Wrist pain from typing can be a stubborn, poor posture mistake to fix. However, having pain-free wrists while typing is a very possible reality. It only took 2 changes to my ergonomic workstation and 2 corrections to my poor computer posture.
How to Avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Photo by Peerayot via Megapixl.
First, this article will explain the computer posture mistakes that caused my wrist pain. Then, it will go over how I fixed my wrist pain caused by typing. It will talk about the good computer posture habits I used, as well as the best ergonomic devices for carpal tunnel syndrome that I purchased.
Using poor posture on a computer keyboard and mouse caused lack of blood flow and muscle tension in both of my shoulders. I’d hold these vulnerable positions for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. That went on for about 12 years before I finally took accountability for my poor computer posture.
How to Avoid Shoulder Pain at a Computer
In 2011, I started studying good computer posture and workstation ergonomics. I was interested in anything wellness related that had a positive effect on my computer posture. In this article, I’m going to talk about a few good posture tips that’ve helped me reduce shoulder tension and pain from typing and using a mouse.
How to Avoid Shoulder Pain at a Computer. Photo by andreypopov via Megapixl.
Quick side note, I’m working at my standing computer workstation today. But all the computer shoulder pain relief tips in this article are general shoulder ergonomics for computer work in any position. They all apply, regardless if we’re working in a standing or sitting posture.
Many people don’t think proper backpack positioning and adjustment matters. In my opinion, the correct way to wear a backpack is very important. Especially for those of us who sit at a computer for long periods of time.
How to Wear a Backpack Correctly. Photo by aaron595 via Megapixl
We get an excessive amount of internal shoulder rotation from holding a keyboard and mouse for 8 hours a day. As soon as I get up from my desk, I’m throwing on a backpack to go to the gym. The act of wearing a backpack used to tighten up my shoulders even more. My natural tendency was to rotate my shoulders forward when wearing a backpack. In addition to shoulder pain, rotating my shoulders internally for long periods of time caused muscle tension, neck pain, and back pain.
So, I’m writing this article to be an ergonomic backpack wearing guide for good posture. It’ll describe how to avoid shoulder pain and back pain from wearing a backpack. We’ll also talk about backpack wearing tips for comfort.
Posture is the position someone holds their body in while standing or sitting. Since I work at a computer desk for long periods of time, proper posture is very important to me. Working in the same position for 8 hours a day can cause repetitive strain and overuse injuries. Office workers who practice good posture are still at risk for this tension and pain. But office workers with poor posture will feel the negative effects much worse.
Back exercises for good posture. Photo by F9photos via Megapixl.
Bad posture can lead to a variety of aches and pains. I focus on good posture habits specific to the muscles and tendons first. Obviously, the spine can get pulled out of alignment too. But it’s the tight muscles and tendons that are pulling the spine into an incorrect position. I’ll cover some of my favorite back strengthening exercises in this article.
Why does sitting at a computer hurt my back? It’s not like I’m lifting anything heavy when I’m sitting. I’m not withstanding any impact, like I would when I’m running, or if I fell. I’m literally just sitting there. Poor posture was obviously the cause of my back pain. But what exactly was I doing wrong?
Why Does Sitting at a Computer Cause Back Pain? One of the main reasons is when you slouch forward in your chair. Photo by Sebra69 via Megapixl.
One of the most common work-related disabilities is back pain from sitting at a desk with poor posture. There are many reasons how this happens. A high amount of stress, the lack of lumbar curve, no lumbar support, the list goes on. My goal of this article is to prevent back pain by working at a computer (simply as possible). First, I’ll explain 2 poor posture habits to avoid. Then, I’ll give some ergonomic tips for back pain at computer.
The standard American office chair is way too big for most of us. I’m 6’3″ tall and I weigh 195 pounds. The average chairs fit is even too big for me, despite the ability to adjust height and width. Not only is it too big, using armrests ended up causing dysfunction in my neck and shoulder. Using poor armrest posture caused an excessive amount of tight muscles and inflamed tendons. These repetitive strain injuries took a very long time to fix. Today, I’m dedicating this article to explain how to make office chair armrests more comfortable.
Here’s an example of non-adjusting office chair armrests. Photo by Michal Kubalczyk via Unsplash
I’d like to design my own ergonomic office chair one day. Sign up for my email newsletter here if you’d like to receive easy, actionable ways to improve computer posture.
I started to cold plunge at home in January of 2023. I’ve gotten many cold plunge benefits since then. The main health benefit: my cold plunge routine has helped improve my blood flow. When I have improved blood flow, my muscle pain is decreased. My muscle soreness is decreased. My muscle recovery is quicker. It’s one of my favorite home remedies for reducing pain and muscle tension. All these cold plunge benefits have helped me improve posture at my computer.
How to cold plunge for beginners. Photo by Nesterenkoruslan via Megapixl.
Setting up a cold plunge at home can be intimidating. It can also get expensive and time consuming. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I live in an apartment. And I wanted to cold plunge multiple times per week. So, I needed to find ways to make it easy, quick, and at a minimal dollar amount. I needed to be creative logistically. Here are the cold plunge tips for starters I came up with…
After years of sitting at a computer for long periods of time, I had poor posture due to muscle tension, decreased blood flow, overuse, and repetitive strain injuries. I used to sit in the same compromised, vulnerable position for 8 hours a day. In 2011, I finally took full accountability and started fixing bad posture at the computer.
How to fix computer posture mistakes. Photo by Andreypopv via Megapixl
Since 2011, I’ve studied how to correct computer posture and improve workstation ergonomics. Today, I’m sharing 4 of my most important tips on how to fix computer posture mistakes.
Poor posture at a computer for 8 hours a day used to decrease my grip strength in many ways. My hands, wrists, fingers, and forearms suffered muscle tension from repetitive strain and lack of blood flow. Poor posture on my keyboard and mouse for long periods of time caused carpel tunnel syndrome.
Grip strength training tips. Photo by Olehslepchenko via Megapixl
If you’d like to learn more about the causes of poor hand posture and its negative effects, check out my article titled, Why Does Typing Weaken Grip Strength.
Today, I’m focusing the rest of this article on a more optimistic, productive mindset. Continue reading below to learn how to enhance grip power.
I recently wrote an article titled, How to Sleep Better at Night Naturally. It contains the 4 most valuable sleep improvement tips that’ve helped me. It specifically talks about better sleep habits like using blackout curtains, a grounding sheet, mouth tape, and a temperature controlled mattress cover. That article about improving sleep naturally can be found here.
Quality Sleep Guide. Photo by Showtimeagola via Megapixl
While writing that article, I realized I have many more than those 4 habits for sleep optimization. As I often say, my sleep quality is directly related to how good (or bad) my computer posture is the next day. The earlier in the day I get tired, the quicker I have poor computer posture. Today, I’m writing this article to share 4 more healthy sleep habits that I practice.
I used to have very poor sleep habits. I’d stay up late watching tv. When I eventually got in bed, it would take me an hour to fall asleep. Then every time I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, it would take an hour to fall back asleep. Finally, my alarm would go off and I’d hit the snooze button for an hour. I was averaging 4 to 5 hours of poor sleep quality a night.
Photo by Rido via Megapixl
When I first started trying better sleep strategies, I had no idea how extensive my healthy sleep habits would get. A lot of people may call it excessive. But all my sleep habits have become an easy, comfortable norm for me to improve sleep naturally.
Until recently, I had been a chronic mouth breather all my life. Both on the inhale and exhale. This caused increased risk of many health problems. I was overusing my jaw muscles to constantly hold my mouth open. My overused jaw muscles were causing muscle tension in my head, face, and neck muscles. This was the catalyst for a lot of bad headaches.
Hostage Tape is the best mouth tape for sleeping in my opinion.
Another problem was shallow breathing through my mouth. My breath wasn’t in my lungs long enough to be highly effective. I needed to slow my breathing down, so that air spent more time in my lungs.
I’ve gotten multiple benefits of mouth taping since I started taping my mouth shut in early 2023. My favorite benefits are how much it reduced muscle tension and improved my sleep. These were accomplished because mouth tape helped me keep my jaw in a closed, neutral position all night (compared to sleeping with my mouth open). Continue reading this article to learn more reasons why I use mouth tape for sleep benefits.
One of the most common computer posture mistakes caused me to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. The mistake: the type of keyboard and mouse I used caused a lot of pressure and overuse on my wrists. This overuse made my wrist muscles fatigue quickly, which led to excessive muscle tension.
Photo by Maska82 via Megapixl
There’s a common misconception about carpal tunnel syndrome. Many office workers think carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by typing. In my case, it was caused by engaging my wrist muscles to lift my hands onto a tall keyboard and mouse. I would hold my wrists in this compromised, poor posture position for long periods of time. Once I understood how carpal tunnel syndrome had to do with wrist position, and not typing, it was an easy computer posture fix for me.
There are many ways to avoid shoulder pain. Being office workers, we are very prone to neck and shoulder overuse for most of the day. I used to sit all day with my hands on the keyboard and mouse at least 8 hours a day. Holding this vulnerable position caused excessive internal shoulder rotation. In addition to those long periods at work, my poor hand position while driving was putting my shoulder muscles right back in that same internally rotated, poor posture position.
Photo by Andraz Lazic via Unsplash
The combination of poor computer posture and poor driving posture added up to be a minimum 9 hours of my day. My hands and arms were overused. I had neck and shoulder pain at work and in the car. Eventually, these repetitive strain injuries became chronic. I’d deal with them regardless of what I was doing. This affected me during exercise. It even affected me when I slept, because my shoulders were stuck in that internally rotated position. Our muscles are meant to be strong and resilient. However, they aren’t meant to be held in the exact same position for 8 or more hours a day.
The point of this article isn’t to tell you exactly where correct hand positioning is on the steering wheel. In my opinion, it’s not that simple. A typical driver’s ed course told us to put them at “10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.” But that could be what’s making our internal shoulder rotation worse. Here’s an example…
I started learning correct posture back in 2011. I’d been sitting at a computer for 10 years at that point. Sitting with poor posture for long periods of time, 8 hours a day, caused numerous injuries. Today, I’m going to talk about the 3 worst computer posture injuries I had. Then, I’m going to talk about 3 easy computer posture fixes to prevent them.
Photo via Eraxion via Megapixl
By reading this article, you’re taking a valuable step forward to improve your posture. That’s something to be very proud of. Surprisingly, many computer posture fixes are very easy to do. The hard part is sticking to those good posture habits for long periods of time.
I enjoy talking about my personal experience so others can learn from it. My goal is to explain correct posture as simply as possible. I’m a lifelong athlete with a degree in information technology. The combination of those 2 interests is what sparked my desire to write a book. I’ve taken classes on posture, computer ergonomics, and user experience. I talk about ways I corrected my poor posture. I explain them in a way that’s easy to understand, easy to implement, and a valuable use of our time. The correct posture benefits I’ve gotten are decreased computer related pain, increased energy, improved mental clarity, and increased work productivity.
I’d like to share my background and how I got here. I want to explain why I’m a credible source for computer posture correction. This way, you can decide whether or not to listen to my story. You’re probably here because you’re interested in topics like neck pain relief, preventing carpal tunnel, optimal sitting position, and sit-stand desk benefits. If so, I think my story will resonate with you.
Best posture for computer work. Photo by Reneshia via Megapixl
I graduated in 2001 with a degree in Information Technology. I’ve been doing computer work ever since. Of all the information technology classes I took, computer ergonomics was the most interesting to me. This is mainly because of my athletic background. My main sports were basketball, baseball, and beach volleyball. I also enjoy lifting weights and other exercise.
In 2011, my body was broken and my posture was terrible. I’d had enough. I decided to start my journey in computer posture correction. I’d been sitting at a computer with poor posture for 10 years at that point. I began to implement as many healthy sitting habits into my life as I could. So today, I’m sharing some of my favorite computer desk posture tips.
I started cold plunging in January of 2023. There are many health benefits I’ve gotten from it. The main one: cold plunging has helped improve my blood flow. When my blood flow is improved, my muscle pain is decreased. My muscle soreness is decreased. My muscle recovery is quicker. It’s one of my favorite home remedies for reducing pain and muscle tension. All these health benefits have helped me improve posture at my computer.
Photo by Nesterenkoruslan via Megapixl
Setting up a cold plunge can get expensive and time consuming. I wanted to do it multiple times a week. So, I needed to be creative logistically.
Back in 2011, I didn’t realize my knee pain was caused by sitting at a computer for long periods of time. I thought it was from overtraining. Besides, the first time I ever felt knee pain was after a long run. But the pain that day was the effect of my problem. Running was a variable that made the knee pain worse. However, the cause of the knee pain was repetitive strain from sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Photo by Khosrork via Megapixl
Why does sitting at a computer cause knee pain?
As soon as I felt knee pain, I made an appointment with a massage therapist. He was a really sharp guy. He was also a CrossFit coach, which is the main training method I was doing back then.
I told him my knees hurt, but I wasn’t sure why. He explained to me that pain and inflammation in a joint is often caused by a tight muscle somewhere else. Muscles are attached to tendons. Tendons are attached to bones. Often at a joint, like a knee.
For example: the quadriceps, hamstrings, IT bands, and calves all attach to tendons at the knee. When these muscles get tight, we might feel muscle tension. But it didn’t really hurt in the muscle for me. It just felt tight. The problem is, tight muscles pull extra hard on tendons, which get overextended easily. These tendons at the knee are where we’re more likely to feel the pain first.
I used to underestimate the importance of good posture, especially when it came to foot positioning. Besides, I was sitting in an office chair. I was hardly putting any weight on my feet. Does foot posture really matter? Could poor sitting posture really cause foot pain? I eventually found out the hard way. Foot positioning definitely matters.
The negative effects from poor foot posture caused multiple issues with my leg muscles and joints. Eventually, I would need 3 ankle surgeries to correct a torn tendon, bone chips, and bone spurs. All this was caused by poor foot posture while sitting in an office chair for long periods of time.
Photo by inegvin via Megapixl
The above user’s feet on the left are a great example of the poor posture I used to have. Notice how his feet are underneath his body. I had to contract my hamstrings in order to pull my feet backward like that. Sitting with my hamstrings contracted for long periods of time led to them being very dominant over my quadriceps. The constant hamstring activation caused me to keep my knees bent so much that it overextended my quadriceps. My hamstrings got shorter and tighter. My quadriceps got longer and tighter. This caused a lot of muscle dysfunction, tension and pain.
A full-time office worker hits a button on the keyboard thousands of times per day. With every keystroke we make, the muscles in our hands, and tendons in our fingers, are doing the exact opposite of what builds a strong grip.
Photo by Luke Southern via Unsplash
But why does this happen?
You would think using our hands and fingers to type all day would make our grip stronger.
But these are the reasons why typing weakened my grip strength…
