How To Sit At Your Desk Correctly
Today we are talking about ergonomics, which is a fancy way of saying the way you should do things that makes your body work the most efficiently. It is usually used when speaking about the workplace. Since many of you may be working from home right now, you may not have the ideal ergonomic setup for your workspace, but there are still things that can be improved! Of course, the best scenario would be an in-person evaluation where we can show you exactly how your workstation should be set up for your body, but if you are looking for a self-evaluation of your workstation, here are some general tips for you to check out.
Make sure your booty is all the way back in your chair. When you scoot all the way back, this helps your chair do its job in supporting your low back (assuming you have a decent chair…if not, it is definitely worth the investment for your back in the long run and can save you a lot of money down the road in healthcare costs for a “bad back”!) You need a solid base in order for the rest of your body to sit correctly.
While having your booty all the way back in the chair, make sure your feet are flat on the ground and that there is no pressure on the back side of your knees. If you feel pressure behind the knees, this means your chair is too high, so lower it slightly until you no longer feel pressure behind the knees. If your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are higher than your booty, you need to raise your chair slightly until your thighs are about parallel with the floor.
If you are able to adjust the height of your desk, make sure you can comfortably rest your forearms on the work surface with your elbows at 90 degrees. If you can’t adjust the height, try adding stacks of books under your keyboard or laptop. (If your work surface is too high, try adding books under your feet and then raising your chair)
Scoot your chair in to the desk/table/workspace enough so that your arms are not reaching forward to get to your keyboard. A little test you can do is to squeeze your shoulder blades together and if your hands come off the keyboard, you are sitting too far away, which means your shoulders are protracted, or pulled forward too much. Scoot closer.
This one is hard to measure, but you your eyes should look at a 10 degree slope downward to the center of your screen. As an estimate, this means that (depending on the size of your screen of course) the top of your screen should line up with the top of your head (except if you are using a laptop with the built in keyboard in which case you will look downward more than 10 degrees). Your nose should be almost level but pointing slightly downward.
There are also things out there that may not be necessary but can make your workstation a little more comfortable. Some of these are: an angled footplate, an ergonomic wrist supported mousepad, and an ergonomic keyboard.
If you want a more detailed assessment of your workspace and recommendations for improvement, contact us today at www.momsinmotionpt.com/contact.