5 Ways You’re Sitting Wrong at Your Desk – Computer Desk Setup Ergonomics

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The way we sit in front of a computer can greatly affect our health. Good ergonomics doesn’t have to expensive or difficult but there is definitely a lot of myths and misinformation that can make it confusing.

1. Don’t Sit Up Perfectly Straight.

Sitting up straight might look the most professional and ergonomic posture and it definitely feels ok at the beginning but over long periods of time, a straight vertical posture puts a lot of unnecessary strain directly on your spine as you try to hold up yourself.

2. Don’t Adjust Your Chair Based on your Legs and Feet.

It is incorrect to adjust the seat height so your feet are firmly planted on the floor. For a computer set up you should actually adjust the seat height depending on where your keyboard and mouse are.

3. Don’t Use Desks with Built in Drawers.

Desks with built in drawers might look great and can be convenient for quick storage of trinkets and accessories but they can prevent you from sitting correctly at your desk. Correct sitting here means your arms and legs should not be far apart.

4. Don’t Use a Wrist Rest.

The ideal way to have your arms when operating a keyboard and mouse is to float them over your desk rather than rest them on the surface. This works for short bursts of time. your arms will star to fatigue if you try to do this for too long. To avoid this most of us will rest their wrists on the desk or use a wrist rest.

This ends up putting a lot of pressure on the wrists where you have sensitive nerves and exposed veins for blood flow.

5. Standing Is Not Good for You.

Standing desks are getting pretty popular these days. Standing all day is not any better than sitting all day long. The unhealthy part being the fact that you are stationary for extremely long periods of time.

Conclusion:

It is advisable to lock your chair in a recline position to have the back of the chair support part of your body weight. This offers comfort and helps avoid spine strain. 

The Keyboard and mouse are pretty fixed accessories that should dictate your seat height, a low seat will have your arms pinching the edge of the desk while a high seat will have you bending your wrists or slouching. At the proper height with your elbows on your side, your forearms and hands should be perfectly in line to work with your keyboard and mouse.

It is advisable to avoid desks with thick tops, usually the one with drawers in the middle, they might physically prevent you from sitting up correctly without banging your knees into the desk.

It is prudent to use palm rests instead of wrist rests which creates unnecessary pressure on your wrists. Palms are less sensitive to pressure of holding up your arms and helps keep the rest of your arm in line. getting a standing desk does not change the health implications of being stationary all day. It is rather advisable to change up frequently. You can move your footrest around, change the recline on your chair, stand up for a bit if you can, or walk away from the desk for a moment.