just stops ‘prolonged compression’ that can happen when sitting down for too long.
If you find your hands getting colder and colder the longer you game for – then this is a classic indicator that you need to be taking regular breaks.
I try to aim for roughly 45 mins before taking a 5-10 minute break before another 45 minute session – which nicely equates to roughly 1 game of Dota 2 – of course there is the odd game that goes on and on. However, if that’s the case I make sure to take an extra long break – maybe even a walk or so – before I played another game.
Warm Up the Room
It seems rather obvious but another aspect you can carry out is actually helping the room warm up itself. If you’re in a cold room to start with and you start gaming – and you expose your hands to that cold room – you’re going to get cold hands.
So either turn up the central heating or even just get a portable heater that you can situate near you as you game – that should warm up your hands rather nicely and you can go from there.
You could even throw on a blanket and if you have a controller you can play the game under there – it’s not going to work out too well with PC gaming though.
The Bottom Line
Hopefully, I’ve have given you some ideas on how to keep your hands warm while gaming – and it would be super interesting if you have suffered with the same issue before and you’ve found your own solution that wasn’t on this list. Please reach out to us as Remote Stoat – as we’d love to hear it.
A gaming enthusiast who started their gaming venture all the way back on a Gameboy Advanced (Purple) on Pokemon Yellow.
