In a perfect world... we would never move in any way that could be damaging to our bodies, but unfortunately real life takes over and this dream is not reality. While correct posture, frequent breaks, and regular stretches can decrease the speed of damage to our sedentary office-worker bodies, we all fail at some point to do things ergonomically proper - some of us fail even 98% of the time, because, for some of us, it simply isn't possible to focus on both proper posture and work at the same time. Our bodies will always subconsciously fall to a state the least amount of energy expenditure - which includes but isn't limited to: slouching, leaning on nerves in the elbows, and unnoticed increased point pressures. It is an energy-saving survival mechanism, but in this situation it is an unfortunate reality for the bad habits it creates. Eventually though, damage is done and the pain doesn't let us forget. The pain makes us do something different with our movement and posture. Sometimes that result is worse posture, sometimes better, and sometimes it is extreme enough to miss work for extended periods of time for recovery or surgery.
This said, in the typical ergonomic office setting with mouse use, the pressure-damage done to a wrist tunnel or carpal tunnel can occur even with both good posture and bad posture. This is because the typical supportive pad options are localized-pressure-causing wrist rests, or thin, dense-rubber mouse pads. When using either of these or none at all, the weight of the arms continue to press down on points of the arm that hold nerves, tendons, muscles, and blood flow. Some studies have shown that using no mouse pad at all is actually safer than using the common wrist lifting wrist rest. In truth, to protect, these pressures must instead be dispersed to the rest of the arm to become benign - like the Loftmat Pillowcore® series of mouse pads does well.
Through research and testing, we found that even in good posture, a softer desk surface was the most effective way to further help our wrists and arms and mitigate nerve pressure and joint pain. After all, we sleep on a soft bed for hopefully 8+ hours every night, so why do our arms and wrists need to rest on a hard desk for 8+ hours a day -every work day?
We should all do our best to maintain the best posture and best ergonomic setting as possible in any job we maintain, and for computer users, Loftmat has engineered an exceptional line of products to help bring comfort through soft dissipation of pressure on your wrists whether you do end up sitting strong and tall, or slouch and lean like the majority. Loftmat's patent pending mats are here to assist in protecting our bodies a little better even through our normal and imperfect and chaotic lives.
We at Loftmat will go out of our way to make it clear that we do not encourage bad ergonomic environment or posture and there is no one product that can save us from our bodies wearing out, but even in the inevitable bad postures, using the right tools may help reduce the possibilities of damage. Always do everything you can to prepare your workspace, and then strengthen supportive muscles and build those good habits that can subconsciously continue even when forgetting them in order to work hard.
If you have thoughts or experiences in regard to any of this article or our products, feel free to send us a quick message using the contact us form. We would love to hear from you.
