Desk To Body Distance - The Best Way To Sit At Your Desk At Work 

For a long time, I used my computer carelessly. However, at the age of 40, I experienced sudden and sharp pains in my wrist, forearm, elbow, and shoulder - all at the same time. I would like to express my gratitude for your valuable content. Your instructions were quite useful to me. I was dealing with the symptoms without treating the root of the problem. Currently, my routine involves spending more than 10 hours a day working and having fun on the computer. I am impressed with the effectiveness of your tips, I am almost recovered. Thank you very much.

The only guy I will listen for posture advice at a desk from now on. Thanks Olivier, working from home requires adjusting my posture to avoid problems in the future. It will be uncomfortable at first, I've been working from the dining table with a dining chair for 2 years, been slouching everyday, never had issues, but now I've switched permanently from home, I bought a desk, an office chair and a keyboard tray. I do not have adjustable armrest, only they flip up to not have them. Thank You for mentioning the internal armrest, so I can work comfortably without the armrest. Just make sure the internal armrest are active by sitting properly. You've got a subscriber :)

Thanks so much for this... I've been looking for a video like this for ages. Your contents are seriously underrated..... I'm going to share this with my developer colleagues.

From correct car sitting posture, to walking and standing, and this, Olivier you are a life saver! I always go through your videos from posture to exercises, to remind me the correct posture Do's and Don'ts. I suffer from lower back pain and neck pain. I'm grateful to all your videos and knowledge shared. Bless you and keep safe always ~ :)

thank you for sharing

Thank you for sharing! This is really helpfull

Brilliant explanation ! thankyou sir

So helpful, thank you!

Thanks doc!

Realy helpful, thanks.

love it

Thank you M. Girard for your videos, particularly educational, very accessible. Have we done studies on the color of the office work surface in relation to eye fatigue and concentration? Thank you in advance for your help.

fk Yeah bro.. Thanks for these helpful tips.. now I can game for hours without pain!!!

hey, super helpful video, thanks for making it. I just have one question if you don't mind: what is your height and what is the height of your desk? I've been fiddling with mine and I would love to have a reference from the guru!

Ok I get the reasoning for everything in this scenario. However as a pc gamer how would I achieve the best use of the ladisimous (excuse spelling) muscles and maintain a good posture. The scenario changes would be: having the mouse especially but to some degree the keyboard as well close to the edge leads to poor stability and makes overexerting the wrist horizontally more of an issue which I'd assume most people would compensate for by either engaging more muscles in the arm and chest just to hold the arm up or putting extra pressure/weight down on a specific area. So for this scenario I would assume that having a larger amount of forearm on or above the desk would probably be the way to go. Is this correct? And secondly would a light amount of pressure spread relatively evenly across the forearm on the desk be the way to go or would more of a piano player style floating using your core mainly with the small amount of weight offset from the hand region be better? I'd assume that the second wouldn't be ideal as the wrist would tend towards a slight downward angle and there would be far more static movement from the fingers. So here is my rough thoughts based on generally accepted facts and the far better visual explanations of your videos: Sat in chair, feet comfortably flat, knees roughly shoulder width apart or slightly more, the change I'm going to make - seat too low if upper leg to pelvis angle is less than 90 degrees, butt all the way back with a relaxed neutral pelvis angle. Then I have been doing- lumbar support is in built chair support with the largest part at the bottom gradually tapering inward, I align the bottom of the lumbar support region so it is just above the two bony areas around the sacrum. So this area essentially slides under the lumbar and it does not pressure those points pushing forward. What I have been doing is sitting as close to the desk as possible to the point of pushing my pelvis below the desk with my upper body in a roughly 110 degree or so straight line (after seeing your videos I fully get that I probably either push my stomach into the desk and use it as a fulcrum of sorts or gradually shift position on the seat overly inwardly curve my lower back). I think I do this partially due to habits from low quality office chairs and my own poor posture habits I've picked up. I try to use the whole backrest even whilst doing task work, but based on your videos, am I right in saying I should not do this and should essentially just use the lumbar support/lower back support and my core should keep me upright? Thus allowing the "inbuilt armrest muscles" to help keep me upright and offset the weight of my arms shoulders and head. Then presumably the only time I should use the full back support would be during static tasks, resting or in more extremely reclined situations.

Is this possible for designers too? Because we have a lot of mouse movement and this way of siting even though feels healthy, seems very difficult.

I really like your chair could I please ask which brand is the chair from?

Hello, @Olivier! Thanks for the video. I have one question, though. My current chair has fixed arm rests, but they are above my elbow height when I'm in the position you showed. And also I have to widen the elbows to the sides if I want to reach them to rest the forearm. Is it ok to widen the elbows and rest them on the arm rest (without resting on the latissimus dorsi)? Or should I maybe detach the arm rests so I don't use them without noticing? Thank you!

So, it's okay to rest your wrists on the desk, as long as your elbows are level with your desk and aligned with your spine; which is not slouching? One problem I have is that it's too hard to keep my upper back from resting against the back of the chair, sitting up like that takes such a tremendous amount of effort.

Hello doc, very good video but I have a question, being in that posture and using a ''ergo'' shape mouse, but not a vertical one, my wrist is close to the edge of the desk, and I can maintain my arm in that position with little pressure in the arm, but should I use a reliable point where I can use as support for the wrist or forearm ?, or is better to keep that with minimal pressure and let the latissimus dorsi do the work? (Keeping in mind that I'm asking this with the focus in gaming)

Why the chair handle side not high mine very high to rest on it

Hi! Should I have lats pain after trying that not supporting my elbows by desk or armrests? This I think might be normal (maybe as I did not use them in such a way before, that is causing the pain)

oliver, i bought an office chair called twist red from contatto, but it shaoe has been killing me, my forearms, my wrist and especially lower back. pillow dont seem to work and it nullified the effects of my physiotherapy

which chair do you recommend to keep a great posture? Cant seem to find one where I dont struggle after some hours

damn oliver. i remember watching your video some time ago but i ended up being unable to use that muscle without feeling fatigued (im skinny). eventually my discomfort turned into a lumbar facet syndrome, which im getting physiotherapy for but i always go 2 steps back whenever i cant do the exercises at home fue to my chair messing me up after i use it. its a contatto red twist chair, and i have taken out its armrests since they felt very harsh to lay my arms on. however i still dont feel comfortable on my desk, and needless to say, the uncushioned shape of the backrest is still a big issue.... even a bed foam pillow didnt help.

Do you think this form is optimal for gaming too? Because the majority of gamers will actually prefer to rest most of their forearms on the desk due to the 'arm aiming' form.

An “arm rest” should be applying a force upwards, but latissimus dorsi is not doing that. When it contracts, it internally rotates and adducts the arm by pulling it downward and backwards. The vertical component of the resultant force on the arm is downwards. So why do you call it “arm rest”?

Question; If you need to have the monitor further back, would you need to slightly move your keyboard slightly further away from the edge, or should you keep it at the edge and move the monitor to match it? Another thing I do is go too far in initially, then make sure I'm two fists away, letting my shoulders push me as far back from my desk as their length. Would this position also be okay? Thank you! :)

Hi mr Oliver, I’m your biggest fan. I follow everyday your videos but I cannot resolve my problem. At the right height desk I cannot stay erect. I feel or my shoulder and my right arm rise up . If It s lower I feel an energic pain in trapezius, little pectoral and serratus. I have a reumatodic ill and my life (at work and in other way) it’s become IMPOSSIBLE. I’m 1.81 cm ,72 height desk with a long arms. How can I set with cm my damn desk, monitor and distance between my eyes and monitor? It always or too short, or too long, or too high, or too low. Please give me your feedback my Friend. Thank you in advise

So mr olivier....should I sit that way when I am playing games that requires lot of arm movement? I stopped playing because of wrist+forearm+ulnar pain and it seems like my life has no purpose now lol...

Shouldn't your monitor be in higher position?

i'm trying to buy a chair for my kids. i don't know what to pick.

There are two problems with that “proper” position shown in the video, especially for gamers. First of all, many gamers use low sensitivity. It means that their mouse travels across a large mousepad with the help of their whole arm, not only wrist. If one tries it while sitting that far from their desk, they will find that they cannot move their mouse down to check what’s going on below their characters - since wrist is resting on the edge of the tabletop, there is simply no space for that movement. Besides, their elbow is flying in air. When playing FPS, you need a good aim. Good aim means muscle memory and precise mouse movement. To move your mouse precisely, your hand should have some support. If your elbow is fixed, the only moving part of your hand is your forearm (wrist may be used for microtracking, but is usually fixed so your forearm and hand form a straight line). If your elbow is flying, the only fixed part is your shoulder (given you don’t move your body, however you do). It’s much harder to make precise movements then. Besides, wide movements are also limited - again, your mouse is at the edge of the desk. I tried to overcome these issues so that I can use Embody chair normally, but I simply could not. I either put its armrest under the tabletop putting my forearm at my desk while my belly is pushed by it and my back is arching (as shown in this video), or, if I sit too far, I cannot move my mouse properly. I had to buy $20 pads for my $2000 chair to fix it. I attached them on top of the back of that stupid Embody armrest that cannot move forward and backward. Now I can sit closer to my desk, but not too close, while my elbow has proper support and my mouse movements are not limited.

Wtf dorso , latissimu dorsi , to be honest my elbow will just go down and my wrist bend when my arm is in the air like that, on one stay in the air like that, the desk miss a arm rest.