Athletes are at peak performance when they’re active, strong, flexible, and energetic. But a computer user is forced to be the exact opposite of those adjectives. When we sit at a computer for long periods of time, we’re inactive, weak, tight, and tired.
These computer-related posture issues create big problems for athletes. Not only at our office desk, but also in the gym and on the playing field.
This article will talk about my favorite ways of computer posture correction, which will improve athletic performance. It’ll also cover ways of preventing future injuries from poor computer posture in athletes.
This article is not professional medical advice. It’s based off my personal experience and opinions. For years, my poor computer posture caused muscle tension, inflammation, and chronic pain. Bad posture also decreased my mental clarity, energy level, and work productivity.
All the desk worker health tips I write about are directly related to improving posture at a computer. We are our own primary caretakers. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
Computer Posture for Athletes
Poor posture caused me back pain, neck pain, and leg dysfunction. These are the 3 main computer-related injuries that affected my athletic abilities. Here are my top athlete-focused desk posture strategies that I used to improve these issues.
Best Sitting Posture for Athletes at a Desk
The best practices for computer posture in athletes is similar to any other office worker. However, the more athletes can improve posture at a computer, the more they can excel at their training or sport.
Reducing back pain for athletes at a computer
Slouching forward (with my torso) is one of the most destructive things I’ve ever done to my posture. It caused my back muscles to overextend and lengthen. At the same time, it caused my chest and abdomen muscles to compress and shorten. This muscle imbalance created a lot of confusion throughout my entire body.
The best method of back pain relief for athletes at desks is to not slouch forward. The question is, how do we avoid that conundrum?
I naturally tend to slouch forward anytime I grab something with my hands. This includes a phone, steering wheel, keyboard, or mouse. But I’m able to avoid this slouching when I grab a keyboard and mouse, by a using few healthy posture habits.
Correct chair height
If my chair is too low or too high, either way I’ll tend to slouch forward. The only way to have a decent chance at an upright torso is to have my desk chair at the correct height.
To determine what the correct chair height is, I want to make sure my hips are slightly above my knees. If my hips are below my knee level, it’ll cause my hip muscles to tighten and shorten. Tight hips used to cause a chain reaction in my torso that led to slouching forward, which caused computer-related back pain.
Correct monitor height
I used to sit with my monitor too low. This caused me to slouch forward to bring my eyes closer to the screen. I corrected this by raising my monitor to the correct height.
I like to have the top of my monitor screen at eye level. This allows me to keep my head and neck in a balanced, neutral position when I’m looking straight ahead. It also reduces my tendency to slouch forward with my torso.
Correct monitor distance from eyes
With the increase of stress as my work day went on, I’d extend my arms and push my keyboard forward. Which caused tension in my chest and overextension of my upper back muscles. This was only possible because my monitor was too far back on my desk. Which also caused eye strain.
The correct monitor distance to keep the monitor from our eyes is personal preference. It depends on our eyesight. My eyes are most comfortable reading my monitor screen from 18 to 24 inches away from my face. When it’s positioned there on my desk correctly, it also helps me avoid extending my arms and pushing my keyboard forward. Because even though my stress builds up throughout the day, my keyboard won’t move my monitor when I have the correct monitor placement.
Leg pain relief for athletes at a computer
You would think our legs are at rest when we’re sitting at a computer desk. But that’s far from the truth. Some of our leg muscles are indeed deactivated. But if our posture is poor, other muscles in our legs are constantly activated in a state of light intensity for a long duration of time.
Just think if you were doing a bicep curl with a 1 pound weight. No big deal, right? However, imagine you were holding that bicep curl contracted constantly for most of an 8 hour work day. That’s what I consider light intensity for a long duration. That would cause major muscle tension and chronic pain.
The same goes for our legs. As stress in my workday would build up, I’d contract my hamstrings more. This would pull my feet underneath my office chair. I’d rest my feet on my toes. But my heels were suspended in the air. This caused joint dysfunction in my ankles and knees. It also caused muscle tension and chronic pain throughout my entires legs.
The way to avoid this poor posture issue is one of my most valuable posture hacks for athletes.
It’s also one of the easiest to do. I simply keep my feet flat on the floor. That’s all there is to it. This keeps my ankle and knee joints in a balanced, neutral position. It relaxes my hamstrings and calves. The only hard part is having the awareness to keep my feet there throughout the entire day.
In the above photo, the user on the left has his feet flat on the floor correctly. This allows him to easily maintain a neutral position in his lower leg muscles and ankle joints. This is an example of good foot positioning at a computer.
The user on the right has his feet pulled slightly underneath his desk chair. This is another poor posture example that requires constant activation of the hamstring muscles. He has his knees bent way too much, which overextends his quadricep muscles. Holding this sitting posture for long periods of time will shorten the hamstrings, while lengthening the quadriceps. All of those muscles will be overused, weaker, and inflexible.
To learn more about this ergonomic foot setup for athletes, check out my article titled How to Position Feet When Sitting at a Computer.
Neck strain solutions for athletic computer users
I used to keep my monitor height way too low. This was the worst computer posture mistake I used to make when it came to neck strain. Once I learned how to sit with a neutral, balanced spine, I raised my monitor until the top of the screen was eye level. This was important for preventing neck posture issues in active individuals like myself. Now, I could look straight ahead with my entire spine in a neutral, balanced position (just like the rest of my spine).
But getting my neck in the correct position for computer posture was only half the battle. It allowed me to prevent neck strain in the future. But how was I going to heal my neck muscle tension and pain that I’d already caused with poor posture?
Sitting with my monitor too low caused me to tilt my head downward for long periods of time.
This caused the muscles on the front of my neck to compress and shorten. At the same time, muscles on the back of my neck extended and lengthened. This caused a terrible imbalance between the muscles on the front and back of my neck.
I would need to correct this imbalance by increasing the strength and improving the mobility of my neck muscles. I tried multiple different neck strain solutions. The one that worked best for me was a device called an Iron Neck.
Side note: I’m not compensated by Iron Neck. It’s a product I bought with my own money. I like to share my experience with products that’ve improved my computer posture and athletic ability.
Iron Neck workout benefits
I can’t say enough good things about how much the Iron Neck has helped me vs other neck trainers. The health benefits I’ve gotten from it include:
- improved neck strength
- corrected neck muscle imbalance
- improved blood flow
- improved range of motion
- prevent future neck pain from computer use
- reduce tech neck
- improved computer posture
To learn more about my experience with the Iron Neck, check out my article titled Iron Neck Review.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COMPUTER POSTURE.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to reduce computer-related injuries by improving your posture. That’s something to be very proud of!
If you liked this article on computer posture for athletes, check out my book titled 45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.
This book is a great supplement to the article you just read. It covers healthy ergonomic habits like posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing.
I wrote this book to be the resource I wish I had back in 2002, when I first started sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen