Your Computer and Your Posture

Setting-up your computer workstation to be a healthy environment is a key element in avoiding repetitive stress injuries. Monitoring position, seat height, and elbow-wrist placement are the main elements of an ergonomically healthy design.

Your seat height and the keyboard should be aligned so that when your hands are on the keyboard, your elbows are parallel to the floor. In other words, in an ergonomically efficient typing position, your elbows are neither above nor below the keyboard. Your wrists should be in a neutral position when typing, neither flexed nor extended. Chronic wrist flexion or extension will result in fatigue and overuse.

Position your monitor or laptop display so your neck flexes slightly and your angle of gaze is directed level to downward no more than ten degrees.

If you're using a mouse, it should be close to the keyboard, so that good elbow alignment is maintained. You should not have to reach for the mouse.

Windows and Mac users actually do have one thing in common - computer ergonomics issues, namely, pain. Beyond the usual hardware and software differences we deal with on a daily basis, the real bottom-line question is, "how do I set up the healthiest position with my computer".

Doing computer work is a funny kind of work, a type of activity that still isn't the best for maintaining correct posture. It's not physical work in the sense that there's no heavy lifting going on, no truck-driving, no emergency services heart-pounding decision-making. But computer work is still an intensely physical activity, although the work is pretty subtle. In computer work it's the small muscles that are getting the workout, not the big muscles we're used to thinking about.

Wrist and finger muscles, tendons, and ligaments along with shoulder and neck muscles are all used in computer work. All of these are involved in ongoing repetitive tasks when you sit at a computer and one hour turns into two, two hours turns into three, and suddenly half the day is gone and you notice you've got a killer stiff neck. Or, one day the tendons on the back of your hand begin to hurt, feeling irritated and inflamed. Or your shoulders and upper back are tight and painful. Your hands or shoulders feel better by the time you go to sleep. But the next day, as soon as you start to type they act up again. This is all very uncomfortable, because you've got to do your work.

What's going on?

These various pain patterns in your hands, wrists, shoulders, and neck can be grouped together as a repetitive stress syndrome. Repetitive activities, done over a long period of time, can irritate and inflame the muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are involved in doing the work. But computer work involves repetitive tasks. How can you avoid these painful problems?

The best approach is to prevent them in the first place. If such a syndrome does develop, relative rest is indicated. Reduced computer activity, in smaller intervals, is a good solution. A very useful work-around for right- or left-arm pain is to teach your non-dominant hand to use the mouse or touchpad. This training may take a few weeks - the valuable result is the ability to switch hands whenever you like, distributing the workload between the two sides. Much better.

The most important aspect of prevention is to make sure the neck and wrist are in proper alignment. Old injuries to the wrist, shoulders and neck often need to be adjusted for proper joint function .Making time to take a quick, refreshing break once every 2 hours reduces stress on the spine. This is a critical habit to develop. Get out of your chair, walk around, and get some fresh air if possible. Change your environment for a few minutes - do some spinal twist exercises, get a drink from the water-cooler down the hall or take a walk outside during lunch.

These activities refresh your body AND your brain, and you're ready to do another hour of productive, creative, healthy work. You'll feel much better, you'll be avoiding repetitive injuries, and your workday will be more enjoyable.

1Keyserling WM, Chaffin DB: Occupational ergonomics - methods to evaluate physical stress on the job. Annu Rev Public Health 7:77-104, 1986.

2Computer Workstation Ergonomics. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000. http://www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/Ergonomics/compergo.htm

3Robertson MM, et al: Effects of a participatory ergonomics intervention computer workshop for university students. Work 18(3):305-314, 2002.