Ergonomics News

Why to Go Ergonomic with Your Mouse

Many people wonder if it's worth going ergonomic with any of their gadgets or everyday tools. When considering an ergonomic mouse, a good indicator to go ahead and get one is if you find that your forearms, wrists, or any part of your hand {including your fingers} hurt after longer periods of mousing. It's pretty common to feel aches and pains with a laptop touchpad and even a standard mouse because of the way they force your arm and wrists to twist to conform to their shape. Alternatively, an ergonomic mouse should conform to fit your hand.

How to Choose an Ergonomic Mouse:

There are a lot of wireless products out there- when choosing a mouse, the most critical factor to consider is how it fits your hand. You may see a crazy cool-looking, shiny, top of the line mouse that all your cool, techy friends have...but if it doesn't fit your hand, it's not for you. To know for sure if a mouse fits your hand, just see how it feels when you grip it. Most mice force you to twist your hand unnaturally to hover over it. However, there are a lot of ergonomic mice that are designed for a more natural, more comfortable fit.

Here are 3 great ergonomic mice:

Evoluent - a mouse that offers a handshake grasp which keeps your arm from twisting as you mouse.

Aerobic - a wired mouse that comes with right and left-handed options and a comfortable handshake fit for your hand.

3M Vertcal - a fabulous option with a joy stick grip. Great for ergonomic comfort and ease of use without wires.

Ergonomic comfort, namely avoiding straining your arm, wrist, and even fingers, found in a good fit is the most important factor to consider. Going wireless is simply an added bonus. If you work from the road a lot or have small children, getting rid of extra wires can be a great move.

If you're looking for a better mouse, try an ergonomic mouse for comfort and ease of use.

Getting More Productive At Work - Thanks To Ergonomics

Do you find yourself distracted or unproductive at work? Most people lose over two hours of productive work time each day due to distractions. And many struggle with concentration, especially during the mid-afternoon hours. Here are some great tips and some tools that can help you make the most of your time at work.

Fix your posture. So much energy is wasted each day on poor posture. A well-adjusted ergonomic chair can provide comfort and help you to maintain good posture, resulting in better concentration and less stress. For best results, adjust your chair to support a neutral typing posture. Start by addressing assuring that your back is well supported; if your chair is lacking, try adding more lumbar support. Next, adjust the height so that your feet rest flat on the floor or a foot rest. Finally, make sure your arm rests are out of the way of your arms as you type.

Stand up! Take frequent breaks from your chair, and find creative ways to work while standing. A study showed that standing can increase brain function by 5% to 20%. Try standing during phone calls; or better yet, use a sit-or-stand ergonomic desk, such as the Hercules Sit-or-Stand flexible height ergonomic desk. This device it attaches directly to your current work surface to provide easy height adjustment for your monitor, keyboard and mouse, allowing you to stand up ergonomically while still using your computer.

Eliminate distractions. Set up a focused work time, without phone calls or email distractions. Turn on a white noise machine to block out office conversations and other noises around you. This will help you concentrate on high priority tasks for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. Only check your e-mail and phone messages a few times each day. And keep your responses short and precise, about 15 sentences or less, to get your point across.

Upgrade to an ergonomic keyboard. Ergonomic keyboards are specially designed to improve hand posture, eliminate muscle pain and strain, and make typing more comfortable and efficient. Consider a left-handed keyboard or a mini keyboard to reduce wrist strain by bringing your mouse closer. And the compact design of the mini keyboard can decreases the effort needed for each keystroke. Try several different keyboard designs and sizes to fine one that fit best.

Increasing your concentration at work can lower your stress levels and improve your productivity. Start by maintaining good posture with a well-adjusted ergonomic chair and a specially-designed ergonomic keyboard; both can help you work more productively. And find creative ways to stand up while working, to help with blood flow and focus. Tips may seem simple, but small changes significantly impact your productivity at work.

Tips for Avoiding & Relieving Back Pain

If your back aches at the end of the day, you are not alone. Millions of people suffer from back pain and don't always know what to do to relieve it or avoid it altogether. Interestingly, a lot of back pain results from poor posture, standard equipment (versus ergonomic), and the resulting over-worked muscles. Major injuries aside, here are some helpful tips to find fast relief and prevent future pain or injury.

Adjust your chair. Make sure you have an adjustable chair, preferably an ergonomic chair that properly supports your body and helps you maintain good posture. The adjustments you should make are as follows: 1) lower the chair until your feet sit firmly on the ground. 2) Raise or lower the back rest until it best fits the curve of your spine. 3) If your lower back still needs more support, try portable lumbar support. 4) Also, recline the back of your chair back slightly to help you relax your muscles. 5) Finally, lower your armrests to provide free elbow movement while typing.

Stand up. Many workers find that standing up relieves a lot of achiness. Try to be intentional about standing and even stretching even when returning phone calls or thinking through a problem. One of the best solutions, especially for people with a back injury, is an adjustable height ergonomic desk that raises your entire computer interface – keyboard, monitor and mouse – to let you sit or stand while working.

Apply hot or cold compresses. Heat will relax tense muscles and increase blood flow to the area. Ice packs will numb the pain and reduce any swelling and inflammation. These treatments can be used about once an hour for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Move your keyboard. Your keyboard should be centered in front of you and about one to two inches above your lap, just below the height of your elbows. An adjustable keyboard tray allows fast and easy adjustment of your keyboard and mouse and also lets you tilt the keyboard slightly away from your body to tension and pressure in your shoulders and back.

Back pain and discomfort at work may be caused by poor posture, but adjusting your work space can help. A well-adjusted ergonomic chair will better support you body and encourage good posture. An adjustable height ergonomic desk will allow flexibility to sit and stand while still being productive at your computer. Upgrading your work station and correcting your posture can relieve and prevent back pain.

Ergonomics for Beginners: A Quick Reference Guide, Second Edition

This is a completely revised and updated edition of the 1993 title Ergonomics for Beginners. It provides an excellent practical primer for anyone approaching the subject for the first time with the aim of bringing benefits to the performance of tasks in work and home environments. Embracing the concepts of designing tasks and environment for human comfort and satisfaction and for optimal performance, the book shows, in an easy and accessible way, the steps that managers, employees and users can achieve a proper balance . The authors have extensively revised this new edition, maintaining the size and taste the first edition made into a success, and the replacement of out-of-date material with new insights and increasing emphasis on IT Related ergonomics.This known text will be essential reading for all those people who need a simple, easy to follow guide to the subject of ergonomics and human factors work in a variety of professions including psychology, design, engineering, management, health , health and safety, human-computer interaction and ergonomics. Essential!

A Comfortable Chair Might Not Be the Focal Point of the Universe but It Could BeThe Center of a Ergonomic Work Place

In order to survive in todays work a day world one needs to have a a fundamental understanding of computer ergonomics. There are many factors to look at when doing this but it all centers around a comfortable chair. The most important factor is finding a chair that is comfortable for you, and this is not necessarily the most expensive chair available unless that is what you want.

You could go all out and get a Miller Chair or one made by Steelcase or you could try out some other brands and find one that is comfortable when you sit in it. Now the video may be a bit more than you might be looking for but a chair that can be adjusted to your body so as to be comfortable for you and get you through the day without strain is important.

The chair may be the center but the desk is just as important for what is a chair that will not fit the desk and does not allow your legs fit comfortably under the keyboard. A desk and chair that can be adjusted to work well together should form the core of your set up and every thing else can be adjusted around these. After the chair and desk are sorted out you will probably be looking for a good keyboard and mouse that have a good ergonomic design and that you would feel comfortable with. They should be set up so they allow the arms to hang so the hands ‘float’ over the keyboard with out strain. The desk is aligned to the chair, which has been adjusted for your comfort, as well as to you. Once this central set-up is done the rest can be arranged so as to reduce any stress and strain on the body set-up it is just a matter of arranging the computer, monitor and all of your tools so that everything can be reached and used with a minimum of stress and strain on the body. You don’t have to finish the day with aches and pains if your workspace is adjusted to minimize stress and strain on the body. Even small things can cause a sore neck or other body parts that keep your chiropractor in business.

It truly is worth the effort if you spend any amount of time sitting at a computer during your workday. The improvement in the way you feel at the end of the workday will be quite noticeable so it is not just a ploy to sell you a lot of extra equipment. It does not require a large expense however unless you go all out. You don’t need a Miller chair and an expensive desk, you just need ones that can be properly adjusted. If you are on a tight budget you can adjust the height of your monitor with a stack of books or a cardboard box. The point is to adjust things to your body not impress people with you expensive setup. If your budget permits you can make an aesthetic work space for a relatively low price.

Computer Ergonomics Guidelines: Use a Computer Mouse Design that Fits Your Hand and Promotes Neutral Posture

Ah Computer Ergonomics of the computer mouse! There are a lot of cheap computer mouses out there. Clinically I have treated people for years dealing with unnecessary hand, wrist and arm pain and cumulative trauma disorders due to poor computer mouse design. Always uses a mouse that fits your hand! Use a right handed mouse if you are right handed and use a left handed mouse if you are left handed.

For optimal Computer Ergonomics, use a multisize computer mouse if you have a large or small hand. You should use a computer mouse that promote neutral joint positions, such as the power grip position. Your mouse should fit your hand, see our computer mouse sizing chart to ensure the proper fit. Lastly, support the palms and wrists gently while typing, but avoid too much direct contact on the wrists, gel wrist rests are recommended as they reduce the direct pressure placed on the wrist while typing.

Safety At Work

Your first day on the job – the first time you are sitting down at the computer you will spend a good part of your life staring at. Did anybody tell you that you might be courting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, though? Every job, no matter how safe it seems, has its risks, even desk jobs. However, there are some things you can do to minimize your risks.

Get the right chair. You might not have much choice there, of course, but on most office chairs, the height can be adjusted. Get the height right. You ought to be able to keep your feet flat on the floor with your knees bent at right angle.

Make sure your computer keyboard is at the right height. When you sit down comfortably and settle down to type, your forearms must be parallel to the floor. That is, the keyboard must be at about the same level as your elbow.

Once you have settled down, double check. When you use the keyboard, do you have to flex your wrists? If you do, you have to adjust the heights again.

Make sure your back has the right support. This will help you maintain a good posture. If your back is not straight, your shoulders will droop. If your shoulders droop, your lower arm and wrist will be affected, and you might have Carpel Tunnel Syndrome before you know what’s happening to you.

Your monitor must be placed so that you don’t have to bend your neck all the time to look at it. You should be able to see the monitor fine when you look straight.

Use a supported mouse pad. Using the mouse, with all the clicks and double clicks, can be quite hard on the wrists. Using a supported mouse pad can keep away Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. When you use a mouse pad, the tendons in your carpel tunnel will not be under severe strain, and thus will not compress your median nerve, which is how you get CTS in the first place.

Even after you take car of all of those details, take frequent breaks. Every fifteen to twenty minutes, take a break and do some gentle stretches. Walk around a bit if you can, but even if you can’t, something as simple as stretching one arm horizontally across your chest while pulling it towards your chest with your other arm can help you keep your muscles loose and thus keep away Repetitive Strain Injuries like CTS.

Most work places with computers have the temperature turned down fairly low. This can be hard on your wrists, but wearing fingerless gloves is a good way to counter this.

If you feel that you might be experiencing any numbness or tingling in your palm, consult your doctor immediately. Something as simple as wearing a splint or a wrist brace can take care of it if you realize it this early.

All jobs include repetitive tasks. This means that everybody could be at risk for CTS. This is something that can be prevented quite easily if you pay proper attention to certain elementary forms of safety at work – just as easily as it could take your self-reliance away from you if you don’t take these measures.