The American office worker spends an average of 40 hours per week sitting at a computer desk. That equals 2,000 hours per year. If someone had a desk job for 20 years, that equals 40,000 hours of loading on the spine in poor sitting postures.
Poor posture can eventually cause injuries if not corrected early on. The sooner these poor sitting postures can be corrected, the less severity of posture related injuries from computer use will occur.
I used to have an office job at a large company. Along with myself, the number of co-workers who were affected by musculoskeletal disorders from computer use was staggering. When I first started my blog, I would get emails from co-workers that I didn’t personally know. But we all sat at the same desks, in the same office, for long periods of time. They would ask for advice or help with their common computer-related injuries. I’d give them my favorite ways that I improved my different sitting postures. Before long, a large percentage of my co-workers were interested. In order to prevent musculoskeletal disorders from computer use, the first step I would recommend is to learn proper sitting posture. That’s why I created a free ebook. You can download it at SittingPosture.com/ebook.
Posture Related Injuries from Computer Use
Muscles fatigue as we sit at a computer for long periods of time. The more our muscles fatigue, the faster our sitting postures break down and cause various injuries. I’ve suffered through multiple common computer-related injuries. The most painful of my symptoms include neck pain, muscle tension, joint dysfunction, tendonitis inflammation, mouse shoulder, carpel tunnel syndrome, muscle spasms, and degenerative disc disease. Other injuries caused by computer symptoms include tennis elbow, herniated disc, and postural cervical dorsal syndrome. Below are some short descriptions of the injuries I’ve had that were caused by sitting at a computer desk for long periods of time.
Neck Pain
Neck pain caused by technology is also commonly known as tech neck. It can be caused by looking down at any type of technology device (smartphone, tablet, laptop). In my case, the device that caused the worst pain for my neck was my computer screen. I used to keep my computer screen too low. To fix this, now I keep the top of my computer screen at eye level. It’s okay to look down at the bottom of the screen with your eyes. However, it’s not okay if your screen is so low that you need to tilt your head in order to read the bottom of it.
Sometimes, a monitor won’t rise high enough so that the top of it is at eye level. In this case, I would either buy a monitor platform or find something sturdy to put my monitor on top of (a box, a few books, etc). If untreated, tech neck can not only cause neck pain, but it could lead to muscle tension and muscle fatigue in other parts of the body. It could also lead to degenerative disc disease (more on this later in the article).
Muscle Tension
The most annoying thing about sitting at a computer was the chronic, stubborn muscle tension it caused me. Static stretching rarely helped at all because these muscles were being used in a compromised position for thousands of hours per year. Static stretching would help a little, but it just wasn’t getting the job done.
Poor posture caused me tons of muscle tension. However, good posture can cause muscle tension too. Even if we have great posture, we are still holding our muscles in the same position for long periods of time. That is what causes muscle tension and joint dysfunction. It’s not whether our posture is good or not. Bad posture makes our pain much worse. But holding our muscles in any certain position for long periods of time, that’s what causes painful repetitive strain injuries.
I’ve taken many approaches to relieve this chronic muscle tension. The best solution for me was going to see a specialist that used a hands-on healing technique. Some of the hands-on healing therapies I’ve used in the past included chiropractic, acupuncture, dry needling, and painful, but restorative deep tissue massage.
I also find it very helpful to stay hydrated with quality spring water. So I stay away from drinking tap water because I can still taste chlorine from the purification process. I also stay away from purified water because it lacks the natural minerals contained in spring water. Staying hydrated is super important for people sitting at a computer desk. As the day goes on, our muscles fatigue. As our muscles get tired, our posture suffers worse and worse. The more hydrated we are with quality drinking water that contains the proper minerals, the more likely we are to have less muscle tension caused by repetitive strain injuries.
Joint Dysfunction
When my muscles tightened, they pulled on different joints in my body. This caused the joints to not work properly. These muscles are tightened by repetitive strain injuries, which are basically tension caused by using muscles held in the same position for long periods of time.
The first joint that I had problems with was my left knee, then my right knee. Both were mainly caused by sitting for long periods of time. The muscles in my quads, hamstrings, and calves got tighter and tighter from both the repetitive strain and inactivity of sitting for long periods. Eventually, the next joint was my left shoulder. That was caused by holding my left arm on my keyboard all day long. It literally never moved. My left fingers would move to type, but my left shoulder would be stuck in the same strained position all day.
To fix it, I’d use the same techniques I listed in the above section about muscle tension. Because my joint dysfunction was caused by muscle tension (which was caused by sitting at a computer desk for long periods of time). It’s a vicious, stubborn cycle.
Tendonitis Inflammation
Tendonitis inflammation is a painful signal your body gives you when something is wrong somewhere else in your body. For example, excessive muscle tension is a huge cause of this tendon pain. Muscles are connected to tendons. Tendons connect muscle to bone. Muscles are made to be flexible and they’re made to stretch. When muscles get too tight, they pull harder on tendons. Tendons are not meant to be as flexible as muscles. When tendons got pulled too much, that was a leading cause for the tendonitis inflammation I suffered from.
Poor posture can cause this injury, but good posture can cause it too. Poor posture will cause these injuries much quicker than good posture. The real enemy is sitting at a computer for long periods of time. For a lot of us, working at a computer is inevitable. This is why we need to increase our body awareness throughout the day.
Ice treatment on the inflamed tendon brought me some temporary relief, however, I was more interested in a long-term solution. My inflamed tendons were always the effect of the problem, not the cause. That said, I always tried to find the tight muscle connected to the tendon that was causing the inflammation. Then, I would treat that muscle with different hands-on methods such as massage, vibration therapy, foam rolling, anything that would improve the amount of blood circulation going through that tight muscle.
Mouse Shoulder or Keyboard Shoulder
I suffered a great deal from both mouse shoulder and keyboard shoulder. When it came to using a mouse with my right arm, eventually the lack of blood flow going through my arm caused a lot of muscle deactivation throughout my bicep, tricep, and forearm. This left the muscles in my right shoulder to be the main engine that, not only moved my mouse but also moved my entire arm throughout the day. My shoulder muscles became incredibly overused which led to muscle tension, muscle fatigue, and tendonitis inflammation in both my shoulder and tennis elbow.
My left shoulder pain was caused by a totally different action. I would constantly hold my left hand on my keyboard all day. There was no mouse, desk phone, no paper or pen on the left side of my desk. I’m right-handed, so all of that activity was done on my right side. This caused my left shoulder to constantly be engaged all day long, holding my left hand on my keyboard.
Overuse is the biggest enemy for both mouse shoulder and keyboard shoulder as well. Although, bad posture is obviously a major variable. Bad posture will exponentially make our mouse shoulder and keyboard shoulder hurt more. However, we still need to be conscious of overusing our shoulders, even if we are using good posture.
Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
My carpel tunnel syndrome was caused by using an ancient keyboard that sat with the keys at least an inch high off of my desk. In order to get my fingers onto the keys, I constantly had to activate the muscles on the back of my wrists. Carpel tunnel syndrome doesn’t directly have anything to do with typing. It has to do with activating the wrist muscles in order to place the fingers high on the keyboard.
This problem was one of the easiest computer posture issues for me to solve. I bought a new keyboard that was almost completely flat. Apple makes the one that I switched over to. My carpel tunnel syndrome pain went away very quickly.
Degenerative Disc Disease
Degenerative disc disease is when the disc(s) between the vertebrae break down or deteriorate. It can be a condition that gets worse with age. However, my poor posture from sitting for long periods was making my degenerative disc disease progress rapidly.
The degenerative disc disease I accumulated is irreversible. It’s not something that will go away or get corrected. However, I corrected how I hold the curvature of my spine for long periods of time while sitting at a computer. Learn about the natural “S” curve in the spine and use your body awareness to maintain it as much as possible for the long term. I talk about this in more detail in my Computer Posture Checklist. Once I made this correction, it avoided any further deterioration being done to the discs between the vertebrae in my spine.
How to Prevent Posture Related Injuries from Computer Use
Arrange your desktop to promote proper posture
As my day goes on, I find that items on my desk have slowly started to slide into different locations. Mainly, my keyboard and mouse slide forward on my desk as my body hunches forward later into the workday. Naturally, this is going to happen. But, I try to be conscious of it as much as possible by moving my keyboard and mouse back into their normal position (that promotes good posture) every time I sit down at my desk.
Get up from your sitting position often
The amount of time I sit at a desk varies. If I’m not in a creative zone, I won’t continue to sit if I’m not making any progress. Even when I am getting things done at my desk, I like to get up and walk around at least every 20 to 30 minutes. I don’t necessarily stretch or even take a very long break. I just get up and walk around for a few minutes, or maybe convert to a standing working position. Even if I’m in a productive zone, I never sit at my desk for more than an hour without getting up. It’s just not worth it physically. It’s also nice to get a mental break that makes me more creative when I do get back to my desk.
Exercise
When I was at the height of my pain (caused by muscle tension from sitting for long periods), I took the approach of resting everyday after work for about 6 months. I didn’t exercise during this time and I learned that it did me absolutely no good at all. The muscle tension was simply preserved in my body. The pain didn’t go away. It didn’t necessarily get worse, but it didn’t get better either. Stopping exercise was clearly not the answer for me. If I could do it all over again, I would’ve figured out the exercises that weren’t conducive to my condition and substituted them for something else.
Maybe instead of a run, I would’ve done a bike ride (much less stressful impact on my body). I would’ve also taken a lighter weight, more reps approach when it comes to lifting weights. My goal these days in the gym is specifically focused on the outcomes of how I feel the next day after the workout. I want to feel pain-free, strong, and energetic every morning.
Use proper sitting posture by downloading my free ebook
Injuries caused by sitting at a computer desk are inevitable, whether we are using good posture or not. However, using good posture is the first necessary step in beating these injuries caused by sitting for long periods of time.
Download my ebook to increase your body awareness and learn ways to decrease pressure loading on the spine. It’s a free PDF that you can print out and post at your desk. Use it as a consistent reminder of how to position your body properly while sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Thanks for your interest in sitting posture.
Take care,
Todd Bowen