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Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Position To Work For Long Hours?
New submitter damitr asks: "What is the most ergonomic position if you are working with a laptop or a desktop (with or without wireless keyboard and mouse) for long hours at stretch? Is bean bag for sitting with a laptop a good option? What is the best way to use a desktop without causing tennis elbow and backache/neck problems?"
What were you thinking?
there is no positition such that sitting still in it for a long time wont cause problems.
Here is a log of a 3-week experiment using a stand up desk. FYI for comparison.
There is good reason modern jet fighters have recumbent seating, and it's not just for G forces.
I inherited a power recliner and can spend many hours surfing in it with zero discomfort.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I have a standing desk. I find it most comfortable to use when I change my position frequently; I'll stand for a while, sit for a while, put my feet up on a cabinet for a while, go back to standing, etc. Half my postures (especially sitting) would probably make an ergonomics expert cringe. But I find it nice to change things up regularly. Sometimes I'm too lazy to stand for long, and I can tell, because my back gets sore. Once I spend a day or two standing more, I feel fine again. But only standing would never be comfortable for me either.
Maybe if I could be walking on a treadmill... I find walking much more comfortable than standing...
Sit on a ball and get up every hour and walk for 5-10 minutes. We tend to lean somewhat when sitting in a chair, with the ball that's not very handy since you'll lose balance. Also you can bounce and annoy everyone else in the room. I have some back problems and a swiss ball has been strongly recommended for my recovery after a herniated disc surgery. I use it at work. Takes a while getting used to it at first, since the back muscles are lazy due to sitting in chairs, but eventually you'll get there if you really want to. And don't forget to get up and walk every once in a while.
Born to raise hell.
"Standing for a long time and having increased pressure in the abdomen may make you more likely to develop varicose veins, or may make the condition worse." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002099/
All positions before upper management or CEO are not best for working long hours.
Only when you touch top in your company, its best for working long hours because you make lot of money. Lower than that you always get same salary, so no point.
When you become somebody in top position, its the position to be.
However, in this particular position, if your position is not the topmost position(i.e. you are the owner), you need to work very long hours in 90 angle position.
This is how to attain this position
1. Stand straight, arrow straight
2. Bend forward 90 degrees, so your lips are facing ground
3. Now lift neck 90 degrees so your lips can be in perfect position for ass kiss
This position is best if you are in very good long hour upper management position
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Here's a position I can work in for 5 hours:
Chair 17 inches from floor to what you sit on.
Desk 30" off ground.
Keyboard tray 25" off ground.
Feet on a footrest 9" off ground. Or sometimes on the floor.
I sit in highly unergonomic positions but still don't experience any pain.
Be sure to center the F and J keys on you navel. (Don't center a whole 104-key keyboard on you navel: the numpad throws it off center.) Optionally put the mouse on the left so it's not too far off to the right (again, because of the numpad).
The low chair allows you to keep your feet flat on the floor without bending your legs backward or feeling too much pressure on the underside of your thighs. Otherwise (with too high of a chair), your thighs are tilting downwards and you're forced to put your feet on the coaster assembly.
Don't bother with the classic typing position of holding your arms above the keyboard parallel to it, and dropping your hands down perpendicular to the keyboard. That hurts. Rest your palms or wrist on the keyboard or a rest. (Typing teachers tell you not to do that.)
Put your feet on the footrest, extend your legs to be straight and optionally lean back.
The mouse should be on the same level as the keyboard (25").
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
If you can raise your monitor so that you directly face it without leaning or bending your neck downward, this will help you retain a vertical posture, which in turn leads to being comfortable longer. I've built myself a number of monitor stands over the years; all it takes is 3 pieces of wood (some even looked professional, because I bought quality wood). The one I'm at now lifts the monitor about 10 inches off the desk. Your preference may be different, of course.
If you don't move for long periods of time you could cause deep vein thrombosis, and die from blood clots.
This is especially true while debugging. Only when you stop looking at code start thinking about something else things work out. Countless number of times, I log out at 5PM to catch the 5:15 trolley, while walking back thinking about "pick dry cleaning, running low on coffee but can last another day, today is karate class day for the kid.." it would suddenly strike me, "wait a minute, in this function I am deleting invalid bodies, but the caller's caller of this function is looping through the body list, that is why the grandparent's loop is crashing in the next increment of the loop index". Such things have happened so many times. I think coding is done in many small bursts of activity with lots of thinking in between. Long coding sessions are not likely to be very productive.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Step 1: Get a good quality, highly adjustable chair. Lumbar and height adjustments to fit your body are a must. Set your chair to perfectly mimick the natural curves in your lower back, and sit leaning back about 15-25 degrees from upright, with both feet square on the ground in front of you. Don't slouch! Lower the armrests so you can't use them... slouching to the side is tempting and is terrible for your spinal health in the long term. Your monitor screen should be positioned directly in front of you at eye level so you don't have to strain your neck at all.
Step 2: Stand up and stretch your legs, back, and neck at least once every two hours. I also like to go for a short walk around the office.
Step 3: Do core strengthening for your lower back 2-3 times per week. It doesn't need to be a complicated ordeal; light calisthenics for 10 minutes will keep you in much better shape than no exercise at all. Bridges, supermans, leg raises, and crunches all factor into my routine, and there are many variations on each so I like to switch it up. My only equipment is one of those inflatable exercise balls. You may want to visit a professional physical therapist to ensure you are getting the most out of your workouts.
Following something like the above plan is almost necessary for anyone sitting long hours in front of a screen each day. For me, with my tall narrow body shape, it is doubly so. I manage to get by with minimal discomfort using this plan. If I get lazy for a few months, sit slouchy and neglect the exercise, I pay with constant discomfort. The difference is huge.
I am choosing to live with ugly veins.
Not just ugly. Varicose veins divert returning blood to recirculate and pool in the lower legs. Consequences can include blood clots, edema, and (in my case) tissue necrosis leading to ruptured Achilles tendons.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
What the fuck man.
Ridiculous question.
At no point in our evolution was it designed for us to sit a long time. Your question has no answer.
ie, the answer is, what ever position works for you and doesn't kill you.
I'm sure others have mentioned standing. But... once again... we weren't designed to stand either.
We are an animal that was expected to be on the move at all times.
Standing will give you:
Varicose Veins
Popped capillaries
Edema
and still even the chance of DVT
Only thing that can be added, take daily aspirin, 80mg or so, to prevent the stroke you are going to get one day.
(My wife died from too much sitting. Literally. DVT behind her knee, broke off, went into lung, Pulmonary embolism
was a result. Upon surgery, part of the clot made its way to her brain. 3 blockages... coma. Few weeks later, and
I'm a widow. Extenuating circumstance? None that Dr would ever admit to. My consolation prize? Nearly 100 grand
in stuff the insurance wouldn't cover. )
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
A recent news article (sorry, don't have link) reported that a recent medical study shows that heath risk rises dramatically if you sit for more than 3 hours a day. Wow! Getting under 3 hours a day of sitting is tough to do as an office drone of any kind.
If you can, get an adjustable desk. My wife has issues (pinched nerve) that caused us to invest in a computer desk with a motorized mechanism to raise and lower the top. It is really slick. My advice would be to sit as little as possible, work standing up as much as possible, and generally have the option of selecting from multiple ergonomically correct work positions. A motorized desk greatly facilitates those kinds of adjustments. We bought a complete desk unit, but after doing that I found that the manufacturer will sell you just the leg/motor/controller parts so that you can slap a custom top of your own onto it. The controller can handle up to 3 legs, so you can do large L-shaped tops and what-not.
Also, get rid of your visitor chair. If someone needs to talk at the whiteboard, both of you should stand. I bet the meetings will be shorter and more focussed :) Years ago I worked for a V.P. whose personal conference room was arranged with a stand-up conference table and zero chairs. It worked wonders for his schedule -- nobody lingered after the work was done.
Drink a lot of water and you'll be hydrated (good) and you'll have to get up to go the the bathoom. People can't really make a fuss over that, so you know have an excuse to get up, walk around, stretch, etc.