The reality of modern day information work is that most of us spend a good chunk of our time each day seated in front of a computer. I'm big on
time maximization so my feeling is that if we're going to be on a computer all day why not make the best of it. The problem with poor posture is that eventually over time it leads to injury.
Part of my reason for writing this is personal. My Dad has been a computer programmer all his life and when he was in his early 40s he started having major back spasms which pretty much ended any athletic activity for him. And he is just one of many...did you know that there are over
200,000 hip replacement surgeries each year in the U.S. alone?
So if you're interested in not going down with a back/hip/whatever injury later I encourage you to continue reading...
#1 - Exercise ball - Apparently very popular with the folks at
Google. It's pretty tough to slouch on an exercise ball (actually you will probably fall off). Plus it keeps you active throughout the day because you have to do a little "micro-balancing." The other thing that I like (yup, I'm a dork) is stretching while at the computer. You can actually do a
pigeon pose that feels really good and loosens up your hips. The main consideration here is to make sure that your chair is the right height. There's a chart on
this page that will help you choose the best ball based on your height.
#2 - Kneeling chair - I have a kneeling chair at the office and really dig it. It keeps your spine erect and is very comfortable to sit in. You definitely can slouch but if you sit on the chair properly you probably won't find yourself doing so very often. If you're going to get a kneeling chair I'd highly recommend springing the extra dough for the
Tempurpedic version. Your knees will thank you for it!
#3 - Lotus position - This is a method I haven't experimented much with but would like to in the future given how good sitting cross-legged is for the hips. The major obstacle here is that you either need some sort of platform to sit on if you're going to use your regular desk or you need a desk with a lower height if you're going to sit on the floor. Having said that, I think this would be a great way to sit at your PC (especially when at home...probably not so practical for the office...).
#4 - Treadmill. OK, this isn't actually sitting...but I stumbled across a great page talking about "
walking while working" and I find this kinda fascinating. We have this huge problem with obesity as a society which could largely be cured if people would walk for a half hour or hour each day. And we have all this time in front of computers reading e-mail and the like where technically we could be walking. Hmmm... I noticed that one of my favorite bloggers (Jason Calacanis) was
recently talking about this and so maybe we can start a trend. Can you imagine if corporations created fitness rooms with treadmills and docking stations for peoples' laptops. That would be kinda sweet.
Anyway, I'd love to hear feedback on the ideas above as well as any other suggestions for healthy ways to sit at a computer. Feel free to post comments below or e-mail me at jon at learnoutloud dot com. Thanks!
Help
Sign In
August 2008 
Jon
Access: Public
