Protecting our joints is for everyone!
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It's surprising how many different outcomes people are experiencing in the time of COVID. As a hand therapist, I see people who are working their normal duties but at a higher rate, I see people working from home with non-ergonomic setups that hurt them. I also see the other extreme, which is people not working at all, but "laboring" more than usual on the tasks they love, or projects at home, thereby resulting in a new injury, or aggravating an old one. Sound like you?... Here's some advice. 1) Try emulating your usual work situation at home. If you usually have a sit to stand desk, consider purchasing a desktop version, or setting up side-by-side work surfaces to allow you to change positions easily (I did this by putting a wireless solar keyboard on my printer for standing, and my laptop on a storage cube to bring the monitor to eye level (worked quite well). Then use the usual desktop for your seated version. 2) If you are like some of my clients who are doing the same work, without any breaks, and more intensively because there's no travel involved to break up their time, you will need to build in those breaks. Set a timer. Aim for a short break (1-2mins) every 30 mins, and a longer break (2-5mins) every hour. There are plenty examples of software online that will prompt you to take breaks, offer you a suggestion, like "time to drink some water", or "time to stretch those forearms"...) Try searching the internet for the top 10, free, RSI prevention software downloads. 3) Consider rotating through a variety of computer inputs to vary what muscles and positions you work from. Take a look a Joystick mouse, Evoluent mouse, a split keyboard such as GoldTouch, a roller bar mouse (by Contour), or a keyboard change to Kinesis. You may also want to consider dictation software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking. 4) As a final recommendation, throw out the idea that knees, hips and elbows need to be at 90 degree angles. Open, or more loose packed joints and muscles are happier. Try lowering your keyboard or raising your chair. Aim to have your keyboard flat or even sloped slightly away from you (higher toward your elbows and lower toward fingertips). If all of the above help but don't make enough difference, consider making an appointment for an evaluation. Telehealth is great for ergonomic evaluations - it gives us a very good opportunity to actually see YOU in YOUR space :)) Take care of you! Stay well! Tracey~
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