Are you sitting comfortably?

It’s a grey, damp morning here in Bristol and I’m sat at my desk still in my winter cardi and feeling quite glad that I don’t have to venture out the house. Apart from grim weather, the end of February also sees International RSI Awareness Day (28 Feb) - although oddly, it seems to be marked more in Canada than anywhere else - and my annual nag about all things ergonomic!

Recently, several people have asked me about office chairs, so I thought I’d repeat a few tips and suggestions here for a wider audience.

The most important things about the chair that you’re going to sit on at your desk for possibly hours every day are that a. it’s comfortable and b. it allows you to sit in and maintain a healthy posture that doesn’t put unnecessary strain on any part of your body. I have a fancy, all-singing, all-dancing chair that has every kind of support and adjustment you can imagine. Unsurprisingly, it was pretty expensive (actually bought with a grant when I first went freelance), but it has lasted me nearly 14 years so far and is still in great condition.

My 'RH' chair from Posturite

However, I also have a second chair (for occasional work at the downstairs dining table) from IKEA, that was a fraction of the price, but is actually perfectly comfortable.

My IKEA chair - complete with zebra-print fur back!

However much you have to spend on a chair, the key elements to look for are:

- height adjustment: you need to sit at the correct height for your desk, high enough so that when you’re typing (or using a mouse) you can have your arms loose by your sides and your hands still drop down slightly onto your keyboard, with your elbows at an angle of 90 degrees or slightly more. Most people sit a bit too low so that they have to bend up slightly from the elbow, or more likely they ‘wing’ their arms out to the side and/or hunch their shoulders.  If that means that your feet are off the ground, then you’ll need a footrest too so that they can be firmly planted down flat.

I also drop my chair down slightly if I’m working on papers flat on the desk (such as proofs), so that I’m not hunching over from my usual higher position.

- back support: when you sit back properly in your chair with your bum to the back of the seat and your back against the back of the chair, it should support your spine comfortably.  Ideally that means a bit of lumber support, i.e. moulding to the curve of your spine and supporting the natural hollow in your lower back.

- seat tilt: this is the final feature that I use regularly, although it’s not as essential as the first two. Some experts recommend that you sit with your seat tilted slightly forward, so that your knees are very slightly lower than your hips. This works on the same principle as the kneeling chairs you may have seen – by making you tilt your pelvis slightly forward, your spine settles into a more natural position than if you’re sitting on a dead flat surface, where the tendency is to tip the pelvis back into a slouch. I use the very slightest hint of a tilt most of the time when I’m working, but tilt back if I’m say reading a long text or watching a webinar.

For more about possible chair adjustments check out the posturite website.

There’s no point in having a great chair though if you don’t sit on it properly! Working comfortably is not just about knowing good posture, but maintaining it day in, day out. Again, the posturite website has good solid advice about how to set up your workstation correctly (whether you’re using a desktop or laptop) and how to sit at your desk. Most importantly, you need to be sitting back in your chair with your spine in a comfortable upright position – not ramrod straight or overextended like a gymnast, but not slouched or hunched over either. Realistically, when you’re typing, you’re probably not going to lean right back on the back of the chair, but I try to lean back and let the chair take the strain as often as possible, when I’m reading something or just thinking. In my office, I actually have a full-length mirror right in line with my desk, so if I glance sideways, I can see my posture – I didn’t put it there intentionally, but it makes a really good reminder! Everyone has different tendencies, so trying to keep an eye on how you’re sitting, especially when you’ve got engrossed in a piece of work is really important.  Personally, I often find myself creeping forward on my chair, so I’m sitting right on the edge, leaning forward with my back arched (I blame too many ballet lessons when I was young!). I’ve also developed a habit of leaning the elbow of my non-mouse hand (in my case, my right) on the desk, creating a horrible twist in my spine.

Postural habits are very hard to break, but if you try and make yourself more aware of what you’re doing, then at least when you catch yourself, you can reset your position back into a more healthy posture.

And as I’ve said many times before, taking frequent breaks, where you get up from your desk, even just for a couple of minutes, to change your posture, relax your muscles and just move around a bit is absolutely vital in avoiding the tense, fixed postures that can lead to all kinds of health problems. So go on, get up and make yourself a cup of tea now and give yourself a break …

RSI Awareness Day: A touch of discomfort

Today, 28 Feb,  is International RSI Awareness Day, so it’s time for my annual reminder to look after yourself at your desk. In previous years, as well as reiterating the basics of ergonomic workstation set-up, I’ve written about the importance of taking regular breaks, the joys of working on paper, the dangers of eyestrain, working safely on a laptop and the potential dangers of mobile devices. This year, I’m returning to the last of these, and in particular, to touchscreen technology.

A couple of months ago, I finally gave in and got my first smartphone. As an RSI sufferer, I’ve been conscious of my tech-life balance since long before it became a buzzword, so I’m not a one for gadgets. I do the hours I have to at my computer for work, then I like to log off completely. As many of my friends know, my mobile is often sitting in the kitchen out of earshot, and often still there when I’m not in the house! Just before Christmas though my trusty old phone, with nice big buttons, finally gave up the ghost and I got a shiny new smartphone to replace it. Having occasionally used my partner’s iPhone, I wasn’t a fan of touchscreens, finding them fiddly, awkward and frustrating, and what’s worse, quite uncomfortable when my hands were bad. People kept telling me that you get used to it and I have to admit, I have … a bit. I’ve tried to adopt the advice given by a friend with chunky fingers and I try not to be too precise with the silly little touch keyboard. He suggested that it’s best to just ‘hit and hope’ and let the predictive text sort out the mess. It does work to an extent, although I’ve sometimes found myself inadvertently deleting a whole message or sending a half-finished one when I’ve hit the wrong ‘button’.

But it’s not sending the odd text that really concerns me in terms of health, it’s the more prolonged use of touchscreen gadgets - smartphones and tablets - that involves lots of awkward, repeated movements of the fingers and thumbs, not to mention slightly awkward wrist positions in the way that people hold devices. Especially with the tiny screens on smartphones, as soon as you do more than check the time, you find yourself having to make lots and lots of very small movements, that because of the accuracy required tend to involve a rather tense hand posture. It’s a classic risk situation for putting strain on the tendons in your hand which over time can so easily lead to cramps and stiffness, then pain and worse-case scenario, permanent damage.

Of course, I can hear you all saying, but I don’t use my phone/tablet for prolonged periods, I only have the occasional check. … Are you sure? If you’re anything like my friends or the people I see around me, you’re probably using it more than you think. It’s become so much a part of people’s lives, that they’re just not conscious of it. Try just for today counting how many times you pick up your phone and how many movements you make each time you “just check”.

And it’s not just gadgets, with the appearance of Windows 8, an increasing number of laptops and pcs are becoming touchscreen. Because the screens are larger, they’re less fiddly and with more text per screen, they obviously don’t involve the constant scrolling motion needed on a smartphone. They do, however, bring their own risks, especially in terms of desk set-up. Any ergonomist will recommend that you have the top of your screen at eye level so that you’re not looking down and putting strain on your neck. They’ll also advise you to have it at least arm's length away as the best focal distance to avoid eyestrain. Even working on a laptop, as I am at the moment, I have it propped up on books so that the screen’s in the right position as well as using a separate keyboard and mouse.

 

That, of course, makes for a very awkward stretch though if you need to touch the screen, raising your arm to a level that will soon cause shoulder strain and leaning towards the screen in a posture to make any physio cringe!

 

Touchscreens may seem sexy and intuitively, ‘easier’ to use, but I’m yet to be convinced that they’re good for us.

RSI Awareness Day: the Power of Fidgeting

Today, the only day that isn't repeated every year, is International RSI Awareness Day. I was actually reminded about it this year when I was watching Horizon on TV last night about exercise - The Truth About Exercise. One of the areas of exercise they were looking at was NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) - that's the exercise we get just from moving about doing everyday tasks. They did an experiment in which three people wore "fidget pants" that measured their level of movement during a day. Unsurprisingly, the deskbound subjects moved very little indeed through the day and had long patches of inactivity. It made me wonder how I'd fare on the same measure - I'm such a fidget pants, I think I'd be off the scale!

So how does this relate to RSI? Well, in the programme, sedentary lifestyles were being connected with obesity problems, but for those who spend hours sitting at a desk, hunched over a computer, RSI and related health problems are an equally big issue. Many of the aches and pains associated with computer use, not just in the hands, but back, shoulders and neck too, come not only from the repeated small movements associated with typing or using a mouse, but from holding your body in a fixed tense position for prolonged periods. One of the most important pieces of advice I think when it comes to avoiding RSI is to keep moving; to keep your body as relaxed and loose as possible and to take regular breaks.

For me, one of the biggest benefits to working freelance from home is that I can fidget to my heart's content! I tend to work in quite small bursts, taking lots of breaks in-between times. In an average day, I might leave my desk to make tea (at least six times a day!), to pick up the post when I hear it come through the front door, to go to the loo, to put on a load of washing, turn the radio on/off, stop for lunch, nip out to the supermarket, get an extra cardi from the bedroom, go and water my plants, put the dinner on, nip out to the Post Office ... These aren't distractions, I see them as valuable thinking time and when I get back to my desk, I've often formulated the wording of my next bit of writing or worked out how to solve a particular problem. Most importantly though, they stop me getting stuck into awkward, unhealthy postures at my desk. So here's a few tips for adding some fidget into your working day:

• Get up from your desk and walk about at least once every hour: go to the loo, make a cup of tea, or just go and look out the window.
• Take a mini-break at least every 15 minutes. This doesn't mean you have to interrupt your work, but just take the chance to sit back in your chair, take your hands away from the mouse and keyboard and look away from your screen (focusing on something in the middle distance is meant to be good for avoiding eye strain).
• Always sit back in your chair and take your hands off your keyboard/mouse when you're reading or thinking. Maximise windows (such as for emails) so that you can read more without having to scroll down.
• Build in non-computer tasks which give your body a break and let you do different movements. Write things on paper occasionally instead of on screen. Or print something out to read or refer to so that you're looking down instead of up and giving your eyes a rest.
• Sit somewhere else occasionally. I have an exercise ball that I sometimes use for a couple of hours at my desk, just for a change, or if I have something lengthy to read on paper, I sometimes take it and sit somewhere away from my desk for a while.

Heads up

I was recently reading an article in The Author magazine by Dr Vic Barker about posture tips for authors. It struck a particular chord because it was talking about the problems of keeping your head and neck in one position when you're sitting at a desk. My own health problems started initially, not with pains in my hand or wrist, but with headaches caused by compacted vertebrae in my neck. Having moved from a relatively mobile job as a teacher, when I started working full-time at a desk, my neck was struggling to keep my head in the same upright position all day. So I ended up craning my neck forward, tortoise-style, thus squishing together a couple of vertebrae and putting pressure on a nerve that resulted in blinding headaches. I didn't realise at the time that it was the precursor of much wider problems to come - all largely the result of a static position at a desk.

As Barker explains, the head is the heaviest part of the body and when you're sitting at a desk, you tend to bend or lean slightly forwards, so the muscles in the back of your neck have to work exceptionally hard to stop your head from drooping onto your chest. He points out that in the past scholars sat on stools with scrolls vertical at eye-level so that their head was supported over their spine.

Barker talks particularly about the problems of shifting from looking at the screen to working on paper. With papers flat on your desk, you find yourself leaning over even further and, of course, putting even greater strain on the neck muscles. He suggests putting papers on a support so that they are nearly vertical, rather like the scribes of old. As I've been working on paper proofs myself for most of this week, I've been using a writing slope to try and keep my posture as upright as possible. As you can see, I don't do too badly at keeping my spine straight, although even being as carefully as possible (and no doubt posing for the camera!) my neck is still slightly bent. I could probably be a bit lower, but as I'm sitting on an exercise ball, I can't control the height.

Of course, if you don't work with hard copy very often, you might not want to invest in a fancy writing slope like I've got. It's still worth lowering your chair though when you're working on paper, so you're leaning over slightly less and you could try using a chunky ring binder to prop the papers up at a slightly better angle. Even if you're only looking at papers for 10 minutes, it's a great excuse to change your posture slightly and work in a bit of a different position for a while.

References:
Dr Vic Barker
"A good stretch: posture tips for authors"- The Author: Journal of the Society of Authors, Autumn 2010
Based on the book: Posture Makes Perfect: the Missing Link in Health and Fitness