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We have an epidemic of bad posture

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Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#21

Post by jdpage »

jholloway7 wrote: post #14

Lifting weights can help, but it can also cause more harm when your routine isn't properly balanced. Doing only bench press and military press lifts for upper body is going to be a chest/tricep push heavy routine. If you're not balancing these pushes with pulls (chinups, pullups, rows, etc), it can promote issues like rolled shoulders, forward neck, weak traps, weak rhomboids or similar postural issues to those the a…

Do you have any specific beginner's routines you'd recommend? I was doing 5x5, which has pulls in the form of barbell rows and deadlifts; I don't know if that's sufficient.

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#23

Post by melling »

jff wrote: post #19
wry_discontent wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Kinesis Advantage keyboard, and it's awesome. I can use a million emacs key chords all day and it's painless for my pinkies.

The Kinesis Advantage has really helped me, along with a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is actually a trackball). I used to get pains all the way up my right arm and through both wrists, but now worst case is a slightly tired hand.

The Kinesis Advantage has MX Cherry Brown switches. It would be great to understand what makes this keyboard effective. How does an Ergodox compare, for instance? I've also got a Github page dedicated to ergonomic keyboards:

https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/keyboa...

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#24

Post by dragonwriter »

sjustinas wrote: post #5

Does anyone have an idea why, according to the author, a mouse being wireless is so essential?

> Does anyone have an idea why, according to the author, a mouse being wireless is so essential?

I'm not sure why according to the author, but the advantages I can think of are:

(1) It allows more free repositioning to address ergonomic issues, and

(2) While this doesn't necessarily happen all the time, lots of times wired mice end up with the wires running in paths where they ocassionally provide more resistance to certain movements, which seems likely to have negative ergonomic consequences over time.

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#25

Post by henrik_w »

I had pretty bad RSI some years ago, to the point where I thought I wouldn't be able to program anymore. However, I got through it, and I don't have any pains today.

The key thing for me was starting to use a break program on my computer. Every 5 minutes I take a 10 seconds micro-break (let go of the mouse and keyboard). Every 45 minutes I take a 5 minute stretching break, and do 3 or 4 stretches.

That, together with a split keyboard (Goldtouch) and a pen-shaped mouse called Penclic. Both those are great for me. Almost all regular keyboards are terrible from an ergonomic standpoint (especially Apple's), not to mention laptop keyboards.

More details here: https://henrikwarne.com/2012/02/18/how-i-beat-rsi/

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#26

Post by gglitch »

tom_wilde wrote: post #15

fyi: a vertical mouse can help with lower arm issues. I swap between this and a normal one and simply varying the motion helped with my issues....

Thank you for this. I didn't even know vertical mice exist, but I've often remarked to myself how strange it feels to rotate my lower arm 45-90° to use the mouse. Purchased.

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#27

Post by melling »

WalterSear wrote: post #13
melling wrote: post #3

He's still not using an ergonomic keyboard. Typical keyboards require the user to press the key to the bottom to activate it, like pushing your finger into the desk. A mechanical keyboard switch activates halfway from the bottom, reducing the extra stress on your fingers. Here's a collection of other RSI stories, along with other ergonomic information: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes

Fwiw, I was disabled for 8 years with RSI, and the best keyboard I've found, for me, is the Apple one displayed in this article. It has the lightest touch of any keyboard I've used except for actual touchpad style ergonomic keyboards, which can be worse, since they can be difficult to use and require static pressure - like the keyboard of the screen of a tablet. Not to mention being unobtainable.

There are a lot of switches. Reddit has a great guide:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/switch_gui...

There's a table with activation forces:

    MX Red		Linear		45cN
    MX Black		Linear		60cN
    MX Dark Grey		Linear		80cN
    MX Brown

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#28

Post by josephjrobison »

100% agree with this article - I also don't know how more people aren't in the chiropractor's office weekly. I went through a particularly intense period of working on my laptop and it resulted in a neck spasm so sever it was like daggers trying to move my neck.

The doctor prescribed Vicodin it was that bad. But only when I went in for a series of chiropractic sessions did I improve my neck at the source. Thankfully now I'm more aware of just how important it is to not crane the neck, and I catch myself if I do it for more than 15 minutes at a time.

It definitely is becoming an epidemic, and there needs to be a lot more public awareness around this. Not everyone can afford multiple chiro sessions a week for weeks at a time to correct something preventable!

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#29

Post by jseliger »

runin2k1 wrote: post #4

All the ergo adjustments in the world won't help you if you sit in one position all day long with one small set of muscles engaged while the rest are disengaged and slowly atrophying. The best solution is touched on in the article, but it can't be overstated that actual exercise is the best preventative.

Switching to a sit-stand desk is by far the best thing I've done: http://jakeseliger.com/2015/01/24/geekdesk-max-sit-stand-des....

Re: We have an epidemic of bad posture

#30

Post by wcarss »

dangerlibrary wrote: post #10
sjustinas wrote: post #5

Does anyone have an idea why, according to the author, a mouse being wireless is so essential?

I can't think of any reason why a wireless mouse would have an ergonomic benefit over a wired one. They are the same size, shape, and orientation, and any decrease in drag from the lack of a cord is more than offset by the increased weight of the batteries.

When I'm reading a web page or code, I occasionally stand or sit with my mouse in my hand and my arm relaxed at my side, or across my chest. It changes the extension of my arm considerably and sometimes makes things much more comfortable.
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