Do You Have a PC Posture?

prostoalex writes "PC Magazine takes a look at 'PC posture' and the problems associated with the workstyles of those who spend hours in front of the PC. They talk about proper sitting styles, the erroneous name of 'wrist rest,' monitor height and the need for periodic exercises to help alleviate potential repetitive stress injuries."

2 articles from prostoalex spamming his scams

[Anonymous Coward]

he must be working overtime
as the previous article by "hdtv" domain (PLASMA-HDTV-PRICES.COM) is registered to Alex Moskalyuk aka prostoalex, along with the blog submitted on ZDnet is also Alex [zdnet.com]

so he registers a load of domains and then pretends to be different unrelated submitters in order to hawk his scam of the week, i guess ZDnet doesnt pay that well

Odd

[Lord_Dweomer]

Odd, I didn't see anything in there about sliding down to the edge of my seat and leaning back whilst barely keeping my eyes open as I watch the screen half drunk after I get back from "lunch" at the local pub.

Also, about halfway through the article I saw the following:

"A new study suggests many workers would forego higher salaries in favor of an improved work-life balance and career advancement opportunities. Click here to read more.

And the entire sentence was a link to this [yahoo.com] site. Was that link an ad to another of their articles? How in the hell was that relevant to this article? There was some more link trickery throughout the page as well. Honestly, this story read more like something on Askmen.com than something from an actual news organization.

Evidence?

[gvc]

The popular press is very good at promoting the line that computers are dangerous. The courts and "ergonomic consulting" firms seem to buy into the danger as well. But where's the evidence?

Here's a contrary hypothesis: carpal tunnel syndrome and chronic back pain are stress related. That's not to say they aren't real, it's to say that the primary contributory agent is stress. People in repetitive data entry employment may have stressful lifestyles. The stress may be partially caused by the job, or there may be some other non-causal association.

Now sitting differently -- or any other intervention -- may even cause a measurable improvement due to the Hawthorne effect. That's not proof that sitting one way or the other was the cause of the problem.

Exercise -- just getting up and walking, running, swimming, and so on -- probably has more effect than changing posture at the job. Whether that's physiological or psychological or, more likely, both, is unimportant; it works.

I encourage people to check out primary sources or research on these issues, not just statements from consultants who have something to gain from a particular point of view, or trade unions or employers or insurers who have somewhat different axes to grind.

[Says he slouched in bed with wrists heavily on laptop keyboard, who is about to go out for a jog, so as to prevent the chronic back pain that he has suffered from time to time in his life.]

we are not supposed to live longer than 40 years !

[alexandrecc]

eWEEK picked the brains of a slew of ergonomics and other posture professionals, who all voiced the sobering truth that human beings were not designed to fold themselves into computer workstations each day.

The actual truth is human being isn't designed to live more than 40 years old. So consequently, no matter the working position, there is potential for degenerative problems. It is only in the past 3000 years that people are living more than 40 years.

If we are always standing up, we'll have hip and knee problems; if we are always sitting down, we'll have vertebral column problems; if we are moving from one position to the other or always moving, we'll have tendinitis and bursitis problems.

So honestly, my conclusion is our musculoskeletal system isn't designed at all to work as long as our 2006 life expectancy.

Shoulder/Back Brace

[therage96]

Funnily enough, I just bought one of these http://www.badbacks.com.au/product.asp?productID=1 35 [badbacks.com.au] because I noticed I was starting to round my upper back and also I was rolling my shoulders forward. I've had this thing for a few days now and so far it's been helping a lot.

General lighting level

[Anonymous Coward]

I can work for hours comfortably in front of my computer at work but not so at home. I've done a lot to improve things, like retiring my ancient chairside IBM laptop and replacing it with a much more modern monitor. One of the things that seems to make a big difference is that my office is much more brightly lit than my livingroom. Increasing the light level in the livingroom seemed to help.

Yoga

[Tomasset]

I have been dealing with computers for quite a numbers of years now. RSI, back and shoulder problems, eye strain, you name it, I've been throuh all. We are all bound to suffer of this as long as we keep on sitting in front of the computers both at work and at home.

The only real cure I've found for back problems is actually yoga. The classical yoga program takes no more than 1 hour to do and it stretches thoroughly most muscles in your back. Try it, join some yoga courses and be constant for several months (the beginner's course once a week is NOT enough!). Your milleage may vary, but it worked wonders for me.

Automatic Rest Breaks

[ignoramus]

I use WorkRave [workrave.org] to force myself to take regular breaks and get my "10 to 12 seconds" of wrist relief.

The program can be a real pain when it's getting late and I'm rushing to meet a deadline--but this is where I need it most... You can configure "micro-breaks" as described above, longer rest breaks and even a daily limit. And the program is smart enough to only calculate the time you are actually on the system.

Try it out--it's free software and has Linux and windows versions available for download [workrave.org].

Use a Swiss ball

[uncl_bob]

They [wikipedia.org] are even possible to use as office chairs. Training your balance is a good thing.

Depth

[BandwidthHog]

One of the single best ways to fuck yourself up is to have your keyboard and mouse right up at the edge of the work surface. Get them as far back as you can so your forearms are on the desk instead of hanging off it. If you’re stuck with a vacuum tube on your desk, pull the desk out from the wall so that the pivot base of your monitor is at the back edge and the monitor’s ass is hanging out in space. Then push your input devices as far back as you can. Spend a few hours like that and see how it feels. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.

Fortunately, the shift to LCDs should free up another foot or more of space on people’s desks. And hopefully their reduced size and weight will cause more people start mounting them [flickr.com] on walls or articulated arms. Oddly enough, bringing your focal point up to eye level does wonders for the neck (and probably the eyes as well).

Stand-up Desk

[unity]

As soon as I began working from home I built myself a desk that is at chest height. Literally the top of my desk is just under my armpits.

I have found that standing at my desk all day eleminates all the hunching over problems. I can rest my arms on the desk, I can bounce my legs and move around all day as I am working. Compared to bouncing my legs endlessly while sitting.

Of course my friends initially made fun of me, saying "Dude that is way high, what did you do? Screw up when measuring before building it?" I said it just seemed natural to want to stand, perhaps from working in server rooms early in my career.

After a bit of searching I found I was not alone, including Donald Rumsfeld [washingtonpost.com], Sir Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Virginia Woolf, and even Thomas Jefferson [addchoices.com]

10 reasons to use a stand-up desk [standupdesks.com].

I'll never go back to sitting all day.

Why jocks should grow up to program computers

[NetSettler]

Let me say first that I distinguish RSI from carpal tunnel in a basic way. I think RSI is a problem that is going to happen regardless of posture and that is just about the simple question of whether any signal we send to repetitively through our system is bad for us. I think people become open to RSI because of the R, the repetition, and we should be wary of tasks that ask people to become machines. "People are good at judgment. Machines are good at repetition." People should not be doing the tasks of machines.

But carpal tunnel is very different. I have had friends fall victim to this, and I've seen them point to all manner of things to deny what seems totally obvious to me, and yet what I see no press play about: A lot of people who spend their time at a desk are not football players. They have not trained themeselves for years to be strong. That's just an observation, not a criticism. The weakest among us often prefer desk jobs. And some of them end up victim to the fact that desk jobs have their physical stresses.

At the risk of angering my insurance company, I should say that for 30 years I've sat with posture that is not perfect. I've rested my hands on my desk. I've worked long hours. And my typing is fine. Yet others I've known haven't survived 2 years of light typing. Why the difference? I can't believe it's typing.

Looking around at those who do and those who don't, I see weak-wristed people who have problems and strong-wristed people who don't. What did I do as a kid? I swam (with my arms, never kicking enough) competitively for a number of years. I bowled, using at least one wrist heavily. And I played baseball--again sport that uses the wrist. I played volleyball (lots of wrist there) and ping-pong (same). I did tetherball (very strong wrist use). And I loved the horizontal bar (pullups, and pulling my whole body over the bar). It doesn't surprise me, then, that as an adult, my wrists had nice broad cord strength going through whatever the bone structure was there. My arms were always very strong, and it's served me well programming. Probably plenty for a robust typing life.

If you're a kid, or you know one, or have one, who wants to be into computers, I recommend sports. And particular those sports--the ones about wrists. I just don't see the problem. Then again, typing itself from an early age may well build a generation of kids whose bones grow up knowing they'll need this strength. So it may just be those who are late to learn typing that end up with the problem. Still, a bit of swimming and those other things won't have hurt you any...

Maybe what I'm advocating is less PC style posture, and more Mac-style posture, since the Mac commercials seem to be more about getting out and doing physical things with your computer on your belt...