Desk ergonomics: The ‘why’.
If you sit a desk, you will know that there is a certain amount of endurance required to maintain a comfortable position for the entire day. If you work in an office, desk time is unavoidable while at the same time, the key to productivity. The symbiotic relationship between desk posture and productivity, is something that is worthy of a lot more consideration, and workplaces often get this wrong.
Improving your desk ergonomics is simple: If you are still in an upright position by the end of the day, and can stop yourself from ending up face down on your desk, you are doing something right. Let me explain. Think about gravity, a constant force that is always with us and will never stop working - much like life at your desk right? All you need to know about desk posture is explained by this constant force trying to push your face down onto that desk for 8 hours each day. If you can find a balance between where your body sits in space, and gravity’s relentless work ethic, you will unlock the secret to improved desk posture, increased productivity and reduced fatigue.
When it comes to desk posture here is the ‘why’:
Step one: Desk
The height of you desk can be hard to change, and therefore this tends to decide the height of your chair. If you are one of the lucky ones who has a height adjustable desk, you have seen the light, well done, you deserve it! Thankfully most desks are a standard height, however If you find that yours is above or below the standard, you may need to (depending on your height) look at raising or lowering it. This is so that it aligns with the height of your chair which determines two things: The angle of your forearms in relation to your mouse and keyboard; and the angle of your hips when sitting, read on….
Step two: Chair
Keep your feet on the ground. When we consider the height and position of your chair, we have two things to keep in mind. Ideally, the height of your chair needs to allow your hips to be at right angles, or slightly higher than your knees. This helps to position your pelvis so you are less likely to slouch. At the same time your feet need to be on the ground. This can be a hard balance if you are on the shorter side of average height. If so, there is a foot stool somewhere, with your name on it! As mentioned above, the height of the chair also determines the angle of your forearms in relation to your desk. You forearms should have a slight downslope to reach your keyboard and mouse. Your elbows should never be below the height of the desk. This is to avoid strain to your hands and wrists, as it requires more effort to type uphill rather than down hill. Once again we are working with gravity, not against it.
Step three: Screen height and position.
Keep your head up. When thinking about screen height it is very simple, we are trying to keep you head on top of your shoulders, to avoid the effects of gravitys stubborn resolve. So, to give you some perspective, when you are sitting in your perfectly adjusted chair at your (hopefully) standard height deskm, you want your head to be sitting directly over your shoulders, and your shoulders pretty much on top of your hips. If you then draw a line from your eyes straight in front of you, you gaze should meet the top 1/3 of the screen. This rule maximises your visual feild while your head is upright. Any lower or higher than this starts to require more tilting of your neck and gives old mate gravity the spotlight. So keep your head up and carry on.
If you are one of those very important people and you have two screens, the same height rules apply, however you want your two screens as close together as possible so they are touching to minimise how far your neck needs to rotate in order to see the far corners. Have them angled slightly inwards to form an open book formation, this reduces the width of the screens again, and therefore less rotation of the neck.
If you happen to work from a laptop at work/home, we need to sit down and have a talk. Laptops should only EVER be used for short periods of time to take notes in a meeting or if you are travelling and need to login. So, if this is your main setup, it is time to change! Get yourself a proper monitor, an external keyboard and mouse, and put that thing away. The one and only exception to this, is if you have a proper stand that can achieve the screen height and position we discussed above, but you will still need your separate keyboard and mouse.
Step four: Keyboard and mouse
Keep it on a short leash! If you have ever noticed your mouse and keyboard slowly trying to escape across the desk, you will know that instead of gently encouraging it back to its home, you continue clicking and keying until both arms are outstretched and you are nearly face down on the desk. To avoid this display and the futue pain that goes with it, lets stick down that mouse pad. You don’t have a mouse pad? Get a mouse pad, and stick it down. Ideally when you are sitting on your well adjusted chair at your very comfortable desk, with your elbows at your side, your keybard and mouse should always be within the forearms reach. So that means no resting your elbows on the desk everyone. And because your elbow is connected to your shoulder and your shoulder to your neck (approximatley), this changes our entire seated posture. Your elbows should be neatly by your side feeling the gentle (not so gentle as we now know) gravitational pull towards the earth. The rest will look after itself..
Keep your Mind Onsite!
The importance of making all of these changes is that once you make them, you don’t have to think about it again. It all works in the background to help you work better with less pain and postural fatigue. The hard part which does require some ongoing attention, is listening to your body and knowing when to move around, go for a walk or do some squats. No matter how comfortable or ergonomic your desk is, you are still better off breaking up the day with intermittent exercise or movement. It is important to be always be aware of how you are feeling physically and mentally, with this awareness, you can make subtle changes on the job to prevent the incidence of pain and injury.