In 2003, more than 9,200 non-government workers missed a day or more of work because of typing or keyboarding related injuries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. In 2008, the situation got a whole lot worse as sales of laptop computers overtook those of desktops for the first time. Today, according to British-born Paul King, co-founder of Guadalajara’s Practicayoga, things will get much worse, as laptops begin to take their place as the principal workhorses of the office.
Says King: “People now work at laptops for long hours, although this is not what they were designed for. The ergonomics of a laptop are quite different from those of a desktop. In the former, the keyboard and screen are very close together and not easily separable. This means, even if you work at a table or desk, you are looking downward, rather than forward. Typically your lumbar is convex instead of its natural concavity, shoulders are rounded forward, your chest is collapsed, and the back of the neck is permanently extended. This posture spells serious health problems for millions of people around the world.”
King says you can improve this situation by investing in an external keyboard and raising the level of the laptop screen, for example by placing it on top of a stack of books, so you are looking straight at the screen. Your feet should be flat on the floor and both your forearms and your thighs should be parallel to the floor. Sit upright, weight in the center of your sitting bones, neither pressing the lumbar forward nor allowing it to collapse back. If this is difficult to maintain, maybe use a lumbar support. “Of course this set-up works well for people who can touch type,” he comments, “but if you can’t and you still need to look down at the keyboard, the problem remains.”
What can happen to you if you work like this for a long time? “In the short term you may get a headache or feel stress in your neck and shoulders. If your upper back and neck muscles are contracted for a long time, and circulation to your heart is reduced by your collapsed chest, the flow of blood and oxygen to your whole body is reduced. As a result, you are not working at your optimum health and intellect level. In the long run you could end up with spinal problems.”
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