Postural tips for using a laptop
We get loads of questions from patients asking us for advice on setting up their workstation and using a laptop at work.
Particularly now, there’s a lot of a centum will work a lot more from home. So you don’t have a permanent fixed workstation so we thought we’d go through some tips for you. Today you’re using a laptop. Okay that’s going to cause your chest to collapse down and forwards it’s going to put a lot of strain in through the base of the neck and through your low back so that the very least use a fixed table or a reasonable height that’s going to bring it up elevate the monitor for you. Try and keep your elbows underneath your shoulders when you’re typing so there’s no stress through the shoulder line.
So in other words, we don’t want our arm out in front of us. You want to elbow underneath the shoulder. Better still though anyone that’s a reasonable height. You’re going to want to use a stand which will elevate the screen height even higher so that means that you’re not having to crane down and collapse down to see the center of the screen helps you keep your shoulders nice and neutral. What you will find though if you are using a laptop for any period of time and you’ve got a stand is that you’ll find your hands will naturally come up off the desk in order to use the monitor. So if you do find that you’re using at that position for a long time it can be worth actually getting a separate wireless keyboard both are very inexpensive. To get a stand and a keyboard together you’d be looking at 30 to 40 pounds but that will help you look after your neck and look after your shoulder position in your posture.