Hello, I’m Dr. Steph Pinnow, your chiropractor for better posture in Sun Prairie, WI. And in this video, we’re talking about ergonomics. Specifically how you’re sitting at your desk and how you’re standing at your desk.
Chiropractic Posture Correction in Sun Prairie, WI
So I have Victoria as our lovely, beautiful model here today. And she’s gonna first show you what bad posture looks like, which you probably don’t really need an example of ’cause most people have bad posture when they’re sitting anyway.
So a couple things that we notice is you can see, based on the way that she’s sitting, that she’s got a little bit of a slouch hunched over. That’s when we talk about anterior head carriage and forward head or posture, this kind of thing.
You can also see, if we’re looking at where the monitor is here, she has to tilt her head down a little bit, ’cause it’s not quite high enough. And then, her elbows are slightly lower than 90 degrees. So we did have Victoria in a bad ergonomic position for quite a few years, ’cause she was stubborn about changing it. And we finally got her standing.
So we’re gonna flip this and show you what it should look like in a proper standing position.
So, okay. I do recommend if you have a sit-stand desk, to be able to have a configuration where you could easily switch it from seated to standing throughout the day, and it doesn’t take too much effort.
Proper Work Posture in Sun Prairie, WI
Okay, now we’ve got Victoria standing, and you can see her elbows are at 90 degrees where she’s using the mouse and she’s using the keyboard. This is as high as we could go with this monitor and the arm that we have.
But it’s closer to where if she’s looking straight ahead, it should be about midline of the monitor. Hers is just a slight bit lower, plus she has some heels on today and we also have a tension mat for her. So she’s up a little bit higher than normal.
But we wanna see a nice straight line here from ear to shoulder to hip. And you can’t see this, but down to knees and ankles should all be straight. And then, like I said, 90 degrees here. Same concept when you’re seated, 90 degrees, or I’m sorry, straight and then 90. And then where her legs and hips are should be 90 there. So 90, 90, and then straight.
Chiropractic Posture Tricks in Sun Prairie, WI
Couple things that we recommend in terms of changing some of the desk ergonomics for you is that the most common thing that we see is that the monitor is way too low. So somebody’s always looking down. It doesn’t have to be an expensive fix. Sometimes I tell people, just grab an Amazon box or a shoebox and just stick that under the monitor, see what height you need it to be at for right at eye level.
And then you can start making changes down the road where you actually get a desk rise or you make those kinds of switches.
So that’s what I got today. Hopefully you have learned a little bit about what you’re supposed to look like. This is gonna help with a lot of headaches, tension, upper back tightness, and a lot of complaints that we see here in our office.
Thank you.
