Ergonomics

[da]

I just got an ergonomic assessment of my office. It was useful, for helping me track what's causing my shoulder to hurt recently. I knew it was mouse-related, since it hurts precisely when I use the mouse. It turns out I'm holding up my arm too much. Way too much. I should be resting it on the arm-rests. All right then.

I need to investigate:

• a footrest. The assessor said when I'm not using my keyboard or mouse, I might want to be tipping my chair slightly back (something about blood-flow in the back being increased). She recommended putting my feet up. I like putting my feet up.
  
• I still need a windows program that will simply go 'ding' every 20 minutes- to remind me to take a break. Options: many.
  
• a split keyboard without a keypad? She doesn't know of any. I'm going to let this one go, it's only to make my mouse closer at hand and I don't really need it.
  
• I need to ask the kinesiology gym people about two exercises which may be OK for my shoulder, since I've been skipping the arm-lifting exercises at the gym. "prone fly" and "shoulder retraction".
  

20 minutes very well spent.

Comments

Yay healthy computing!

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

Huh. I put my feet up all the time while working (when I need to read something long). Who knew it was actually good for me?

I still swear by the trackball. By split keyboard do you mean two completely separate pieces, or one piece with a gap in the middle? If the latter, I have one made by MS with no trackpad.

Regular exercise does seem the key to making many computer injuries go away, so that's good they've recommended a few for you. I figure semiregular swimming will cover it all, so I do that :)

As for software, have you seen workrave? I guarantee it has all the features you need and more!

Re: Yay healthy computing!

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

The keyboard I currently use is a Microsoft Natural.. The assessor found me this keyboard with a trackpad, though from her comments, I'd be grumpy about the small size of the trackpad. I think I'm happy enough with the keyboard I've got.

I'll check out workrave, thanks. I rememeber looking at them some time ago, and they seem to have the right idea with the improvements they've made since then. (The question is whether it has the feature of getting out of my way in the ways I want, too. :)

Re: Yay healthy computing!

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Workrave seems to fit the bill completely, thanks. (It does bring up a window at break time, but it doesn't steal focus unless I tell it to do so).

Also, it serves a useful Big Brother function, with all of its various statistics. I'm not sure, but that might be slightly self-motivating as well.

Plus, the sheep is cute.