To most of us, workstation ergonomics seems strange and other-wordly. It is a realm filled with knee-chairs too complicated to sit in, yet complicated enough to fall out of - an adjustable land of left-handed mice and weird, wavy, split keyboards that decrease your words per minute when you type because you can’t figure out where the apostrophe key went. Unfortunately, most of us think these special, ergonomically correct widgets and gadgets create a safe, healthy, “neutral” workstation. Although there are certain parameters that roughly equate to workstation “neutral,” there is no one optimal position in which to accomplish any task. Ideally, roughly every twenty minutes, we stop what we are doing, move, change positions, stretch, and then return to our task invigorated and enthused.

Perhaps saying enthused is too optimistic, but feeling invigorated is a wonderful side effect that occurs after taking one of these mini-breaks. The mini-breaks are also a wonderful form of preventative medicine. One of the most damaging activities for the body’s tissues is static activity. This means that staying in the same position for an extended period destroys body tissue, and over time this damage can lead to debilitating and expensive musculoskeletal disorders, such as chronic low back pain (LBP).

In addition to these mini-breaks, you can keep the body’s tissues healthy and active by changing workstations roughly every 2 hours. Many of us at Riddle consider changing workstations taking our laptop to Starbucks, and then the library, and then back to Lehman. I know I do. Although these shifts in work location are good for us because we get up, walk around, and break the static activity cycle in our muscles that studying induces, we are essentially ending up in the same position after each shift. You are back on your laptop, and laptops are inherently poorly designed from a biomechanical and ergonomic perspective. One of the major ergonomic issues with laptops is that if we have our fingers on the keyboard and or mouse, the screen is much too low and brings our head and neck forward from neutral alignment. This is bad for many reasons, the most important of which is a forward head means bad posture, and bad posture means we age more quickly than we need to. (Good posture is one of the fountains of youth, my friends!) Ideally, when we are in our workstation, we have our head stacked over our shoulders, muscles that shrug the shoulders relaxed, and shoulders stacked over our hips.

Laptop users, here is one fairly easy redesign you can make to help correct this. Get an ergonomically correct, external keyboard. When you are using your laptop, place the keyboard in your lap and your laptop on a stack of books on the table in front of you. This will place your hands, arms, and shoulders in a more biomechanically comfortable position, as well as lift the screen up closer to a line of sight where you can maintain a neutral head and neck alignment. You will feel better and maybe even make a few new friends. Ergonomically correct, external keyboards are great conversation starters.

Vintage Postural Guide - Old School is So Cool!!!How many times has someone told you to stand up straight? Plenty. The next time that happens, I give you permission to tell that someone, “No thank you.”

A perfectly straight spine is actually a deviation from spinal neutral, and you would rather have a neutral spine than a straight spine. Trust me. Neutral spine means that there is no compression, or as little as possible, between the vertebrae, which are the boney discs that stack up to collectively make your spinal column. All of the other bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments that connect to the spine are also more able to be in proper alignment when the spine is in neutral. Most importantly, we also look better when our spines are in neutral. We look ten years younger, ten pounds lighter, and at least an inch taller – maybe two! (These claims are unsubstantiated by rigorous scientific research.)

So, how do you find this functional, free fountain of youth known as neutral spine? Start with the pelvis, of course! If you are seated or standing, you align the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS), commonly referred to as the hipbones, and the lower, front part of the pelvis so that these landmarks are perpendicular to the floor. If you are lying down, these landmarks would be parallel to the floor. This puts the pelvis in a neutral position, which in turn places the lumbar vertebrae, the low back, into a proper, inward, neutral curve. The mid and upper back, the thoracic spine, can easily fall into a proper, neutral, outward curve, and the neck, the cervical spine, can fall into a proper, neutral, inward curve. To help align the head, we use the shoulders as a guide. To be in neutral, the inner line of the shoulder blades should each be three of your finger’s distance to the spine. Once your shoulders are in this neutral position, your head should be placed so that your earlobes line up with the middle of the shoulder.

All this may seem very anatomically technical, but it doesn’t have to be. Just roughly estimate when you are standing if your knees stack over your ankles, hips over your knees, shoulders over your hips, and ears over your shoulders. Think about your shoulder blades gently relaxing down your back and in toward your spine. Think about the front line of the pelvis in a perpendicular line to the floor, and let that positioning place your low back in its natural inward curve, mid back in its natural outward curve, and neck in its natural inward curve. You are now standing in neutral and keeping the integrity of those big, beautiful spinal curves. Stand up straight? Never again!



I heart Toothpaste for Dinner

I only slightly over exaggerate when I say that everyone I know has a bad back. Actually, 80-85% of all Americans will experience back pain at some point in their lives. Many of my younger friends think their youth will save them, yet back pain is the leading cause of activity limitation for Americans under 45. For Americans over 45, back pain is the third leading cause of disability. Roughly estimated, we spend $50 billion each year on low back disc herniations, which is only one small slice of the back pain pie. Disability due to chronic low back pain is the most expensive benign, medically treated condition in industrialized countries. This means, taking care of our backs equates to personal and fiscal responsibility.

With fiscal responsibility being so popular these days, we should all be motivated to take care of our spines. The only problem is, there is no one cause of back pain. Researchers have conducted many studies over the years to try and pinpoint what causes back pain, in part to relieve some of the pressure placed upon our health care system and in part to help those experiencing the pain feel better. Overwhelmingly, the results of these studies point a blaming finger at occupational and non-occupational “lifestyle” risk factors. Simply speaking, our behaviors and choices regarding how we live our lives cause this very expensive and painful problem.

If there isn’t one specific cause of our back pain, there cannot be one specific treatment to heal our nation. Treatment and prevention must be a many-pronged approach, addressing all levels of our lifestyles, behaviors, and choices. Back care education programs have been deployed by organizations such as The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The programs include information on exercises and stretches for the back, ergonomic principles, stress management, and behavior change and motivation.

In the spirit of these important health education programs, for the next four weeks, be on the look out for follow-up articles regarding back care education. Until next time, here are some very simple things we can do right now to be good to our spines:

1. Lighten the load! Carry as little as possible in your bag and or backpack.
2. Wear sensible shoes. Ladies, this means no heels! Beach bums, this means no slippers or flip-flops.
3. Get up and move around every 20 minutes or so. Professors may hate me for this, but students will love me!
4. Take some time every day to relax, take deep breaths, and be happy. Actually, take a lot of time each day to do this.