HOW pgs. 24-32
October 1999
by Jennifer Pfalzgraf

Doin' Your Body GOOD

Do your joints throb after a few hours with the mouse and keyboard? Do backaches keep you awake at night? HOW can help ease the pain by teaching you to rethink your workplace furniture and your office habits.

Can't blame your troubles on El Nino ths year? Well, you may as well blame them on computers.

These ubiquitous machines are often the culprit behind lost transactions, missed deadlines and botched print jobs. As if that's not enough, computers are wreaking havoc on our health, causing debilitating disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome and chronic back pain.

The digital age has changed the way we live and work. It's also changed the way our bodies move. The result is an increasing epidemic of repeititive strain injuries (RSIs). the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that half of America's workforce will develop an RSI by the year 2000. Last year, RSIs cost businesses more than $100 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses. Carpal tunnel syndrome has taken the lead among work-related illnesses, accounting for 62% of workers' compensation claims. In fact, the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome increased 462% between 1992 and 1997. Many states, as well s the U.S. Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), have begun to issue regulatory recommendations for ergonomic workplace safety.

What's most insidious about RSIs is the way they develop. Also known as cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), these musculoskeletal injuries gestate slowly-often over five or 10 years-out of seemingly innocuous behavior like clicking a mouse, crossing your ankles or turning your head to face the monitor. You may not realize your movements are causing muscle strain until you've done considerable damage.

"If you wait until you feel pain, you've waited too long," says Perry Bonomo, a physical therapist with the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Bronx, NY, and co-founder of ErgAerobics. "Tingling and numbness in your hand fingers are big warning signs. But the first thing you should watch for is fatigue in your hands." Hand discomfort is often an indication of greater trauma in your back and neck. Sitting can be much more stressful on your body than you think.

Equipment You Can Live With
The good news is that most RSIs can be prevented with a few workstation adjustments and some changes to your body behavior.

Thousands of ergonomic gadgets on the market claim to create a more seamless interface between our bodies and our computers. The hard part is deciding which products are worth buying.

Ergonomics, loosely defined, is the study of how people interact with machines and euipment. "Sound ergonomics create a comfortable situation that doesn't distort the body," says industrial designer Stephen Barlow-Lawson, founder of NYC-based Biomorph. The basic premise is that the work environment should conform to the needs of the worker, not vice versa. "Ergonomics was first developed in the 1940s for airplane-cockpit design," Barlow-Lawson says. "It was about improviding how pilots related their equipment - ultimately to avoid plane crashes."

Ergonomic practices were later adopted in factories and have most recently permeated the culture of the "desk jockey." Fortunately, today's ergoproducts look less like clunky medical devices and more like works of art.

"We're now seeing a merging of industrial design and fashion in lifestyle settings," says Barlow-Lawson, whose 1991 launch of the revolutionary Biomorph workstation challenged the notion of desk-as-rectangle. "While other companies were scrambling to retro-fit old furniture, we started from scratch and built desks that were adjustable and curvaceous with soft edges," he says. "Anything that mirrors the human form is beautiful. But we can also wanted to create something functional. The idea was to increase productivity by situating each user at his 'center of power' and placing everything within easy access and comfortable reach."

Biomorph users can work sitting or standing. The product's stylish utility has attracted many notable customers, including Parsons School Of Design, Jim Henson Productions, Time Inc. and design legend David Carson.

If you don't want to invest a lot of money in workspace equipment, you may want to consider leasing. Many office furniture retailers and manufacturers offer leasing programs. Leasing is a good way to test equipment before making a big investment. Plus, the expense is tax-deductible.

One Size Does Not Fit All Just because a product is marketed as "ergonomic" doesn't mean it's right for you. It's important to look for furniture and accessories that can be calibrated to fit your proportions. For example, if you have short legs, you shouldn't buy a chair with a deep seat-no matter how many other adjustable features it provides. Be sure to give each piece a test drive before you buy.

Even if you do find the perfect chair or keyboard tray, don't expect it ot be a magical cure-all.

"Nearly 80% of office injuries are attributed to worker behavior, while only 20% are due to furniture inadequcies," Bonomo says. "It's just as important to modify your body language as it is to upgrade your equipment.

"You can buy a great chair, but if you sit three inches from the back of it, you've just wasted a thousand bucks," says Tim McCullough, a certified sports trainer and physical therapist for Sports and Physical Therapy in Washingoton, D.C.McCullough also provides ergonomics training to retail staff at the Healthy Back Store. "We teach what we call 'active sitting.' This is the position you're in when the weight of your torso is balanced without any strain to your back, neck or stomach muscles. keep in mind, not everyone is going to want the same amount of back support.

The goal is for each individual to find a position that is comfortably straight for him. When you find that middle ground, stick with it. A lot of people just don't realize there's another position besides slumping that's comfortable. It's a matter of learning a different habit.

New Moves But even if you epitomize perfect posture, you're still risking injuyry if you sit the same way for hours on end. You have to move. Most experts recommend taking short breaks or stretching every 30-45 minutes-regardless of how ergonomically correct your workstation is. "Putting anybody in a static postion for a long period of time is a bad idea," says Richard Holbrook. "Ergonomics consultants like to say that the best ergonomic position is the next position."

If you can't afford to drop a load on new officeware, all is not lost. You can still prevent most RSIs-and blow off steam in the process-by making a conscious effort to stretch. Bonomo's company, ErgAerobics, offers a book and video featuring simple exercises with cheeky names like "Skywatcher," "Toe Kiss," and Egyptian."

Many software manufacturers also offer screensavers featuring ergofriendly calisthenics routines.

If you tend to become engrossed in your work and just can't part with your Bert & Ernie screensaver, at least buy a timer and reset it every 30-60 minutes so you'll remember to take a boogie break.

Pain =/= Gain Prices for ergonomic gadgets run the gamut-from $10 footrests to $3,000 desks. As with anything in life, you get what you pay for in quality and durability. You don't have to spend a fortune to be fit. But if you're unwilling to invest anything (time, energy or money) in your office health, you may suffer consequences down the road. "Many people won't blink an eye when spending $20,000 for a car that they sit in for an hour a day," McCullough says, "Isn't it worth investing some money in your office furniture and your bed, considering that's really where you spend most of your time?

"We aren't a country that supports preventive medicine," he continues. "We react to pain. An insurance company will rarely pay for physical therapy or massage-much less furniture -but it will pay for extensive surgery to repair a cumulative injury." Between 400,000 and 500,000 carpal tunnel surgeries are performed each year at an estimated cost of $2 billion. That number keeps growing. Work really shouldn't have to be that painful to our bodies and our wallets.

And besides, who wants to risk being diagnosed with "chair-potato brain death?" Get a move on.

Jenny Pfalzgraf is an Annandale, VA-based writer who, in the process of writing this piece, discovered that her own ergo habits are chronically subpar. seans@pop.erols.com