In college as an Industrial Engineer, I took two courses in Ergonomics. I would disagree slightly with Jeff’s statement that ergonomics is holistic. It is a very young scientific field that is also subject to a lot of variability. Every person is built differently and it is hard to develop universal axioms.
However, a lot of your tips are solidly echoed in the research and literature of ergonomics. One unfortunate thing is that many companies are out there trying to sell products that may not help, and may hurt you.
Use your judgement when thinking about ergonomics. Your greatest risk is from poor posture. This goes beyond your seating position. If your desk is too high and you have to bend your wrists to reach the keyboard, that’s bad posture! Try to keep things at a natural angle.
If you work at a big or even a good medium-sized company, chances are they have at least one ergonomist that can help make sure your workstation is set up well to fit you. Take advantage of it, because they are probably getting paid whether they help you or not!
Didn’t see any comments on my problem - but in talking with my doctor and my company’s facilities people it is a rapidly increasing problem at my company and others.
I have graduated bifocal glasses. After having problems seeing the screen properly I went to a new eye doctor who told me about a special shape for the lower reading area - wider at the top rather than more rounded or oval shape. The concept is that the wider top area places more of the computer screen in the proper reading area of the lense. But am still having problems and end up tilting my head way back because I cannot get the screen low enough. I basically have to break all the ergonomic rules on relationship of the screen to the eyes.
The result is a pinched nerve in my neck that causes numbness around my left ear and down the left jaw. It is sporadic in nature, but worst after long periods at the computer. I am going back to the eye doctor to get a pair of glasses to use whenever I am at the computer and save the bifocals for other times.
You mentioned pain in the hand / wrist after binge sessions. Posture will help for sure, but I think your equipment is a big part of it.
I developed medial epicondilitis (golfer’s elbow) slowly after 20 years at the keyboard. Turns out, after changing my keyboard an mouse, my condition disappeared over the course of about 6 weeks. So life changing that I wrote about it here Elbow Pain Caused by Improper Keyboard and Mouse Position
Not the best picture in the world, but here’s a snapshot of me using a tented keyboard and vertical mouse.
Seems like that’s what I had years ago. Each time I picked up anything with the slightest amount of weight made it feel like my elbow was coming apart. Taking it easy seemed to be the right solution for me also.
I checked out your blog btw. Nice. But there were 2 images that didn’t load up near the beginning under “Solutions”. Just the perpetual whirlpools. Checked again after finishing the blog post and they’re still making themselves dizzy.
Edit: I forgot… the image below the vertical mouse image is also stuck in perpetual loading.
