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Ergonomics and the pains of aging
Apr. 3rd, 2015 11:13 amYears ago, I noticed that my right arm was starting to hurt while I worked at the computer. Turns out that an old shoulder injury (a partial dislocation incurred while hiking on a steep cliff-face trail) made rotating my right shoulder outward to use the mouse problematic. The numeric keypad at the right side of the keyboard pushed the mouse just a few inches beyond my comfort zone, and those few inches made all the difference. (Pause for inevitable inuendo.) Moving the mouse to the left side of the keyboard solved that problem by eliminating the shoulder extension.
This discovery led me to create an article on self-monitoring and ergonomics, "Avoiding repetitive-stress injuries: a guide for the technical communicator". This is very much worth a look for anyone who spends significant amount of time daily using a computer. As an editor, I spend up to 8 hours a day abusing my body before a computer, so these small things matter. (Pause again for inevitable inuendo. Maybe I should flag this blog entry PG13?)
As I get older, my body becomes more vulnerable to such things, and the aches and pains that accumulate over the course of the day become more pronounced and take longer to go away. Most recently, I noticed that I was slumping to the right and that as a result, my right elbow was resting painfully on the armrest of my chair. I was also beginning to experience back pain. A little introspection revealed the cause: the law of unintended consequences. The unintended consequence in question is that the mouse is on my left side, causing me to raise my left arm slightly to reach it, which in turn creates a torque towards the right, and thus, slumping in that direction. At first I thought this problem was due to my coffee habit, since my coffee mug also sits off to the left, but I don't drink that much coffee. It's definitely the mouse, which I use repeatedly all day.
But the mouse is just the symptom. The real problem is that the Ikea desk I'm currently using is slightly too high, and can't be lowered any further. It's not a problem for typing, though there would be less pressure on my hands and less damage to my hands by the end of the day if I raised the chair. Unfortunately, raising my chair would create too much pressure on my thighs, which already spend too many hours being compressed by the chair. (Ideally, your feet should bear some of your weight so that your thights don't support all of that weight.) I'll need to raise the chair anyway, but add a footrest to solve the thigh problem. Of course, there are likely to be unintended consequences of that change too, so I'll need to be vigilant.
Moral of the story: Little things, repeated many times, can have significant and painful consequences. If you find that you're beginning to hurt by the end of the day, pay close attention to how you're working, and ask a friend to have a look if you don't see the problem. Don't neglect the possibility that something that seems trivial has become a problem through long-term repetition. Then take measures to solve the problem before a short-term pain becomes a long-term health problem.
This discovery led me to create an article on self-monitoring and ergonomics, "Avoiding repetitive-stress injuries: a guide for the technical communicator". This is very much worth a look for anyone who spends significant amount of time daily using a computer. As an editor, I spend up to 8 hours a day abusing my body before a computer, so these small things matter. (Pause again for inevitable inuendo. Maybe I should flag this blog entry PG13?)
As I get older, my body becomes more vulnerable to such things, and the aches and pains that accumulate over the course of the day become more pronounced and take longer to go away. Most recently, I noticed that I was slumping to the right and that as a result, my right elbow was resting painfully on the armrest of my chair. I was also beginning to experience back pain. A little introspection revealed the cause: the law of unintended consequences. The unintended consequence in question is that the mouse is on my left side, causing me to raise my left arm slightly to reach it, which in turn creates a torque towards the right, and thus, slumping in that direction. At first I thought this problem was due to my coffee habit, since my coffee mug also sits off to the left, but I don't drink that much coffee. It's definitely the mouse, which I use repeatedly all day.
But the mouse is just the symptom. The real problem is that the Ikea desk I'm currently using is slightly too high, and can't be lowered any further. It's not a problem for typing, though there would be less pressure on my hands and less damage to my hands by the end of the day if I raised the chair. Unfortunately, raising my chair would create too much pressure on my thighs, which already spend too many hours being compressed by the chair. (Ideally, your feet should bear some of your weight so that your thights don't support all of that weight.) I'll need to raise the chair anyway, but add a footrest to solve the thigh problem. Of course, there are likely to be unintended consequences of that change too, so I'll need to be vigilant.
Moral of the story: Little things, repeated many times, can have significant and painful consequences. If you find that you're beginning to hurt by the end of the day, pay close attention to how you're working, and ask a friend to have a look if you don't see the problem. Don't neglect the possibility that something that seems trivial has become a problem through long-term repetition. Then take measures to solve the problem before a short-term pain becomes a long-term health problem.