We spend a lot of time in front of our computers so the way we sit at our desks can greatly
affect our health.
Good ergonomics doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult but there’s definitely a lot
of myths and misinformation that can make it confusing.
Hi I’m David and here are 5 ways you’re probably sitting incorrectly at your desk
Don’t sit up straight Sitting up perfect straight might look like
the most professional and ergonomic posture and it definitely feels okay at the beginning
but over long periods of time, a straight vertical posture puts a lot of unnecessary
strain directly on your spine as you try to hold yourself up.
Try locking your chair in a recline position to have the back of your chair help support
part of your body weight.
Even a slight tilt can make a huge difference to your comfort over a long period of time.
Don’t adjust the height of your chair based on your legs and feet
The first thing most of us do when we get a new office chair is adjust the seat height
so our feet are firmly planted on the floor.
While this isn’t completely incorrect, for a computer setup you should actually adjust
the seat height depending on where your keyboard and mouse are.
Most desks aren’t height adjustable, and keyboard trays are becoming increasing rare.
This means in most setups you can’t move how high or low your keyboard and mouse are
going to be so they are pretty fixed accessories that should dictate you seat height.
Put your seat too low and your arms will pinch the edge of the desk, put your seat too high
and you’ll end up bending your wrists or slouching.
When at the proper height with your elbows by your side your forearms and hands should
be perfectly in line to work with your keyboard and mouse.
After that’s done if you find your legs are too short to reach the floor then you
should get a footrest or anything to help support your feet.
Don’t use desks with built in drawers Desks with built in drawers might look great
and be convenient for quickly storing away your trinkets and accessories but they can
prevent you from sitting correctly at your desk.
If you followed the last step of setting your chair height and arms correctly you might
now notice that your arms and legs aren’t that far apart.
You only really have a couple inches of space to work with here.
So desks that have extremely thick tops, usually the ones with drawers in the middle, might
physically prevent you from setting it all up correctly without banging your knees into
the desk.
Don’t use wrist rests (Use a palm rest) The ideal way to have your arms when operating
your keyboard and mouse is to float them over your desk rather than rest them on the surface.
While this works for short bursts of time, your arms will probably start to fatigue if
you try to do this for too long.
So what most of us will do is rest our wrists on the desk or use a wrist rest.
The problem is that now you’re putting a lot of pressure on your wrists where you have
sensitive nerves and exposed veins for blood flow.
Instead when you use these accessories, they should be used to support the palms of your
hands not your wrists.
You’re palms are less sensitive to the pressure of holding up your arms and will help keep
the rest of your arm in line.
The goal here is to try and keep your arms and wrists in line and avoid creating any
uncomfortable pressure points on your wrists.
Or alternatively I enjoy using low profile keyboards so I can support my entire arm on
the desk and still keep everything in line.
Standing isn’t good for you.
And finally, standing desks are getting pretty popular these days.
The problem is that standing all day isn’t any better than sitting all day long.
The unhealthiest part of working at our desk is the fact we are stationary for extremely
long periods of time.
What’s more important is to change it up as frequently as possible.
Move your footrest around, change the recline on your chair, stand up for a bit if you can,
or just walk away from the desk to grab some water.
So those are 5 ways you’re probably been working incorrectly at your desk but are pretty
to easy fix for a more ergonomic experience.
And having a good chair that matches your body is also pretty important as well.
But hope you guys enjoyed this one.
You know what to do and I’ll see you in the next video.