11–20 of 52 posts
Anyone got a good ergonomic setup for achieving 135° recline, no-neck-flexion computing? (Besides buying that one ridiculous $5000 chair, I mean.)
What I found was that with a couple of pillows on my couch, I could elevate my upper body in a gentle curve which resulted in my eyes being almost level but with no stress on neck or back (compare this to the guy in the article elevating just his head, which is too acute an angle and stresses the neck). At that point I just moved my monitor to various positions and elevations in my sightline until it seemed right. I had my mouse on a coffee table so that my arm was not elevated, and my keyboard on my lap (this part required touch-typing, otherwise I would have to keep lifting my head).
Once I found the sweet spot where i was relaxed but supported ( it wasn't that hard), I could pretty much work indefinitely. At that point the issue was no longer stress on any body parts, but the potential overall fitness degradation of lying down all day, which could theoretically be solved with regular breaks for getting up and moving around, but I was probably a bit lazy with that.
This reminds me of when I did something nasty to my back and could only lie down - instead of mounting my laptop I hooked it up to a projector I already had for films and pointed it at the ceiling. It required low light, but it was what I had available at the time and worked for the length of time it took for my back to get better. However, I have to quibble with the "Healthy Hacking: DIY Supine Workstation" article…
Classic meme in the Clojure world is "hammock driven development" popularized by Rich Hickey himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc Love this!
Have you tried the simple solution of putting an ice pack on your back? Also, stop driving in your car with your wallet in your back pocket. Also, avoid hot tub as this will make it worse. Don't sit for long periods. Get up and walk. You look young and healthy and these are the solutions I had when I was younger when I had back pain.
Personally I find a standing position healthiest: for women in particular, it avoids particular long-term hip flexor problems.
This reminds me of when I did something nasty to my back and could only lie down - instead of mounting my laptop I hooked it up to a projector I already had for films and pointed it at the ceiling. It required low light, but it was what I had available at the time and worked for the length of time it took for my back to get better. However, I have to quibble with the "Healthy Hacking: DIY Supine Workstation" article…
I recently read the phrase "the most ergonomic position is the next one" somewhere, and thought it was very memorable.
I currently have 3 mice (all different shapes), a trackpad, and a trackball hooked up to my workstation, with some on the left of my keyboard and some on the right. I switch between them depending on what currently hurts most. Seems to work better for my tendonitis than when I only used one device with my right hand. It's basically all the devices I went through, one at a time, trying to figure out which worked the best. They all do!