♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi there folks I'm Bob Shrupp, Physical Therapist.
Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist.
We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna show you how to
sit pain-free at a computer workstation,
especially if you have neck pain or,
or a pinched nerve in your neck.
These are some of the key points of sitting and neck pain.
Really, one of the key points, Brad is frequent movement.
So even if we
get you set up correctly at the desk,
perfect posture,
perfect neck.
I still want you getting some movement
which means every so often,
half hour would be great.
- Sure.
I don't know if you can.
- Maximum of two hours they say never go past that
but we're saying half hour is great.
- Get up and go for a little walk,
you know, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water.
You know, go talk to your, some of your workmates.
If you're at home, just go up, go to the refrigerator
whatever you wanna do. So--
- We've got some other options with the table,
we'll talk about too.
- So the big thing we wanted to do is avoid
forward head posture, Brad.
You wanna show what that is?
Yeah. And so all of these things are done with that in mind.
And we're gonna talk about the chair, the keyboard
the mouse, the screen, all the things you should look at
when you're setting this up
let's start off with the chair, Brad.
- Sure.
- So the chair, obviously you wanna have on there
at the right, correct height.
So you want wanna, you know, the
the knees gonna be pretty much lower of what the hips,
- Right. So there's that.
Now, if it's way up here this angle down.
I don't mind a little bit of angle down.
- A little bit. Right.
- But you don't want it starts pushing into your,
the bottom of your, in your hamstrings
and bottom of your thigh
because that cuts circulation off
to your legs and it causes, you know, problems.
It's uncomfortable.
- And you certainly don't wanna have it so low
that it actually causes you to slump.
- Right. - You know.
- All your knees are up into your chest.
Right 'cause if your background's out
that's gonna move your neck forward.
That's why bleaches are bad.
Bleacher seats are bad
for people who have neck pain and back pain.
- All right. 'Cause your typically--
- Yeah. You're slumped around.
If you are a little bit of a shorter person
your feet don't reach the ground.
You can use a,
like a leg rest or a pad.
- I've had people build something up out of wood.
We find out that these Pete's choice pads
are, their cushiony or whatever, you have
put it down there.
And I really like it.
If I take my shoes off
and I'm working at my desk.
- It's warm.
It's comfortable.
Even if it's in the winter time, it's really different
on warmth, but it's still just softer and comfortable.
Makes your feet feel better.
- Yeah. There's a lot of other ones that you can buy
that we just liked that because it's so versatile.
You use it for other things.
So, all right.
Once you got the chair in place
you wanna make sure you have a chair
with a good firm back.
- Yap.
You don't wanna have one of those
that's kind of a flexible back
'cause a flexible back, yeah.
This one actually can flex.
- Has a little flex
- But it actually locks in it locks into.
- So there's a little give, but it doesn't lean way back.
- It stills supports. Right. Right.
And then you wanna make sure
that you have some type of back spot in the, in the chair
because if your back is rounded out again
it's gonna move your neck forward.
If you straighten out your back
it often straightens out your neck.
So this is where we usually recommend people start maybe
with a roll towel, because if you're a smaller person
or have a more of a slider belt
you probably don't need much of a towel.
And if you're a larger person
with a ample back and you have a big gap there
you might need a pretty big roll towel improvise, Brad.
- And it's gonna make a difference on your chair.
If you have a strong lumbar support built into your chair
not so big of a support is needed
or if you've got a soft, cushy, rounded
the opposite direction, which you really don't want
then you're really gonna need a bigger...
So variables.
- Yeah, exactly.
And then once you decide, you find a size that fits you
you might order one that has a strap on it.
So you can strap it around the chair.
Yeah. Well, it's up to you, Brad.
- Well, I'll just show 'em what we're talking about.
- Sure.
- Then it stays.
- It stays right in place.
Every time you sit down
you don't have to find it and put it in place.
- And they're typically more comfortable
than the towel.
- Right. Right.
- But then there's, there's a whole bunch of sizes.
- Yeah.
- It's really hard for us to recommend one of those
because it's so different from person to person.
So start with the towel, see if it helps and gets your neck
in the right position and then progress to buying something.
- If you happen to have armrests that go up and down
make sure that you have them through the right height.
Like right now my, I gotta straight down here.
- It's vertical.
Yeah. The upper arms should be completely vertical.
- Yup. And when I put my arms down
the weight of my arms is going through the arm rest.
And that helps your shoulders and your neck as well.
- Yeah. Stops them from slanting forward here.
Now that the,
the forearms wanna be
should be level or slightly less than level.
You can actually, some people actually put the keyboard
on their thigh and they also have a yeah.
- Yeah. You can get these, these padded keyboard
rest quite cheaply about $20 or so.
And then you can put it here.
- Yeah. I used to use one for a while, but I
it started bothering me
because I always had to take it out and put it in.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
So all these things are a little bit individual.
- Right.
- Depending on yourself and your workstation.
- So, so we got the height of the chair.
We got the back support of the chair.
We got the arms all set for the chair.
Obviously. It's nice to have wheels on it too
'cause you can, instead of going like this with your neck
you can turn your whole body.
Yap. Like that.
So, all right.
How about the keyboard?
We just talked about that.
Actually should be a little bit lower than level or level.
Then the mouse,
if you're a person that is actually mouse dominant
you may wanna keep that fairly close to you instead
of way out here, 'cause could actually get
mouse arm, mouse shoulder.
And if you have a neck problem with a pinched nerve
that's gonna actually be bothersome to that.
So you might actually put it in front of you, even
if you're, if you're kind of mouse dominant.
- They have keyboards that have a mouse thumb.
- Yap.
- You can thumb with that.
And that's a--
- That's another option.
- Some people don't like that, some people do.
- Yeah. - They cost a little more too.
- Now this is probably the most crucial thing here
is the height of this screen.
- Absolutely.
- Now so many people have a lap, laptop now.
And the problem is if you use the keyboard on the laptop
there's no way you're gonna get around slouching.
- Just, you know, even if I bring it up in here
I can do this, but the screen draws you forward
and to get to the keyboard, these
these are just not ergonomically set up, like this
you get benefits of them
they're portable, but then they're not gonna help you.
But there are options.
- So what you're gonna do is you're gonna
wanna raise that screen up and get a separate keyboard.
The keyboards aren't very much.
- No. The wireless keyboard. Just--
- That's obviously not one.
- What do you mean? There's no wire on it.
- Okay.
- I cut the wire off actually.
- You got there green so you can see it, right?
- Yeah. So it's not black on black
you can see that I have it there.
- So this could be raised up.
We're actually gonna use something very crude today.
- You can use anything boxes, books,
and this is pretty crude
but it actually a you'll see the concept
and this would be better than getting a sore neck 'cause
this is how high you actually wanna have it
when you're seated and everything is set.
When your well parallel line going across your eyeballs
it should go right about at the center of the keyboard.
Some say a little bit higher
but right up in here so that doesn't pull you down.
- Now, if you have bifocals, like I do
they'll pull you down.
I have my screen there ahead and I'd be like this.
So I actually bought a pair of re, computer reading glasses.
- Sure.
- They're set for 40 inches.
- Yap.
- And I love 'em.
I put on every time and I, my head stays straight.
I don't get my headaches anymore.
My neck headaches, I used to get.
- I was just to the eye doctor and I just use cheaters.
And I used to 2.5 and he said, I am doing this.
He says, well, if you get a 2.0 that
the focus length is gonna lengthen.
- Oh, sure.
- So if you use cheaters,
you can vary that focus length by what,
so when do you go to the store
and you're picking out your cheater,
you said, measure it out see where you wanna be
and then get it so that you have the right cheater.
- Sure.
- For your computer.
- Perfect, perfect advice.
- Custom fit.
- Yeah. So you, they do have screen holders too, by the way
they clamp onto the desk and they'll hold the screen
up and you can take the screen off.
And, but I mean, laptop.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah. - Oh, yeah we darn.
- That's what I have at home.
I have a--
- What about the keyboard?
- The keyboard I have separate down below.
- It's then is not a laptop.
- What about the keyboard up here?
- I have a separate keyboard, I bought
I don't use that one.
- Yeah. How do you get it off so
it kinda gets in the way, doesn't it?
It just hang in there.
- No, it's, it's it clamps on like this?
- Oh, I, I see, Oh. Nice.
- It works really well. You're made for it Brad.
- Something I knew all the time.
What are you laughing at, Mike?
- So the other thing is
these stand-up desks are really nice
because if you can stand up every so often
it's gonna put you in better posture too.
- Oh. Before we go any farther, Bob
this happens to be a pretty good thing
if you've got paperwork,
you know, you want to put it right there
so you can look there and look there.
- Yeah. Without doing a lot of this or even off to the side
a document holder right underneath it.
It works out really good.
- Over here is better than, than down here
but right in front of,
you know, like this is actually a good situation.
All right.
- Brad do you want to talk about the desk a little bit.
- Yeah.
- This is a one from, Flexispot
a really a nice standing desk.
I'm taking this one by the way.
- I know.
I know.
- And it's gotta drawer in there
- Some of the,
some of the original ones
didn't come up with a drilling like this.
- You wanna say the name of it, Brad.
It's on that a--
- Sure.
Yep. It's a E-W-8-B as in boy series.
There is a few other models that fit underneath.
- What's the name?
Comhar. Is it?
Comhar.
- Well, it doesn't say it on this.
C-O-M-L-H-E-L-M-R.
Yeah.
- We'll put a link below, if you're interested but--
- Put me on the spot.
- Can you take it up is it is it plugged in?
- Sure. You better believe it.
Let's say I wanna stand
there's four adjustable heights
and I'm gonna push it and this is just gonna go up.
I preset this height,
then we don't have to do this.
If you wanna sit for a while and you say,
"Boy I'd like to change my posture."
And it's...
This actually, I didn't preset it
to exactly where I'd want to.
- Right.
- But you can do it while it's slowing down
and it locks in right there. So--
- You know, right away
it's gonna straighten out your back.
- Right. So--
- And when it straightens out your back
it straightens out your neck.
- So I would not work here.
You know, when I have this a little higher, but you know
I might work like this just for a little bit, just
so I can stretch my legs and then put it back down to here.
So it may be, you know, five minutes here, but
I work best when I'm seated for, you know, 20 or 30 minutes.
So, and you can play with that all you would like.
- And speaking of which
it's not the worst thing to do some shoulder shrugs
while you're up or where you're seated.
Chin tucks,
neck rotations,
neck extensions grab
behind your neck
and give it a little support.
All of these and keep the neck moving
it's gonna feel a lot better if you move it--.
- Even the low back, back here, the low back extension.
- Now remember this video is actually a part
of a series of videos on neck pain.
So in order to see the entire series
go to Bobandbrad.com
go to the program section
find the one on neck pain.
We'll have like 30 videos in there, check them out
watch the ones that you think pertain to you.
You don't have to watch them all.
- Just look at the titles of them.
You'll see that, you know, if the title looks
like your pro, your issue, look at that video, watch it
and then push the button for the PDF printout
print out the copy of the review of the whole video.
It'll have exercises and the highlights of the video.
So you'll remember it and we'll have good recall.
You don't have to go back
and look at our videos over and over and over.
- Yeah. For example, like on this video
it'll have what you should be changing.
So you can just take that, print it out and then
make the changes that you need to make on your workstation.
- Exactly. Could you use it for a little note card
and write down the heights.
- Here we go.
- You know, you're one of those scientific nerdy people.
- So how much does this cost, Brad?
How much are we charging people?
- $500.
- $500?
- Oh, you mean for a.
- Yeah.
- Absolutely nothing.
Not even your email address.
- Yap.
- This is our gift to you.
- I thought you meant about the desk or something.
- No. We're not selling this desk.
So. All right.
We leave that to Flexispot.
Thanks a lot.
(upbeat music)