To Your Health, Writer! -- #2 Ergonomic Workspaces

Ashly Mixon, the Nerdapist

With Ashly Mixon
(The "Nerdapist")

It's time for another visit with the local Nerdapist, our physical/exercise therapist for writers, geeks, nerds, gamers and the rest of us who spend way too much time in front of computer screens. And thanks again to Ashly for looking out for our muscular health.

If you have a question you'd like to pose to Ashly, just email me, and I'll be sure to put it in the queue.

Now, let's get on with this visit. The Nerapist is in.

What should a writer look for in an office chair?

Vertical Mouse

What tends to happen is the desk is too high and the chair and computer are too low, so you're looking down, hunched forward with your shoulders up to your ears, and you do this every day then come to me with your hands on top of your shoulders and say, "This is where I carry my stress."

Uh, yeah - physical stress! We've regressed to caveman posture, yet wonder why our upper back, neck and shoulders hurt.

Ideally what we want to see are nice 90-degree angles at the elbows, hips, and knees while the spine is upright. Here are some tips to help make your workspace more ergonomic in order to reduce the amount of stress on your body:

1. Starting with the head and neck, I recommend having your monitor straight ahead of you in order to prevent you from having to look down for a long period of time. Your head is quite heavy, and while your anterior neck muscles flex to bring your head forward and/or look down, the muscles in the back of the neck and upper back must extend and fight gravity to keep that bowling ball of a cranium you've got from hanging, which puts a tremendous amount of stress on those muscles. Reduce that stress by finding a way to have your monitor at eye-level.

2. Another thing that can help is a small pillow at the back of your neck. This will assist in keeping your head back while supporting the lordotic curve in your cervical spine. Some ergonomic high-back chairs come with said pillow, as well as one to support your lumbar spine in the same way. I'm a big fan of these chairs! The really good ones also have adjustable armrests, which help prevent elevated shoulders.

Ergonomic
Gaming Chair

3. Another item I'm a big fan of for anyone who uses a computer is the vertical mouse. A typical mouse, as well as the pad on your laptop, isn't ideal because it promotes pronation of your forearm, which is the palm-down position. What this does (very simplified) is rotate everything from your hand to your shoulder inward, and that creates stress in your forearm, shoulder, and neck. The vertical mouse works the same way as the horizontal mouse in that you use your index and middle fingers to press the buttons, and some of them have a ball for your thumb for scrolling (good for gameplay!), but it's designed for your hand to be in a more neutral position, which is much more ergonomic. Even better - they're inexpensive. Browse on Amazon or Walmart.com and you'll find a plethora of options all around $20. 

4. Ergonomic gaming chairs can also be more affordable than typical ergonomic office chairs, so I recommend searching for those as well. I found an excellent chair online for my fiancé for $100 with the high-back, cervical and lumbar pillows, and adjustable armrests (they also come in a variety of colors if you like).

Final note: Even in the most ergonomic office space, I must encourage you to get up occasionally and move! Get your circulation going and stretch (remember which areas I noted for lengthening last time).