Healthier Wrist Posture While Using Your Devices
The initial appeal that comes with working from home is that you're not tied to the confines of a desk. Work from your bed! or the couch! But once you realize you've got neck tension and sore wrists, this freedom loses its appeal. Though we rarely give our wrists much thought, R. Alexandra Duma, DC, DACBSP, a chiropractor at Manhattan wellness and recovery studio FICS, says now is the time to pay attention to your wrist position while typing.
"How are your wrists positioned?” “Are you into a more flexed or extended type of movement?" she says. "Ideally, you should be in a more neutral position when you're typing, either on a laptop or a keyboard."
Your wrist position has a lot to do with how the rest of your body is positioned, Dr. Duma explains. "What's really important—and what people overlook—is that the whole posture itself affects the wrists," she says. "So it starts from the neck position and shoulder position, transferring into the forearms, wrists, and fingers." That's why it's important to focus not just on the wrists and hands, she says, but on the body's entire posture.
The most optimal wrist position involves having your wrists in a neutral position, with your arms straight in front of you and your elbows at a 90-to-110-degree angle. “You should be sitting up tall, with your neck and shoulders retracted and your arms at your sides,” she explains.
Dr. Duma adds that maintaining correct alignment is impossible if you're working from a bed or couch. You'll want to be seated in a chair with your computer on a table in front of you. Make sure your laptop screen is at eye level to keep you from hunching forward. If you're hunched forward looking down at your laptop, she says it's likely that your elbows point out to the side. "Automatically, by modifying the elbow position, you modify the wrist position, which modifies the finger position," she says. In addition to causing wrist pain, Dr. Duma says being hunched over can make it harder to breathe because your lung capacity is diminished. Continue Reading…
