Quite often what feels like a muscle strain, especially in the wrist and hand, is really due to a nerve problem. The best known "syndrome" is probably carpal tunnel syndrome, where there is a stress on the carpal nerve that controls finger movement.

The usual assumption is that the problem is that the nerve is pinched in or near the wrist, but the real cause can be clear back at the elbow or even further up. The tendons that "move the fingers" and wrist actually anchor near the elbow and that's where the "signals" get into the path to the fingers.

The carpal nerve gets past the elbow in the "notch" near the inside of the arm (close to the body) and a second very similar nerve called the "cubital nerve" goes through the smaller notch on the other side of the joint. It's not heard much, but you can have "cubital nerve syndrome" that's very similar to carpal syndrome.

Either of these nerves can be "stressed" in a number of ways that reduce the effectiveness of the nerve conduction, without producing much in the way of symptoms until you try to use the fingers they control a little more than usual. "Leaning on your elbow" at the computer can stress either nerve so that when you actually use the fingers to play, the fingers hurt, even though the elbow doesn't.

The carpal nerve mostly controls the thumb and first two fingers, while the cubital nerve controls the two little fingers and lateral motions of all the fingers, so "where it hurts" might give a clue where to try to apply remedies. (If you can't do the Vulcan salute, it's very likely due to a cubital nerve problem.)

There are lots of things that can cause a whole bunch of things that look like RSI. Many people find that fairly deep muscle massage is helpful, and massaging the muscles that hurt is probably a good idea. Extending the massage to the "whole arm" also sometimes helps, concentrating on where the tendons that move what hurts are connected, at least up to the elbow and maybe clear into the armpit.

In my case of a diagnosed cubital nerve problem I found a "massage vibrator" applied at elbow and armpit actually produced more significant effects than what I could do to relax the wrist and hand, but I must say this is NOT SOMETHING THE DOCTORS RECOMMENDED. A problem is that most "consumer vibrators" don't actually vibrate. The may "hum" but are pretty much worthless for actually affecting deep muscle tension. You can get similar results with manual massage, but it takes a lot more of it.

The whole point here is that the problem may not be just where the pain is, and there may be no pain at all where the real problem is. Explore all the attached parts and see if getting them all in good shape (relaxed and happy) helps your personal situation.

It's entirely possible that your pain is just from overuse of a few muscles, but a good massage makes everything feel better anyway.

John