Do you have any favorite ergonomic exercise or habit?

Question

I've read somewhere that ergonomic problems accounts for 70% of injury... And i don't want to be one of those guys who think, ahh it's just a slight sore, and go on and discover that i have CTS and have to operate on my hands!!!

So are the any good ergo habits that you follow religiously each day? Or some cool tools that would send any ergo issue to a cold hell and force it to stay there.

So we can program hopefully until we're old and wicked.

Answer 1

I don't follow it relgiously, but I should:

Have lunch away from your desk.

Rests your eyes, gives your body a chance to work out tension and relax, gets the blood going, gives your brain a rest.

And it saves you from Death By YouTube+Snack.

Answer 2

I try to take breaks often, get up from the chair and stretch a little at least every 20 minutes. Take a longer break about every hour and a half.

When I feel me arms becoming sore (keyboard and mouse) I stretch them a little.

I guess just try to listen to your body, and give it some rest now and then.

Answer 3

• Take regular breaks.
• Don't skimp on your chair. Get a good one, make sure it supports your back, etc. It took me a while to settle on one I like. I went through about 5 different ones.
• Get the monitors at the right height/distance. I like mine pretty high; stops me slouching. Arms length away with the top 3rd of the monitor in your line of sight; at least that's what works for me.
• I just got one of these: http://www.powerballs.com. Supposed to help with RSI, but lots of fun nevertheless...

Answer 4

Use a large exercise ball instead of your chair... it forces one to sit with a straight back and is also fun....

Answer 5

Not all of them are exercise, but:

• Take a short break from the desk, move about a bit.
• Shake or stretch your hands every so often - at the very least it will make them less tense.
• Don't ignore aches and pains - your body is trying to tell you something, even if it's "you're sitting awkwardly".
• Make sure you have a good chair that supports your back and is comfortable. If you're not comfortable, get it fixed or replaced so you are - your back will benefit.

Answer 6

1. Get an ergonomic keyboard. I've tried several, and in my considered opinion the Microsoft Natural keyboards are far and away the best. The latest incarnation has a leatherette wrist-rest that's so nice it's almost kinky to use it at work.
2. Get an ergonomic mouse that fits your hand. You can't assess this in ten minutes in a shop, so expect to work through a progression of them finding a good fit.
3. Set your screen at the right height. The centre of the screen should be just a little lower than your eyes, about the same height as the end of your nose. Then learn to touch-type. If you spend your days staring at the keyboard, there's no point positioning the monitor.
4. Get an ergonomic chair. Then adjust it properly. Generally they come with instructions and rarely are they adjusted correctly.
5. Learning to use a mouse left-handed is difficult, but has a number of ergonomic advantages - particularly for those using a numeric keypad at the same time. Even if you don't do this, other people will find it so weird it will stop them from touching your workstation.
6. Eat your lunch somewhere different every day.
7. Leap up and take over the whiteboard marker when making your contribution to discussions. Or pace. You cannot take over the world from a seated position (unless you have a fluffy white cat).

Answer 7

Get a decent adjustable chair and some funny eco-hippe-new-age-sitting implement. Switch between them. I have an "office" and a "normal" chair, they are different enough so it helps.

Reason: There is no single position of your body that is healthy for a long time, but changig between at least two positions already helps a lot.

Get up when you can. I don't say "every twenty minutes" because that may conflict with staying in the flow. Pee breaks are not frequent enough for most men. I impulsively walk to another room when thinking about a problem, so I get the "get up" done frequently.

Put something you like on a far wall that you can focus your eyes on from time to time. A window into a garden behind the monitor(s) would be perfect for that, but that gives bad lighting condition, and garden isn't always available ;)

Monitor center should be slightly lower than your eyes so you slightly look down - this closes the lids a bit and eyes don't dry out that fast.

Don't skimp on the keyboard. the $9.95 model is not meant for people who spend hours typing. It works, but it is highly unlikely that it's good for you.

I never really liked ergonomic, but ended up with a decent cherry keyboard and preferring one of those tiny laptop mouses. They break fast in my hands, but feel good :)

Answer 8

It's not an exercise or habit, but the Kinesis Contoured Keyboard saved my career. They are not cheap ($300 a throw) but are worth the money. I have one for each computer at home, one at work, and one that I take with me on trips when significant programming will be done.

For my latest computer, the combined cost of keyboard and monitor was $1200. Everything else, including case, power supply, and the fastest quad-core processor I could find, totalled $600. For a senior developer this is less than a week's pay. Even for a kid just out of school it's not much more than a week's pay. I like those numbers. Your employer should be getting you the best. If not, consider spending your own money.

Answer 9

late answer: 3 exercises that really help:,

The Powerweb and dynaflex things from here:

http://www.fitter1.com/Catalog/Category/35/HandWrist.aspx

and wrist curls with a 5 lb. weight:

http://www.amazon.com/Roller-Strength-Training-Fingers-Forearms/dp/B00146G68O/

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One thing i've found very important: adjust the angle of the keyboard and angle of your hand, i.e. raise back of keyboard pretty high, and elevate heels of hand on rolled-up handtowel, if this suits you. Back of hand should be inline with top of forearm, not angled down or up.