(gentle music)
- You know, not too many years ago,
when I was on the street as a paramedic,
I suffered some of these repetitive stress problems,
and I can tell you,
living with chronic pain is no fun at all,
and those of you who have had it could agree with me,
but this is one of my favorite segments
in any type of OSHA health and safety program,
and that's how to prevent it
from happening in the first place.
This next segment that we're gonna be looking at
is talking about taking those breaks we mentioned earlier,
and how to actually do
some of those stretching break exercises,
so take the breaks, and while you're taking the breaks,
stand up.
Stand and stretch and move around.
This stretching and moving around
provides rest and allows the muscles enough time
to actually begin to circulate blood flow,
to bring oxygen in, take carbon dioxide out.
It gets lactic acid pulled out of the muscle fibers,
and brings nutrition back into those muscle fibers,
tendons, and ligaments.
The tendons and ligaments and cartilage
do not circulate blood very well anyway,
so you can image how bad it is
when we take a lot of time in between stretches
and in between movement.
It's only gonna make them even more stiff
and less able to be stretched,
so if you're doing the types of activities where,
you know, you're using your hands a lot,
substitute some of these keystrokes for mousing tasks,
such as a control or a command shortcut,
especially if your job is highly mouse intensive.
If you're having to do things like stapling,
alternate your tasks whenever possible.
Mix in some non-computer related tasks into the work day.
This always encourages body movement
and the use of different muscle groups.
Remember, moving and stretching,
keeping your ligaments, tendons, cartilage,
and your muscle fibers stretched and open,
triggering that vascular dilation
and increasing the heart rate by deep breathing,
stretching, and moving around
brings back in the circulation that's gonna be required
in order to prevent long term problems
with soft tissue injuries.
Now, in addition to taking occasional breaks
and changing up your tasks,
where you place the keyboard and mouse
will greatly reduce your risk of repetitive stress injuries.
Remember, a keyboard or a pointer mouse
that's too close or too far away
may cause you to assume a really awkward posture,
such as reaching with your arm, leaning forward,
and then having that extreme elbow angle.
You should really place the keyboard
at a comfortable distance that will maintain
a neutral body posture.
Elbows should be about the same height as the keyboard,
and your elbows should hang comfortably
to the sides of your body.
Your shoulders should be relaxed,
and your wrists should not bend any more up or down
to either side during the keyboard use.
They really should just be able to stay relaxed and neutral
the whole time you're using that keyboard.
In addition to the keyboard distance,
you can reduce a lot of awkward wrist angles
by adjusting the chair height or the work surface height.
Lowering or raising the keyboard or chair
to achieve a neutral wrist posture
is an essential way to prevent these postural strains.
A keyboard tray may be needed
if the work surface or chair can't be properly adjusted.
Remember, if everything that you do to
reorganize your workstation has been done,
but you still cannot avoid these postural strains,
this is gonna be the time that you need to talk
to a supervisor or an employer
about getting some work engineer controls,
and those could include new desks,
new chairs, or some type of ergonomic adjunct
that's gonna be able to help you
to get into a good neutral posture.
Wrist rests can also help reduce awkward angles.
Your hands should be able to move freely
and be elevated above your wrist
and the palm rest while you're typing,
so when resting on the pad,
you should really be able to contact
the heel of your palm of your hand, not your wrist.
Match the wrist support to the width and height
and slope of the front edge of the keyboard,
keeping in mind that the goal is
to keep your wrist postures as straight as possible.
Elevate the back or the front of your keyboard
to achieve a neutral wrist posture.
You know, one special note I wanted to add to this
is that we're seeing a lot more touch pad surfaces
on laptops as well as even adjunct pads
that are getting away from the
roller ball, as well as the infrared tracking system.
There's even mistakes we can make with that, though.
It's really important for us to understand
that if we're working on a laptop
or even on an adjunct touch pad surface,
maybe you're even in graphics design
and you're using something that's a lot like
a digital notepad or tablet,
it's still gonna be really important to remember
to keep your wrists, joints, hands, arms, elbows,
in natural, neutral positions.
So, if we're resting our wrists or the pads of our palms
on the actually notepad or on the laptop
while we're using our fingers to actually do
the touch pad functions, this still could lead to
some type of postural strain,
and then lead to some of those neurological deficits,
the tendonitis, the carpal tunnel, and some of those
types of problems that we talked about earlier.
So, keeping our hands off the surface
and lightly touching with the tips of the fingers
or the pads of the fingers,
and again, a neutral,
a very natural position, avoiding strikes and things
that are unnatural are all going to help us
to avoid some common injuries and common symptoms
related to those types of postural strains.
The whole point of this ergonomic series
is to help all of us avoid serious problems,
needless pain, and premature injuries.
You know, reducing the repetition
by properly arranging the work station and its components,
taking breaks frequently,
especially when you start to feel that type
of repetitive stress symptom, is gonna be essential.
Looking away, stretching, getting up,
taking a walk, changing up your work tasks,
they can all still be very efficient and effective
and productive in your workplace,
and these brief pauses provide time for the muscles
and the tendons to recover, and for you not only to go home
as healthy as when you came, but maybe even healthier.