(soft piano music)
- This look familiar to you?
Well, we'd like to show you some ways
that you can prevent this type
of painful problems associated with your work area.
Working with the body in a neutral position
always reduces the stress and strain on the muscles,
the tendons and the skeletal system.
And it'll also reduce your risk of developing
what we call a musculoskeletal disorder,
otherwise known as an MSD.
The following things I'm about to tell you
are really important when you're attempting
to maintain neutral body postures
while working at the computer work station.
Remembering to watch your hands, wrists
and forearms and make sure that they're straight.
Make sure they're in line and
roughly parallel to the floor.
It's really going to be important
that your head is level or bent slightly forward
or forward facing and it feels balanced.
Generally, it's gonna be in line with your whole torso.
Remember to keep your shoulders relaxed
and your upper arms are gonna hang
fairly normally at the side of your body.
It's important to keep your elbows close to the body
and make sure they're bent at about 90 and 120 degrees
and I know this sounds really technical
but it's actually the way it's going to feel
most natural when you're working at your work station.
Your feet should be fully supported
by either the floor itself or a foot rest
and that foot rest should be adjustable
so that your desk height is also gonna be
about neutral with the way your legs
lay underneath that desk.
Now your back is also a very important part of this
and it should be fully supported with the appropriate
lumbar support when you're sitting vertical
or even if you decide to lean back slightly.
It's gonna be important to make sure
your thighs and your hips are supported
by a well padded seat and generally
they're also gonna be parallel to the floor.
Your knees are about the same height as your hips
and with the feet, they should be slightly forward.
Now regardless of how good your working posture is,
working in the same posture or sitting still
for any prolonged period of time,
no matter what the reason, is never healthy.
You should really change your working position
frequently throughout the day and some of these ways
I'm about ready to announce are some really nice ways
to make those adjustments.
You can make small adjustments
to your chair or your backrest.
Making sure to stretch your fingers
and your hands, your arms, your torso,
just stand up, walk around for a few minutes periodically.
These four postures are just some examples
of body posture changes that will provide
neutral positioning for the body.
The key is not to slouch but to keep the back
well supported regardless of the posture.
The upright sitting posture.
The decline sitting posture.
A standing posture.
And the reclined sitting posture.
Now, a chair that's well designed
and appropriately adjusted is essential,
there's just no two ways about it.
And it's an extremely safe and productive way
to make your computer station work for you.
A good chair provides necessary support to the back,
the legs, the buttocks and your arms
while reducing exposures to awkward postures.
Don't forget, especially contact stress
which we find a lot of times in the elbows
and there can sometimes even be
forceful exertions because you're trying
to adjust your chair but it won't adjust
unless you jerk it or you stress your body
in trying to get it into that proper position.
The increased adjustability insures the
better fit for the user and it provides
adequate support in a variety of sitting postures.
It also allows variability of sitting positions
throughout the work day and this is
particularly important if the chair
is gonna have multiple users.
Now remember the main idea is to avoid
creating pain and developing musculoskeletal disorders.