on October 10, 2008 - 12:24pm
This is old news by now. But recently I came across quite a few people who are suffering from various problems because of repetitive stress. Goggling for ergonomics is going to give you tons of results. So here's a quick summary of what I do to avoid these problems (hopefully !).
- It is a problem. If you aren't suffering from it now, you'll later. Unless of course you are taking measures. Obviously your muscles and bones give way after sitting, typing, using the mouse for 8 hours a day, 6-7 days a week (Everyone is browsing on the weekends). And not just your muscles and bones, but your eyes too.
- Adjust my seat such that my feet touch the ground. And try to make sure there are right angles (90 degrees) at my ankles, knees, waist, elbows. The shoulders are not crumpled forward.
- My monitor brightness is as low as is possible and the contrast is not too high. But such that I don't have to strain my eyes to read. While I am programming or using the shell, I keep the monitor settings on dark background, white/grey foreground, thus reducing intensity that my eyes have to deal with all day long. I read a lot of studies commenting on what the best combination should be. But there doesn't seem to be any consensus yet. I am currently experimenting with green-on-black
- Take my eyes off the monitor and look at some distant object. Thus eyes are exercised.
- Wash my eyes at least once in a day. With the ACs on, eyes tend to become dry. To avoid dark circles, Baba Ramdev suggests, filling your mouth with water, and then splashing water on your eyes.
- Drink a lot of water. I try to drink at least 2-3 ltrs. of water while in the office. This doesn't include water from other sources like fruits etc.
- I use an ergonomic split keyboard
- Do yogasana. Running and gym is good, but you need something that exercises all the muscles of your body. Yogasana help me do that. Your neck, back, spine, fingers and thighs get a lot of strain. Not to mention your mind and your brain.
- I take frequent breaks. I am very rarely sitting at my desk for long periods of time ;-)
- Include hand and leg exercies, stretches, shrugs etc. in my daily routine
a good chair's a must too
get a mesh chair if you can. Here in US Staples has a $300 mesh chair with neck support.
Adjusting armrests to where your elbows are ~level with the desk's surface is a good idea.
Re: ergonomics
Get a trackball! It helped me immensely.
Consider using artificial tears.
Adjust the height of the monitor. It should allow the neck to be in a neutral position when looking at the top part of the screen. The integrated stand is probably insufficient, so it's time to put in use all that ancient hardware you didn't have the heart to give away for recycling.