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The human body is so ingeniously built that we can do the most incredible things with it, like climbing a steep mountain wall, swimming in oceans, playing soccer, and much more. But even seemingly mundane activities like going for a walk, riding a bike, or simply baking a cake are possible thanks to our body's diverse motor skills.
To be able to do all this, we have to train our body accordingly and regularly. More or less depending on the activity. But if we move very little or not at all, our musculoskeletal system literally rusts, inevitably causing all kinds of suffering. Movement is an absolute necessity for our body and is just as important as eating and drinking to maintain health and well-being.
Due to our modern behaviors, which often involve sedentary and repetitive activities, whether while working in the office, at home, or simply in front of a screen or smartphone, a wide variety of ergonomic risk factors arise. In this article, I want to show you which are the most common ones and how they can be avoided.
Most Common Problem Areas of Our Musculoskeletal System
In order to narrow down the ergonomic risk factors in a targeted manner, I have listed the most common problem areas of the human body in connection with office work. These are the parts of our musculoskeletal system that are most plagued by tension and pain. This suffering is mainly caused by an incorrect or static posture. It is about these four body regions:
- Head, neck, and shoulders
- Back and lumbar area
- Wrists and fingers
- Hips and knees
Head, Neck, and Shoulders
The head is our "control center" and when pain occurs here, the entire body can be affected. Most common are headaches, which sometimes even end in a migraine. But dry and tired eyes are also a well-known evil. Furthermore, respiratory diseases such as coughing or bronchitis are also known office illnesses.
The neck is the transition piece to the head and connects it to the shoulders. Suffering in these areas is therefore often related.
Headaches and tired eyes, as well as a sore neck and tense shoulders, are in many cases caused by an incorrect screen height.
An ergonomic monitor height is of central importance to avoid such suffering. The correct height of the screen is guaranteed when you look at the center of the screen with your head slightly tilted, or when looking straight ahead, you can see slightly over the top edge of the screen. The easiest way to set an ergonomic monitor height directly is to position the top edge of the monitor about a finger's width below the center of your eyes. You should assume exactly the sitting position that you also have while working. So do not sit differently or position your head differently when checking the monitor height.
The distance from your eyes to the screen is correct when you can lightly touch the monitor with your fingertips with your arms outstretched. Please also make sure that the screen is well centered in front of you on the desk. So not too far to the left or too far to the right, otherwise you will again adopt a twisted posture, which would represent another ergonomic risk factor.
Many people today work with two screens or with one monitor and a laptop next to it. The ergonomics of two screens also has a significant impact on your well-being here. When working with two monitors, they should be positioned according to the same rule of height and distance as I explained above. To achieve optimal ergonomics with two screens, they must be placed seamlessly next to each other. You should be able to look comfortably at both the left and right monitors without having to twist your body much.
If you use a laptop as a second screen, it is practically essential to use a laptop stand so that the correct ergonomic monitor height is achieved.
The main mistake in connection with monitors is definitely their height. As a rule, screens are too high and laptops are too low. This almost always causes suffering in the neck and shoulder area, which in turn can cause headaches. Therefore, make absolutely sure that your monitor is not too high and that you always have a viewing angle slightly downwards. The same applies to optimal ergonomics with two screens. With a notebook, the only thing to watch out for is that it is not too low. Placed directly on the desk, the screen of a notebook is too low and the neck is tilted too far downwards. A notebook stand is highly recommended here, and if not already present, an external keyboard and an external mouse as well.
Headaches, dry and tired eyes, but also respiratory diseases such as coughing and bronchitis are also often the result of a poor indoor climate. Most of the time it is too warm and too dry in offices, and after a few hours of work there is a lack of sufficient oxygen and clean air in the room. The absolute killer here is, of course, if someone also smokes in the room, which has been banned in public buildings for a long time, but unfortunately still happens sometimes in home offices. For health reasons, this should be absolutely avoided inside buildings.
The room temperature should be between 18-24° (64-75 Fahrenheit) lying, with 21° (70 Fahrenheit) being perceived as ideal by most people.
The humidity would ideally be between 40 – 60 %, although this may also be 70% when using an air conditioning system.
To avoid getting too much carbon dioxide (CO2), which can lead to fatigue, headaches, and poor concentration, you should ventilate regularly or ensure that the air is exchanged through a ventilation system. Plants also serve as ideal sources of oxygen, which additionally create a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere.
To avoid fatigue in general, a short power nap of 10 to 15 minutes or regular breaks are recommended. A walk of 15 to 30 minutes, which can often be done during the lunch break, also offers a good balance. The fresh air and the additional oxygen intake through movement regenerate the brain and activate blood circulation, both of which have positive consequences. You also prevent cardiovascular diseases this way.
Optimal lighting is another important factor for good ergonomics in the workplace. Artificial light and natural light help to protect the eyes and thus possibly avoid headaches. However, you should never have the light coming directly from in front of you, but always from the side or from above, so that no glare and no shadows can occur.
To additionally counteract the risk factor of dry eyes, you can consciously blink or squeeze your eyes from time to time and also look into the distance once in a while to change your eye focus.
Back and Lumbar Area
Another huge ergonomic risk factor lies in sitting posture. Regardless of the office chair, the sitting height is crucial first of all. You have reached the correct chair height when your thighs are at least horizontal or slightly higher than your knees in a sitting position. However, you must always maintain contact with the floor with your entire foot. If this is not the case, you should get a footrest to relieve your legs in this way.
The correct sitting height also has an impact on the correct desk height, which is usually between 66 and 75 cm (26 and 30 inches), mostly with a fixed height of 72 cm (28 inches). If you can adjust the desk height, a correct desk height would be achieved when you place your forearms on the desk while sitting with relaxed shoulders, getting a 90° angle with your upper arms. Electrically height-adjustable office desks or those that can be adjusted in height with a gas spring are ideal. Alternating between sitting and standing is an ideal solution from an ergonomic point of view. I change my position from sitting to standing several times a day, which I find absolutely pleasant, and I also find that my work productivity is increased as a result. I often make phone calls standing up and do administrative work sitting down. My body has become so used to this alternating work of sitting and standing that when I work at someone else's desk, I want to adjust its height too, but then I realize that this is not even possible here. So I am always happy inside to be back at my own workplace soon.
But back to the office chair. I really hope that everyone who works with a kitchen chair will make a change soon, because the ergonomic risk factor of non-ergonomic chairs, which unfortunately includes almost all kitchen chairs, is particularly high and primarily damages the spine or rather the intervertebral discs.
Incorrect sitting is promoted by unergonomische chairs and must be absolutely avoided.
How Do You Sit Ergonomically Correctly?
After you have adjusted the correct chair height as described above and are also using the correct desk height, you should make sure once again that you are really sitting all the way back on your office chair. Many people sit on the front edge of the chair and quickly slump into a rounded back.
Now that you are sitting all the way back in your office chair, it is crucial that you feel good support in your lower back, the lumbar region. Unfortunately, most chairs have a weak point here. Help yourself with a rolled-up towel or a small cushion placed in the lumbar region of your back and the backrest. For short people, this can be an additional help to reduce the seating area and thus avoid circulatory problems in the hollows of the knees.
From an ergonomic point of view, it would now be important not to lock the backrest, but to leave it in motion mode. This is called dynamic sitting. However, this only makes sense if you really feel good counter-pressure from the backrest. This means that for light people, the counter-pressure should be adjusted so that they are not constantly pushed forward by the moving backrest, but feel free to move while still having support. For heavier people, it is the other way around; they should not fall backwards, but feel sufficient counter-pressure from the backrest. This unlocked backrest helps the spine to stay in motion and thus supplies the intervertebral discs with nutrient fluid, which otherwise mainly happens in a lying position during the night.
Some chairs can also adjust the seat tilt. This is often linked to the adjustment of the backrest. This is referred to as a synchronous system. Usually, the backrest moves in a 2:1 ratio to the seat. So the backrest moves twice as much as the seat cushion. It would be ideal if the seat angle could be adjusted independently of the backrest. This allows you, for example, to increase the seat tilt slightly after a meal and thus relieve your digestive system. But people who already have certain back problems, especially with herniated discs in the L5 region, are also often prescribed a wedge cushion that can be placed on the seat cushion. If your chair can adjust the seat angle independently of the back angle, you have the same effect and can comfortably relieve your intervertebral discs in the lower back.
It would be ideal if your office chair has height-adjustable armrests so that you can also relieve your shoulders. A 90° angle should be created at the elbow in order to support the forearms ergonomically on the armrests.
Wrists and Fingers
Another classic ergonomic risk factor is typing on the keyboard or clicking with the mouse. In many cases, the wrist is bent too far upwards because the forearm lies flat on the desk. This can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis, both of which are painful and unpleasant. This can be prevented with a wrist rest. These are already available for little money and in a wide variety of designs. An investment that is absolutely worth it and tangibly increases ergonomic and health well-being. Most hand pads are chemically manufactured and have some kind of gel or foam filling. However, there are also wrist rests for the mouse and for the keyboard that are filled with organic millet husks and made from environmentally friendly TENCEL fabric. This is a tip for everyone interested in sustainable products.
An ergonomic mouse or an ergonomic keyboard can also relieve the fingers and would certainly be worthwhile for people with corresponding ailments.
Hips and Knees
The ergonomic risk factor for the hips and knees depends on the one hand on the sitting height and on the other hand on the seat angle.
How to adjust the correct chair height I have already explained at the beginning in the chapter "Back and Lumbar Area". So make sure that this is set correctly.
Discomfort in the hip region is partly due to the fact that the seat of some chairs presents itself like an open eggshell, i.e. deepest in the middle and the seat becomes higher towards the edge. This shape squeezes the hip area into an unnatural shape and can thus trigger pain and suffering. You can solve this with an orthopedic seat cushion or ball cushion, or with another office chair, which you should try out first.
Pain in the knees can be caused by sitting for a long time at a stretch. Alternating between sitting and standing or simply moving around a bit in between helps here. Sitting too low can also trigger pain in the knees.
If the knee pain is caused by osteoarthritis, movement helps above all. The best exercise for your knees is light cycling.
Concluding Thoughts
With my explanations, I have pointed out some ergonomic risk factors that occur in an office environment and explained concretely what can be done about them. There are additional factors that also represent an ergonomic risk, but are less visible. This is, for example, a negative attitude or dissatisfaction. This puts an unwanted brake on the entire ergonomics in an office, which could be quickly resolved with a positive attitude. Psychological factors should not be underestimated and positive thinking should be promoted as much as possible so that ergonomics finds a healthy breeding ground.
A final tip to prevent many ailments from arising in the first place is to drink enough water every day. This can help prevent headaches, intervertebral disc problems, and many other health issues. Drinking is an important key to good health and better ergonomics.
Read also in this guest article how you can generate better ergonomics and more dynamics in everyday work.
If you like reading ergonomic tips and are interested in well-being in the office or home office, I can recommend my book «Wellness im Büro». Based on humorous drawings, I share 50+1 valuable tips.
