I want my ergonomic workstation to be an asset that promotes good sitting posture the second I sit in my office chair. I need monitor height, elbow height, knee angle, and foot position to be correct immediately.
So, I shouldn’t have to move my body into a good computer posture position after I sit. This kind of workstation would be a liability that causes computer-related injuries. Good sitting posture should happen more naturally, as soon as I sit down. This requires a computer desk setup that’s custom fit for each office worker.
Correct sitting posture for office workers can vary for different people. There’s no single, correct way for everyone to sit at a computer. Desk workers are different heights, arm lengths, leg lengths, torso lengths, etc.
I write about my experience with making poor computer posture mistakes in the past. I also write about how I fixed those mistakes, in an effort to heal my computer-related pain, and prevent future computer injuries.
This article is not professional medical advice. It’s based off my personal experience and opinions. For years, my poor computer posture caused muscle tension, inflammation, and chronic pain. Bad posture also decreased my mental clarity, energy level, and work productivity.
All the desk worker health tips I write about are directly related to improving posture at a computer. We are our own primary caretakers. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
How to Improve Sitting Posture
The impact of poor sitting posture on health can be very costly to an employer. Bad computer posture can easily cause decreased work productivity. It could also lead to office workers missing work due to computer-related injuries.
This article will focus on productive, optimistic solutions for decreasing computer-related pain. But to learn more about the negative effects of bad computer posture, check out my article titled How Can Posture Affect Your Health.
This article will give some of my most important posture tips for long hours at a desk. I try to provide the minimal amount of information that will lead to the biggest improvements. Here are my favorite ways to improve sitting posture.
How To Improve Posture While Sitting At Desk
Ergonomic chair adjustments for better posture
I used to sit with my office chair too low. This caused multiple computer posture problems for me. In 2011, I took full accountability for my poor computer posture. I implemented as many good computer posture habits to my daily routine as I could. The very first healthy habit was to raise my office chair to the correct height.
I like to raise my chair until my knees are slightly below my hips. This allows me to comfortably rest my feet flat on the floor. But that’s not the only variable I need to meet for correct chair height.
I need my elbows to be slightly higher than desk level. This can reduce shoulder pain from sitting at a computer. Because sitting with elbow level lower than desk level causes my biceps to be constantly activated in order to lift my hands up onto my keyboard and mouse. This caused my biceps to get tighter and shorter. They pulled on my shoulder tendons, causing overuse and inflammation. For more info on this computer posture mistake, check out my article titled Why Does Sitting at a Computer Cause Shoulder Pain?
I have a height adjustable desk, which makes it easy to get my elbow height correct, once my chair height allows my knees to be slightly below my hips. Once my knee level is correct, I adjust my desk height until it is slightly below my elbow level.
If you don’t have a height adjustable desk, adjust your chair height so that your knees are slightly below your hips. If that chair height leaves your elbows below your desk, then raise your chair until your elbow level is slightly higher than your desk level. Also, if that lifts your feet off the ground, invest in a foot rest so you can keep your feet flat on it.
Adjusting monitor height for optimal posture
Once my knees are slightly below my hips, and my elbow level is slightly higher than my desk level, it’s time to adjust my monitor height for optimal posture. I want the top of my monitor screen to be at my eye level. I make sure to adjust my monitor to the correct height while I have an upright torso (not slouching forward). Otherwise, it could cause me to naturally slouch forward more easily.
Best sitting position to prevent neck strain
To prevent neck strain, I want to avoid forward head posture. This is when my head used to fall forward in front of my torso. This compromised position put a ton of strain on my neck muscles and tendons. It tends to happen more when my torso slouches forward with poor posture, which I avoid as much as possible.
How to sit correctly to avoid back pain
Obviously, the best way to avoid back pain when sitting is to avoid slouching forward. Instead, we want to sit with an upright, neutral, balanced torso. Assuming we’re following the previous healthy habits in this article, we now have correct chair, knee, elbow, desk, eye, and monitor height. All these good posture habits will allow us to naturally sit upright for longer periods of time.
One more healthy computer posture habit that helps to avoid back pain, I keep my keyboard and mouse near the edge of my desk. This allows me to keep my elbows close to my torso. I don’t want my keyboard and mouse to be pushed forward on my desk. This would cause me to overextend my arms to type and click, which would cause me to naturally slouch forward.
To learn more about how to maintain the natural curves in the spine and an upright torso, check out my article titled Computer Posture: Why “Sit Up Straight” is Bad Advice.
Proper computer posture to reduce eye strain
Since we already have the correct monitor height, the top of the screen is at eye level. The next healthy posture habit is, I make sure that my monitor is not too far away from my face. I like to keep my monitor about 18 to 24 inches from my face. I also have a very large monitor, so I can zoom in on my work and read it easily. Finally, I have a second monitor which allows me to see 2 open windows at the same time. This helps to reduce eye strain, as well as increase work productivity.
How Can I Stop Slouching
Good posture is important. And slouching forward is the first mistake I’d fix take to correct your posture.
Sit with an upright torso
This is the first step. We don’t want to sit up “too straight.” That’s also known as overcorrecting. And that used to cause just as much repetitive strain and overuse as slouching forward did to me.
Sit with a neutral spine, with natural curves intact.
The spine isn’t straight when looking at it from a side angle. It has natural curves. It’s very important to keep those curves intact, especially when sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Don’t overextend arms when reaching for the keyboard and mouse
This will likely tense up all the muscles in your arms. Then, the next muscles to tighten up will be the front of your shoulders. Then naturally, my torso would tend to slouch forward from there.
Now that we’ve covered how to stop slouching, the next posture mistake I’d address is How to Fix Forward Head Posture.
Exercise For Posture Correction
Correcting my computer posture was easy (initially). Maintaining good posture was the hard part.
Slouching forward used to cause me stiff and tight muscles, which resulted in back pain. Below are the exercises that’ve helped me correct my computer posture the most.
Lower back extensions in a roman chair
A common misconception is that the abdominal muscles make up our core. But our cores muscles go 360 degrees around the lower part of my torso, and my pelvis.
My abdominal muscles were super tight and shortened from slouching forward.
On the other hand, my lower back muscles were deactivated and lengthened.
I corrected this imbalance by doing a lot of lower back extensions on a roman chair.
Yoga cactus pose (while laying flat on the floor)
One of the most chronic issues I had from poor computer posture was excessive internal rotation of my shoulders. An average physical therapist would tell you to go do a door stretch, or a towel stretch. But those just didn’t move the needle for me.
I needed a stretch that was low-intensity and long-duration. Because we hold a keyboard and mouse 8 hours a day. This issue won’t get fixed with a 30 second stretch.
So I started doing a yoga cactus stretch, while laying with my shoulder blades flat on the floor. It reverses my internal shoulder rotation, while allowing me to relax, and focus on my breathing, for long periods of time.
I laid on the floor (like in the below image). I would relax my arms, letting my shoulders fall open, rotating externally. I’d imagine my arms melting into the floor. This counteracts my excessive internal shoulder rotation, caused by sitting at a computer for years.
Yoga stick stretch
This next product is not expensive. I got it from Amazon. It’s called a yoga stick (not paid promotion).
This yoga stick stretch puts me in the exact counterbalanced position I need to be in, to reverse the damage that slouching forward does to me. It activates my back muscles in the opposite direction. And it also lengthens my chest muscles, which get shortened from sitting at a computer.
All of this corrects my slouching forward. So, I’m more likely to sit with an upright torso and a neutral spine (with its natural curves intact). And sitting in that healthy position was helped me have good computer posture.
How the Steel Mace 360 Fixes Computer Posture
If I could only do 1 strength exercise for the rest of my life, it would be the “steel mace 360.”
A steel mace is shaped like a kettlebell, except it doesn’t have the same handle. Instead, the weight is at the end of a barbell-style rod. A steel mace is also commonly referred to as a macebell (also, not paid promotion).
Regardless how conscious I am of my computer posture, I still tend to slouch forward sometimes.
The steel mace 360 exercise helps release my tension from slouching.
It opens up my front lines, stretching my compressed chest (which was caused by slouching forward and holding a keyboard and mouse for long periods).
This exercise also activates my back muscles, in the exact opposite way that slouching forward does.
It’s the perfect combination of a “strength + stretching” exercise, for me and my athletic, sedentary lifestyle.
Here’s a video of me doing the steel mace 360.
In case the video didn’t load, here are some screen captures of me doing the same exercise.
The first steel mace I bought was 10 pounds. I could do the 360 with it at first, but the movements were very slow. So I dropped down and bought a 7 pound steel mace. I was able to learn the movement a lot better with that. As the movements got quicker, I moved back up to the 10 pound steel mace. That’s the weight I use the most these days. I also have a 15 pound steel mace. But that’s pretty heavy. I’ll use it occasionally for low reps, just to switch things up.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COMPUTER POSTURE.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to reduce computer-related injuries by improving your posture. That’s something to be very proud of!
You might also want to read my post on the different types of sitting positions with useful tips on good posture and avoiding pain when sitting.
If you liked this article on how to improve sitting posture, check out my book titled 45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.
This book is a great supplement to the article you just read. It covers healthy ergonomic habits like posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing.
I wrote this book to be the resource I wish I had back in 2002, when I first started sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen: Computer Posture Correction and Pain-Free Ergonomics – For Office Workers Who Want to Fix Their Sitting Pain