Top 5 Tips To Make Your Desk At The Office More Ergonomic In Houston
Stop what you are doing right now. Consider how your body is feeling. Do you feel any pain or discomfort in your neck or your back? How do you feel about your posture? And what about your fingers or your wrists, do they feel okay from all that texting and typing?
While you work for many hours at your desk behind a computer, you have probably complained about as well as subsequently ignored what type of toll your work desk is taking on your mood and your body. Yet it becomes easier to brush off those daily pains and aches when the actual solution is not staring you in the face.
If you are fortunate enough, the company that you work for may provide their employees with ergonomic consultations. Yet if you fall into the majority that is not afforded with these luxuries, then it is up to you when it comes to making the necessary changes.
It is still important to chat with an ergonomic specialist or your doctor before you make any changes. However, we have spoken with a few ergonomic experts, and they had this to say:
Step One: Find Out What Your Natural Posture Is
Push the chair that you are sitting in away from the desk and sit as comfortably as you can. For most people, this would look similar to the way they sit in their cars. This means the feet should be flat on the floor to the front of your body, your shoulders are relaxed, your hands rest on your lap and you slightly leaned back. Your bottom is obviously behind you.
If you feel comfortable, then this is known as your “natural posture”. In this position, the vertebrae in your back will be stacked, when you breathe your entire back will move, while your pelvis is in the right position in order for your spine to be stacked correctly.
Step Two: The Placement Of Your Mouse And Keyboard
Building on from your natural posture, your mouse and keyboard needs to be in a position that allows you to keep each elbow to the side of you, and your arms should be slightly below or at a 90-degree angle. In this way, your load on your muscles is lowered and you won’t need to strain.
Height
Your keyboard should be positioned 1 to 2 inches above your lap or thighs. This may mean that you need to use one of the pull-out keyboard trays. You could also lower the height of the desk, yet the keyboard trays are usually an easier and preferable method. This is the reason why.
Tilt
Your keyboard should have a slightly negative tilt which is away and down from you. In this way, your hands and arms follow the slope of your legs (thighs) which is downwards. With this in mind, avoid using the kickstands that usually come with most keyboards.
Position
The mouse and the keyboard should ideally be at shoulder-distance apart and level. A few things can assist you in achieving the correct position.
To begin with, you may want to invest in a keyboard that does not feature the number pad. This is because the number pads place your letter keys which are your main input tools slightly off center. To keep your keyboard and mouse level, you might need to raise the keyboard with a bit of DIY or you can get a mouse that is flatter.
Step Three: Position Your Screen Or Screens
When you set up your computer screen it shouldn’t need to be complex or complicates. Here are a few tips on how to arrange them.
Distance
If the screen is far away you will start to do something that the ergonomic pros call “turtling”, which means you are craning and putting a strain on your neck. If your monitor is far away you will soon find that you are extending your neck in order to reach the screen.
To find your best position, sit back in your chair and then extend one arm. The end of your middle finger should just touch your monitor. This is the ideal distance for you.
If you use two monitors, position them next to each other with no gaps, but place your secondary screen off-center. If you use both screens equally then they should both be centered. Sit back in your chair again and extend one arm again. Now pan in an arch and as your arm starts to pan, the tips of your fingers should be able to touch your monitors. You should use this same logic when you position any other items, such as your phone or document holders.
Height
To adjust to the correct height you may want to use this useful ergo trick. Keep your eyes closed. When you open your eyes, the first thing you should see is your address bar. If this is not the case, raise or lower the monitor using either a book, risers or a built-in option. You can carry on reading through this guide if you need more information on height adjustments.
Angle
The last step involves tilting your screens slightly down in order to avoid any reflections.
Step Four: Adjust Your Chair
The chair that you sit in should be your ergonomic friend. It is the support for your posture, your bottom, and your back. There are several office chairs on the market to select from, yet there are just a couple of important things you need to look for.
Shape
Think about your “natural posture” again. Your tailbone should be slightly sticking out, the vertebrae in your back slightly curved, and the lumbar part of the spine should be pointed towards your belly. To maintain this posture, you need a chair that provides adequate lumbar support.
Length
When you are sitting, there needs to be a slight space between the back of each knee and the chair. This space should be about the same size as a fist. Depending on what type of chair you have, you may be able to adjust the depth of the seat accordingly.
Height
When sitting, your feet need to touch the floor and your thighs need to be under your hips. If you are short you may need a footrest, and if you are very tall you may have to adjust the desk height.
If you find that you tuck your feet under your body or you sit on one of your legs, or in any other strange position, you need to adjust or change your chair.
Step Five: Get Up And Move Around
After following all the tips we mentioned above, here is an essential tip that you should never forget, and that includes physical activity. Every hour that you sit at your desk you should be getting up, stretching and walking around. If you are prone to forgetting use an alarm to give you hourly reminders.
Regardless of how ergonomic you have made your desk, stretching and moving around is the best way to prevent health problems from arising caused by sitting for too long.
Embrace Office Interiors provides services to companies and businesses of every size in Houston and the surrounding areas. They also serve medium and small business enterprises which include the larger fortune 500 companies. In the years we have been in this business we have come to realize that when we work hard for our clients, the more loyal that have become to us. This is the reason why we have retained most of our clients from the day we opened our doors. Our company is also focused on keeping up with the latest trends in office furniture and interiors in Houston. We cannot wait for you to call us or contact us today!
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