Much has been promised in terms of the long term health benefits of standing workstations including increased longevity and an end to obesity, type two diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Is standing at work really the key to better health and productivity or is it...
Sitting for extended periods isn’t only bad for your health. It’s bad for morale. It’s bad for concentration. It’s bad for productivity. Recently, Stanford University Researchers found that walking enhances creating thinking, after as well as...
Just because we are serious about ergonomics doesn’t mean we can’t approach the subject with a sense of humor. Has mainstream media got carried away with ergonomics? With all important trends in health and wellness, some people tend to invest too much...
The Upright Go is an elegant wearable posture trainer that claims to replace slouching with upright sitting in just two weeks. That’s quite a claim. Nobody can improve your posture for you. But if a device can focus your awareness on your posture over and over...
What if everybody knew touch typing? Bending your neck forward or sitting with your hands hovering mid-air while you search for keys on your keyboard is an avoidable example of awful ergonomics. Ironically, it’s often the people whose time is worth the most who...
The cookbook author pictured below tried to create her own ergonomic hack by placing a piece of foam on her desk after excruciating wrist pain prevented her from writing. However, she missed the main problem which was incorrect positioning of her laptop and lack of an...
You can reduce your risk of injury by preventing workplace fatigue. When you perform boring or repetitive tasks, your brain is not the only part of you that gets tired. Your muscles, wrists and eyes are just some of the parts of your body that are being fatigued and...
Repetetive Strain Injuries Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI’s) is the name given to the damage we do to our musculoskeletal and nervous systems by frequent repetition of tasks requiring fine motor skills. Although not specific to computer and device use,...
Good Workplace Energy is Good Ergonomics. Ergonomics is about overall wellbeing as much as it is about injury prevention. The environment in your office should be conducive to safe and productive working habits. A cluttered environment can easily lead to feelings of...
Twisting your neck sideways, bending forward, scrunching your phone in between your shoulder and ear and” text neck” all place an unhealthy amount of strain on the muscles of your neck, shoulders and upper back. These are just some examples of bad...
Text neck syndrome is a name to describe the headache, neck pain, and shoulder ache that result from the extra strain from looking down at a handheld device for long periods of time. And those are just the short term effects. In the long term, head forward...
Most computer monitors are positioned incorrectly. None of the reasons given below make much sense but with the countdown to Reason #1 the logic gets downright scary. Here is a list of the top ten reasons people give for positioning their monitors where they have to...
I often find it difficult to believe that people who pride themselves on their awareness of ergonomics have put so little thought into the setup of their offices. Case study In an extreme example, a client was referred to me by his health care professional. He was...
A cursory search online will reveal countless articles on the risks of sitting. It’s true that sitting has risks but let’s separate the truth from the hype. Sitting for too long poses two different kinds of risks to your body: Sedentary behaviour risks...
Taking frequent breaks is more important than what you during them. Do you work at your computer all day and then try to balance it out with a visit to the gym twice a week and a bike ride on weekends? You are not lowering your ergonomic risk – your lifestyle...
It’s a legitimate question. We’ve all heard the saying, “sitting is the new smoking”. And we’ve seen the people in high tech move to thousand dollar standing desks. But the truth is, just replacing sitting with standing isn’t going to help you much. Why? Because it’s...
In this post, I’d like to share with you the abc’s of Ergonomics. The best way to do this is to answer two of the questions I get asked most often by my clients. Let’s start with the obvious question: What does an ergonomics consultant do? In the best case scenario,...
Ergonomics: Not Just Human Factors Engineering Abie is more than a dog walker. He is a pack leader and local celebrity. He even looks a little like John Travolta. He walks with a swagger and says that this is because one of his legs is shorter than...
Those of us who had a good laugh at Randy Newman’s hilarious song “Short People Have No Reason To Live” know that being short isn’t so bad. My family is short. For us, airline travel is ghastly, but possible. We never have to duck our heads when passing through a...
Lori is an occupational therapist and she knows a lot more about seating and ergonomics than you and me. She works with clients in power and regular wheelchairs. Her job is to customize and adjust seating to help them avoid pain, discomfort and probably even pressure...
I have been helping people to sit and move comfortably since 1998. I am always looking for ways to help people improve their relationships with their bodies.
I have been helping people to sit and move comfortably since 1998. I am always looking for ways to help people improve their relationships with their bodies.