Computer Use & Neck Pain

Computer neck is a condition that you may experience if you spend long hours hunched over and staring at a keyboard, particularly if your keyboard and monitor aren't positioned to your best advantage.

Poor Posture

• If your posture is poor while you work, you are going to feel tightness and pain in your neck as well as in your shoulders and back. What starts out as a mildly uncomfortable sensation can develop into chronic neck pain.

Expert Insight

• Dr. Paul Linden, author of "Comfort at Your Your Computer: Body Awareness Training for Pain-Free Computer Use" (North Atlantic Books, 2000), explains that computer neck and the subsequent pain are due to the way you are sitting, how you use your arms and the misalignment of your spinal column, pelvis and legs while you work.

Muscles

• When you develop poor posture while working, certain muscles shorten and become very tight, while other muscles become too long and too loose, notes Lynn Millar, Ph.D., professor of physical therapy at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, according to Lifetimefitness.com. Pain results when your body mechanics are lousy, which puts unnatural strain on your neck muscles.

Sitting

• When you are sitting at your desk, don't let your feet dangle. Rest your feet on the floor. Dangling feet can cause back pain and poor circulation. Your knees should be a bit lower than your thighs, which should be resting parallel to the floor. Sit straight.

Equipment Arrangement

• Your keyboard and mouse should ideally be positioned so that your elbows are bent at 90-degree angles and your forearms are parallel to the floor. Situate your monitor directly in front of you, at eye level or just below. If you are looking 25 degrees below eye level, this disturbs the natural S-shape of your spine.

Neck Strength

• Do neck-strengthening exercises. Stretch your neck to the right and to left and to the back and front during the course of the day.