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What are Ergonomics?

The definition on ergonomics is “the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment” (definition credit: Google/Oxford Languages). Ergonomics are much more than just posture. Posture is the position of a person’s body. In our case, the position we are in while sitting or standing at a computer workstation. Posture is an important variable. But when we add the variable of working for an extended period of time, it’s important that our ergonomics aims at a well-rounded practice of multiple variables.

What are Ergonomics?

Sitting and standing at a computer for long periods of time delivers a high risk of injury. It’s up to us to ensure we are working in a safe working environment. I understand that sometimes we are at the mercy of external factors. A lot of work just has to be done on a computer. Often, there is a lot of that work. This requires us to work in the same vulnerable position for long periods of time, which brings an increased risk of injury. However, there are plenty of human factors we can practice in order to maintain safe work at a computer. Today, I’ll talk about 4 subtopics of computer ergonomics that are very important for safety and health. They are sleep, breathing, hydration, and posture.

Why Office Chair Armrests Don’t Work For Me

The standard American desk chair is way too big for most of us. I’m 6’3″ tall. I weigh 205 pounds. The average chairs fit is even way too big for me, despite the ability to adjust height and width. Not only is it too big, using armrests proved to be destructive to the muscles and tendons in my neck and shoulder.

computer table and chair with keyboard and mouse — Photo by Michal Kubalczyk via Unsplash

We won’t get into redesigning ergonomic chairs today. Although, it’s on my list of things to do in the future. Sign up for my email newsletter here if you’d like to be notified of my future articles.

Today, I’m dedicating this article to explain the bad posture mistakes I used to make, related to using armrests while sitting on the chair. Nothing on my website is professional medical advice. It’s for educational purposes only. I share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the poor posture mistakes I’ve fixed and the good posture habits I’ve learned. You are your primary caretaker. Do your research and make good decisions. Be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare and sitting posture, specifically related to armrests height. Both height and width of office chair armrests have posed poor posture mistakes for me in the past.

Good Computer Desk Posture

The average computer user sits at a desk 8 hours a day, 40 hours per week, 2000 hours per year. We can’t keep talking about our poor sitting posture without taking action to fix it. Reducing pain caused by prolonged sitting is a very attainable goal. We just need to make small changes to our daily habits that will create the largest improvements over time. Today, I’m going to share a few simple cues that are easily actionable, for working both at a standing desk or in a sitting posture.

Nothing on my website is professional medical advice. It’s for educational purposes only. I share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the poor posture mistakes I’ve fixed and the good posture habits I’ve learned. You are your primary caretaker. Do your research and make good decisions. Be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare and sitting posture.

Improve Your Posture by Breathing More Effectively

Breathing is an important factor of having good posture at a computer. When I sat at a desk 40 hours per week, physical and mental stress would cause me shallow breath and posture that was poor. My shoulder tension was out of control. My shoulder blades were uneven. I had pelvic floor issues from sitting too long. The natural curves in my spine were always out of alignment.

lungs of human — Photo by Ilexx via Megapixl

It felt like the air I was breathing would barely pass below the airway in my neck, much less into my lungs. As soon as it would enter my lungs, I would exhale it out. The air was in my lungs long enough to keep me conscious. Instead of letting my breath work for me efficiently, my brain and body were always in more of a defensive state. All of my muscles were either compressed or overextended. They were all tight, especially breathing muscles like the diaphragm, abdominals, and muscles throughout my rib cage.

Nothing on my website is medical advice. It’s for informational purposes only. I share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the poor posture mistakes I’ve fixed and the good posture habits I’ve learned.

4 Rookie Mistakes That Made My Posture Much Worse

Sitting at a computer desk caused the most stubborn injuries I’ve ever had. Speaking from experience, poor posture from sitting can lead to long term muscle pain and tension. Neck and back pain were the most noticeable for me. But I also had a lot of issues with my legs, arms, neck and shoulders.

The good news is, improving your posture doesn’t always require going to the physical therapist. The goal is to implement the most good habits into our daily routine, that will make the biggest improvement over time.

woman sitting that could make her Posture Much Worse — Photo by Andrea-Piacquadio via Pexels

Nothing on my website is medical advice. I share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the common posture mistakes I’ve fixed and the good posture habits I’ve learned.

You are your primary caretaker. Not your doctor, therapist, surgeon, coach, or physical therapist. They all play a role. But they also have their own agenda and their own motivation that’s not always in our best interest, regardless if it’s intentional or not. Do your research and make your own good decisions. Be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.

Basic Computer Ergonomics

Office ergonomics involve many different variables. Obviously, posture and body positions are major factors. Others include hydration and sleeping habits. Following these simple protocols directly improved my workstation ergonomics. Anything that improves someone’s efficiency in their work environment can be classified under the term ergonomics. Some of these habits take place while we are physically in our work environment. Some of these can take place while we are not in our work environment. All of them directly improved my sitting posture, as well as my general overall health.

Basic Computer Ergonomics

ergonomics meaning for Computer Ergonomics

Posture and body positions

Years ago, I took full accountability of the poor posture I had in my work environment. I changed various workstation and computer ergonomics related to my computer screen.

The first thing I did was replace my very old monitor with a newer, larger monitor. This reduced my eye strain in a big way. That change obviously won’t apply to everyone, but it made a huge improvement for me because my monitor was very small and outdated.

How to Improve Computer Posture

“Sit up straight.” Or, “Use good posture”. We’ve heard things like this a million times. But what do they really mean? How do we really do it? And what are the specific cues? This article talks about a minimalistic way to improve your posture while sitting at a computer. Poor posture and ergonomics take a lot of work to correct. The human body is a complex system. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t simplify the sitting process as much as possible.

Whether you work at home or in an office, it takes a few simple changes and a lot of commitment to improve your posture. This article won’t apply to working at a stand desk. We’ll cover that another time. This article will cover how to improve your posture while sitting in an office chair for long periods of time.

Good Laptop Posture

Since I switched to a laptop from a desktop computer, my productivity has increased. But, working from a laptop greatly increased the risk of bad posture for me. Today, I’ll solely talk about the two main posture issues I fixed from working on a laptop.

The ability to take our laptop with us and work anywhere in the world is incredibly convenient. This article doesn’t necessarily talk about using a laptop during travel. I completely understand the value of being able to work away from the home office. The human body is very resilient. We can withstand poor posture positions for small amounts of time. We get in trouble with posture when we try to fight through these poor positions for long periods of time on a daily basis.

This article will talk about how to use good posture on a laptop while working in an office or home office. In other words, this article applies to any permanent location that we work on our laptop for long periods of time, where we have the ability to make a couple small changes to our ergonomic setup.

Welcome to SittingPosture.com

Welcome to my website, SittingPosture.com.

I’m incredibly proud of the website’s design and content. I’m excited about the future and this quick article will give you a preview.

3 Ways to Improve Computer Posture Immediately! Book by Todd Bowen — Ways to Improve Computer Posture ebook, by Todd Bowen.

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What is a repetitive strain injury?

re·pet·i·tive strain in·ju·ry – a condition in which the prolonged performance of repetitive actions, causes pain or impairment of function in the tendons and muscles involved (definition credit: Google)

Many people talk about how sitting for long periods of time causes many different injuries (heart problems, joint pain, weight gain, skeletal alignment issues, headaches, etc etc). However, notice how the above definition for repetitive strain injury only contains 2 body parts: tendons and muscles. When it comes down to it, the health of our muscles and tendons is where we need to put our ergonomic focus.

When I say improve the “health” of our muscles and tendons, this doesn’t mean go and overtrain in the gym.

Dear desk jockeys, (an open letter)

Dear desk jockeys,

We sit at a computer desk 40+ hours per week. The human body wasn’t designed to do that. It actually wasn’t designed to be in ANY one (same) position that long. It’s only going to cause massive pain and dysfunction in our bodies.

As desk jockeys, it’s not our fault. But, it IS our responsibility to adapt, change, and heal.

Many years ago, it was a fascinating new concept to sit at a computer desk and make a living. People realized they could pay for a house, cars, all their bills while not even getting out of their chair. They realized they hardly had to move at work anymore. Work was going to be great and life was going to change tremendously. They were right about one of those.