Ergonomics education and product sales is a big money industry, because most every industry loses billions in worker productivity every year due to worker 'injury' (estimated to be between $45 and $54 billion in lost productivity annually).
This injury (that decreases an employee's ability to perform work duties) includes (but is not limited to):
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- wrist tendonitis
- medial and lateral epicondylitis
- low back pain
- shoulder pain/shoulder tendonitis
- pinched nerves
- hernias and/or herniated discs
In response to employee injury and/or complaint, Ergonomic Education professionals hire out to companies to come into the workplace and make the employee's worker's ergonomics more efficient.
This can look like rearranging a chair/desk/computer monitor/keyboard/mouse. Lower the chair, raise the monitor, raise the keboard up (or lower it, depending). And of course educating the employee on 'good' ergonomics: how to sit, how the hands should be positioned, etc.
The ergonomics improvement service usually includes plenty of upsells: expensive ergonomic chairs, new ergonomic keyboards, special mouses, adjustable desks, backrests, foot rests, etc.
Overall, statistically these efforts do show results. Decreased workplace injury, few complaints, etc.
So that's great.
But there's a fatal flaw to 'proper ergonomics'. And that flaw is that even perfect ergonomics does not prevent work place injury (let's use 'tendonitis' as a catch all term).
Good ergonomics does in fact slow down the progression towards tendonitis, but it does not, and can not, prevent it.
Why is that?
Because that's just not how the body works.
Tendonitis (and herniation, pinched nerve, etc) is a function of a progressive DYNAMIC of multiple factors all working together.
Basically, over time and use, muscle and connective tissue get tighter and tighter. The tighter muscle and connective tissue is, the less able it is to function and the more one moves towards pain and problem.
The body is designed to become VERY efficient at any particular repeated action, and part of that mechanism is for muscles and connective tissue to 'shrink down' into the most efficient arrangement. So if you type 7 hours a day in perfect ergonomic position, you are STILL going to get progressively tight muscles and connective tissue, and eventually start to hurt.
So what's the best way to avoid 'workplace injury'? What is the best posture to sit in, to keyboard in, to look at the monitor in?
The answer? All of them.
While some postures/positions are better than others, sitting in a single position will sooner or later cause pain and problem.
The solution is to NOT sit in a single position.
The body loves change and variety. The body thrives when adapting to new situations and input. "Movement is life", as they say.
Instead of sitting in the perfect ergonomic set up every day, sit in that set up once a week, or once a month.
The other days, do something different. Every day or every few days:
raise or lower your chair
raise or lower your keyboard
switch between two different keyboards (for instance, a regular keyboard and an ergonomic keyboard)
switch the mouse to the other hand and use that hand to mouse all day long (this will be awkward at first)
change the angle of your monitor
scoot your monitor closer to you or farther away from you
raise or lower the height of your monitor
keep your chair closer or farther from the desk (so you have to reach more, or less, for the keyboard
trade your chair with somebody else that has a different chair
The body loves it when you switch things up. The body loves it when you move.
The body does not love it when it is constrained to a single specific position.
So switch it up!
Find out more about healthy ergonomics at http://www.TendonitisExpert.com/ergonomics-definition.html