Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pain and ergonomics

Save my vagina from the horrible maw of my bike seat.

toomuchkatherine — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:24:42 -0800

Love my women's-specific road bike, hate the numbness and pain its saddle causes in my women's-specific parts. Help me fix this? A few weeks ago, I bought a road bike. (Yay!) I commute on it daily, about 5 miles, and I've also been taking it for longer rides in the hills, from 20-40 miles, a few times a week. I'm new to being more than an occasional rider. So far: I love the bike. I love biking. I do not love what the bike does to my lady bits. During the last few longer rides, I've had discomfort in my crotch while on the bike, and, much more worrisome to me, numbness and also burning pain in my vagina/labia/clit area after the rides, sometimes long after. (I'm 24 hours from my last ride and still feeling the burn.)

Obviously, I need a new bike seat. The people at the store where I bought my new ride told me it's a nice bike but the saddle sucks. (It's an Avenir saddle with no cutout.) My question is whether I should just buy a better quality road bike saddle, or go more extreme and get a noseless saddle like those shown here.

I've done a little reading on bike seats and E.D. in men (there seems to be less research on women, alas), and some of it is really scary. I'd like to keep riding and up my mileage, and I really don't want to come away with permanent nerve damage. On the other hand, I don't want to go overboard and get a crazy noseless design I don't need if a better regular saddle is going to do the trick.

FWIW, I'm on the thin side, kind of bony, sometimes I wonder whether this is making matters worse...maybe I just don't have as much natural padding as most. I haven't bought padded shorts yet, but I know I should and I intend to, no matter what saddle I end up with.

Has anybody had a similar problem and willing to offer advice? Any women had experience with noseless saddles?

I, and my junk, thank you.

Beam me out of here!

sio42 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:39:25 -0800

ErgonomicsFilter: Why do i want to lean back in my office chair so much? Is there a way to get my chair to stay tilted back so i'm not pushing with feet all day? plus bonus question! I have never found working at desks to be comfortable. I would rather sit on the couch or at a bar. I can sit at either for hours and not have the kind of pain I do sitting a stupid office cubicle desk for an hour.

For some reason when I sit at a cube desk, I just want to lean back in the chair, like i'm on the Enterprise bridge. But I just keep pushing with my feet and back all day and that doesn't help the pain I keep getting.

I can do all the neck stretches and exercise I want all day but it just doesn't alleviate any of this. I've got the monitor where it should be. I can't have a keyboard tray because that's just not an option (my company rents space and we can't modify the furniture). There's no HR...this is a startup. I bought my own expensive chair to replace the broken task chair i did have.

I almost feel sick from the tension in my neck and shoulders. I had to go home Friday and just lie on the floor. I got a great massage Saturday and I can feel all the tension just coming right back. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong in terms of desk ergonomics. This has been every job with a cube desk.

So, is there a way to modify my chair to make it stay tilted back?
And why on earth do I want to lean back so much?

(and bonus...why does it make me feel queasy? that's just weird.)

Need a crash course in ergonomics.

Ash3000 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:47:58 -0800

Advice and a crash course regarding ergonomics (and, to a lesser degree, posture) needed for a young web worker with a Macbook Pro and some signs of RSI. So, I've had symptoms of some sort of RSI for a while now - some aches in my wrists, weakness in my grip, etc. - but two recent occurrences have caused me to rethink how seriously i need to take this:

1. A bout of lower back pain for the last week that has at times been severe, especially when sitting down at work. (I saw my doctor about this on Saturday, and she personally believes it to be a narrowing of the spinal column that comes with age, and gave me a prescription for x-rays before moving forward. However, in her words, it can't hurt for me to take a look at how I'm sitting at work, and she seemed receptive when I mentioned a standing desk as a possibility.)

2. I realized that it's very difficult for me to write, with a pen, for any extended period of time, even for just a minute or so, if it's continuous writing (i.e. writing an essay) and not, say, making a list, where there's lots of stops-and-starts. I've been thinking lately that I want to write more, and it really depresses me to think that using a notepad/notebook to write won't be an option.

So, I want to start tackling this head-on. The only problem is, I know just about nothing about ergonomics, and I'm not sure where to start on making this better. There are some threads on best ergonomic equipment on AskMe, but the ones specifically talking about RSI seem to be at least a few years old, and I don't know what's been developed since in terms of mice, keyboards, stands, particularly since the "standing desk" phenomenon really got going online.

As for me, 27-year-old male (if it matters), employed to work on the new media side for a non-profit group - so, my day is basically spent on a computer. Currently, I use a Macbook Pro for work, at a simple table-like desk. There are so many questions I have here, but to give a sense of how little I know about this: should I use an external keyboard/mouse? Are there any mac-specific, particularly so I can still do stuff like switch pages by swiping on the trackpad? Is Dragon Dictation worthwhile? (I saw a good review on Engadget of the new 2.5 version.)

What about special gloves while working? Worth getting a weekly massage for my hands at a nearby physical therapy space? (A local spa, Graceful Services, offers something called a Tech Thumb massage.) Is there any ready-made standing desk-like set-ups that can be put on a desk? Is it *worse* for my hands if I'm standing up and still using the built-in laptop keyboard?

Is yoga worthwhile? Alexander Technique? Any new RSI programs for the mac that are particularly? I have a vacation coming up - would it help to take a 2-week break from using computer keyboards, or maybe limiting it to a half-hour per day?

Sorry for all the questions - I'm just a little freaked out by this issue, and appreciate any help I can get.

Yarrrrr, my spine be curved, and so be my chair?

two lights above the sea — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:03:05 -0800

I switched jobs about a month ago, and since then, my back has been killing me. Help me be more comfortable. I have mild scoliosis which has been treated with physical therapy in the past. I recently left a job of 5 years, at which I had a very tall-backed cushy chair (and according to my SO, the kind of chair you'd find at Office Depot, but I'm guessing more of an "executive style"). It was so gorgeously comfortable, and sitting all day rarely made my back hurt.

Now that I've started a new job, I'm sitting in a much different kind of chair, and my back has been killing me. According to my SO, this kind of chair is supposed to be better for you because it never lets you "relax", therefore it strengthens your back muscles. However, the posture is the complete opposite of all of the stretches I did in physical therapy, and very different from the posture of the chair at my old job. I've also read that sitting straight up is actually worse for you than leaning back in a chair. I'm not talking about slouching here-- I don't slouch.

So, now I'm confused by all of the different information. My experience with physical therapy and sitting in a chair that never once hurt my back in 5 years tells me that this is the wrong kind of chair for me, but my SO (who happens to be my coworker, yay) tells me that it's better for me in the long run and that I need to adjust. Is he right? Because getting through 8 hours is torture right now, and I don't really have the option of getting up every 15 minutes to an hour to walk or stretch. I'm considering splurging on one of those massage/heating chair pads or begging for a new chair, but I figured I'd go the free advice route first. What do I do? If it's relevant at all, my bum hurts sometimes too, which also really never happened at the old work place. Bothers me less than the back pain because it doesn't stick around, but it might be connected. Thanks in advance!

How can I use a desktop computer while lying down?

freecellwizard — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:54:16 -0800

How can I use a desktop computer while lying down in order to avoid severe back pain? I have had back pain for 20+ years and it has gotten worse even after a lumbar fusion (12 years ago). Recently I've tried all sorts of tests with negative results (myelogram, mri, ct scan), and all the pain meds I've tried give me terrible side effects. I am trying to swim and do some basic yoga, but I'm being sabotaged by having to sit in a computer chair 8-12 hours a day. After I sit for about 5 minutes I sart to get severe pain in my back and numbness and pain in my leg. I've tried my chairs, cushions, exercise balls, etc. to no avail. I try to take breaks, but getting up every 5 minutes isn't practical as I am a programmer.

I'm afraid of losing my job. I was thinking that if there was some way I could lie down and work, I could talk my boss into letting me work from home. Does anyone know of a good setup for working lying down? I hate laptops and small keyboards/screens ... I guess I could just lie prone and stick my monitor/kb/mouse on the floor, but I'm worried that will create a lot of strain on my shoulders and elbows.

There must be a way to make this work! I get extremely depressed about this and have had to drink more alcohol at night to ease the pain (much better than painkillers). I am even starting to think about applying for disability, but I want to work, and I have a large child support payment to meet. I am generally happy except for this, but it's ruining my life.

Ergonomics question

goofyfoot — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:28:19 -0800

Help me to achieve a pain-free workstation. I seem to be an ergonomic freak. After my job's ergo chief and her boss have measured me, changed my chair, and lowered my desk, I still have such neck and shoulder pain after an hour at the desk that my productivity is severely compromised. For hours after, I'm in pain. I bop around to different workstations in different companies - at all of which I work at desktops - and in several years only one has correctly assessed and situated me well (which indicates to me that it is possible to be comfortable). Her lodestar for ergonomics was a Cornell webpage, which isn't serving me well at my current station. I've changed chairs; I'm looking at OSHA's page; I'm doing everything that's correct, but I'm in pain. Today I went to a chiropractor and am considering paying (through the nose, as my COBRA insurance doesn't support it) for acupuncture.

My questions:
1. What is the most effective ergonomic guideline you've used? Particularly if you're an outlier such as I seem to be;

2. I often work as a temp. How frustrated could my current employers be with my inability to be comfortable at a desk that seems to work for most employees? As much as a pain-free existence is important to me, a job-free existence is much more bleak. I don't want to call much attention to myself here.

3. Does Aleve, which was recommended to me by the current temp employer's nurse, actually work for this kind of pain?

4. What should one do after the ergo people haven't helped, and after the chiropractor experience?

I've looked at previous ergonomic questions and have noted some of the gadgets people have recommended, but most of those seemed to be for those who work at home, or have to do with the keyboard. Since I've worked well with a standard keyboard, I'm wondering what else could be the problem.

Thank you for any help.

Library job vs. My hand pain (not carpal tunnel...)

wowbobwow — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:27:28 -0800

My dominant hand has a painful, bony bump at the joint where my index finger and palm meet (the MCPJ) and I AM going to see a Dr this week about it. Can anyone recommend things I can do to help it not get worse? I cannot not type at my job. If you've had something similar where just one digit was out of commission, what did you do? I want something like a splint to keep it from bending at the base, but I can't find anything like it for the palmar-finger joint. I work at my keyboard constantly, and using the mouse is getting difficult. I've heard of ergonomic mice but I'd like to know people's experiences before I plop down some cash.

But also... WTF? I've had this thing for years but it suddenly grew to the size of a pea and started hurting. Can people even get bone spurs in their hands? Again, am seeing a Dr soon, but I've never heard of this sort of thing. I asked a similar kind of question on AskMe last year which turned out to be very helpful! My hope is to find a similar outcome for this query. Thank-yee.