For 10 years, I sat with poor computer posture everyday for 8 hours a day. I didn’t even know what the word “ergonomics” meant.
Ergonomics means “the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment.” But in my opinion, ergonomics doesn’t only take place inside the “working environment.” Posture takes place in the working environment. And posture is an important variable of ergonomics. Arguably, the most important variable.
But what about sleep quality. If I get terrible sleep the night before work, I’m going to get to work tired. This means my computer posture will suffer much quicker that day, opposed to a day where I got 8 hours of quality sleep the night before. In my mind, sleep is an important variable of computer ergonomics.
This article will talk about different variables of computer ergonomics that’ve helped improve my posture. Some of them occur in the working environment. And some occur outside of it. The computer ergonomic variables covered in this article will be:
- posture
- hydration
- nutrition
- sleep quality
- breathing
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.
The Ultimate Guide to Ergonomic Computer Posture
This article will be a mixture of resources. It will include some office posture tips inside the article. It will also include links to other articles when applicable. It’ll also include the link to my free ebook titled 3 Ways to Improve Computer Posture Immediately! Finally, it’ll talk briefly about my book titled 45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture. It’s available in digital PDF format. Or, you can order the paperback from Amazon.
What’s the difference between posture and ergonomics?
Posture is the position we hold our bodies in. Ergonomics is the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment. Posture is obviously an important variable of computer ergonomics. But it’s not the only factor in how to maintain proper computer posture. To read a more in depth explanation, check out my article titled What’s the Difference Between Posture and Ergonomics?
Posture Correction Techniques
Healthy Workstation Setup for Sitting Posture
There are 3 simple ergonomic tips for desk workers that solved the majority of my sitting posture problems. They are:
1. Raise your desk chair until your elbow level is slightly above the desk level.
I used to sit with my elbows below the desk level. This caused me to constantly contract my biceps for 8 hours a day, in order to lift my hands onto my keyboard and mouse. This caused my biceps to tighten and shorten, which pulled on the tendons connecting my bicep muscles to bone in the shoulder area. This was chronic shoulder pain that took me a long time to figure out. All I did was simply raise my chair to the correct height. This relaxed my biceps and my shoulder pain gradually decreased.
2. Raise Your monitor until the top of the screen is eye level.
I used to have my computer monitor way too low. Especially when I was working from my laptop screen. This caused chronic neck pain that took years to fix.
Raising my monitor to the correct height was the next crucial step. After raising my chair to the correct height (in step 1 above), I raised my monitor until the top of the screen was at my eye level.
To learn about the other important step that helped correct my neck pain and muscle tension, check out the Iron Neck Review I wrote.
3. Keep your feet flat on the floor (or footrest) at all times.
This posture correction technique may not seem important, but trust me on this one. I used to sit with my toes on the floor, but my heels were up in the air. I had my hamstrings constantly contracted 8 hours a day, which pulled my feet underneath my office chair. This overextended all the muscles in my lower quads and all the tendons around my knee cap. Sitting in this poor posture caused a lot of ankle and knee dysfunction. In the joints, and the muscles surrounding those joints. This dysfunction and weakness caused me to sprain an ankle while playing basketball, which required 3 surgeries to fix.
Sometimes raising your desk chair (in step 1) to the correct elbow height will lift your feet off the floor. If so, a footrest would be a good ergonomic tool to invest in. In this case, keep your feet flat on the footrest. To learn more about this computer posture mistake and how to fix it, check out my article titled How to Position Feet When Sitting at a Computer.
Those 3 simple tips on how to fix bad posture at a computer made the most improvements of all my healthy ergonomic habits.
Preventing Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI)
A repetitive strain injury occurs when a muscle or tendon is constantly activated or overused for long periods of time. These computer-related injuries can occur, regardless if we have good posture or not. The enemy isn’t necessarily what position we are working in. The enemy is how long we work in that position.
The best posture correction technique I use to prevent repetitive strain injuries is to work in multiple ergonomic positions throughout the day. I sit for a short period of time, then I stand for a short period of time. The length of time varies, depending on how I feel physically and how productive I am mentally. If I feel any physical pain, or my mental clarity starts to suffer, I’ll take a break. I’ll get in some movement, drink some water, then I’ll work in a different position when I return to my desk.
If you’re new to a standing workstation, check out my article titled How To Get Used To A Standing Desk. Another helpful article I wrote talks about how I only use 3 ergonomic accessories to switch from sit to stand positions multiple times throughout the day. That article is titled Standing Desk Accessories. It’s especially helpful for people looking to improve their work-from-home ergonomics.
There’s not one “best posture for using a computer all day.” It just doesn’t exist. Yes, having proper computer posture can reduce the risk of computer-related injuries. But even good posture, when held for long periods of time, is likely to cause repetitive strain and overuse injuries.
Computer Neck and Back Pain Prevention
Sitting with poor computer posture caused chronic pain in my neck and back. The biggest posture mistake that caused my back pain was slouching forward. The main reason I slouched forward was because my monitor was too low. Once I raised it until the top of my screen was at eye level, I tended to slouch forward much less. To do a deeper dive on this topic, check out my article titled Why Does Sitting at a Computer Cause Back Pain?
Having my monitor too low was also the main cause of my computer neck pain. It caused me to tilt my head downward. Our bodies are made to get in this position. But we aren’t designed to stay in this position for long periods of time. The muscles on the front of my neck would compress and shorten. At the same time, the muscles on the back of my neck would overextend and lengthen. This muscle confusion and dysfunction caused spinal disc degeneration, among other computer-related pain.
Hydration
The quicker we are dehydrated, the quicker our muscles tighten up. The quicker that happens, the earlier in the day our computer posture suffers. We might start off the day with proper computer posture, but dehydration quickly becomes a factor. Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day is an endurance event. It might be low-intensity, but our muscles are still activated for long periods of time. That’s why it’s important for me to drink the correct amount of quality water each day.
What is quality drinking water?
I bought a reverse osmosis water filter that I really like. It sits on my kitchen countertop. I didn’t have to hook it up to any water lines or anything. I just fill it up with tap water anytime I want a pitcher of filtered water. The filter I got has a remineralization feature. It adds minerals back into the water. Because the filter doesn’t only filter out harmful chemicals. It also filters out any minerals that were in the tap water.
I avoid drinking tap water straight, as well as plastic bottled water. I practice low-toxin living. Tap water and plastic bottled water are high on the list of things to avoid.
To learn more about a low-toxin lifestyle, click here to see a free training video.
How much water do I need to drink per day?
There is no correct amount of water for everyone. We all have different habits in our daily lives. Body weight, eating habits, physical activity, alcohol, and caffeine are just a few that come to mind. All these variables determine the correct amount of water we need. To decide what the correct amount of water is for yourself, check out my article titled How Much Water Do I Need To Drink Per Day?
Nutrition
Similar to hydration, nutrition affects our overall health. In my opinion, anything that impacts my health negatively is a computer posture mistake. It doesn’t matter if I’m in my working environment or not. If we eat ultra-processed foods cooked in unhealthy seed oils, it will decrease our energy levels.
I use good, clean nutrition to promote proper computer posture throughout an 8 hour workday. I eat mostly real, whole, organic foods that are cooked in healthy cooking substances. To learn more about the foods I eat, check out my article titled Foods That Promote Good Posture. To learn about the cooking substances I use instead of seed oils, check out How to Cook Without Seed Oils.
Sleep quality
If we don’t sleep well, our energy levels will be low the next day at work. If we have low energy, our computer posture will suffer much earlier in the day. I started implementing new healthy sleep habits in 2020. I’ve experienced a huge improvement in my energy levels since then, which improves my computer ergonomics.
Poor sleeping posture can also affect our sleep quality. To learn more, check out my article titled Good Sleeping Posture.
Breathing
Last but not least, breath work is an important variable of my ergonomic computer posture practice. Physical and mental stress used to cause shallow breathing and poor posture. If my breathing is always shallow, blood is circulating less to my muscles. If my muscles get less blood flow, they tighten up quicker. Tight muscles lead to poor computer posture. I’ve typed too much for this article. But to learn about the breath work practices that’ve helped my desk posture improvement, check out my article titled Improve Your Posture by Breathing More Effectively.
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 ultimate guide to ergonomic computer posture, 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