How to avoid writerly injuries

After a fall down some stairs, Judith Fitzgerald checks in to a hospital and learns about the various physical perils of being a writer.

1. Non-neutral postures (or postures outside of the normal or resting postures each joint of the body finds most comfortable)

2. Force, surprisingly, tends not to be an issue in a writer’s job unless they carry laptops and tonnes of research material around in a bag

3. Repetition occurs when the number of keystrokes or mouse clicks exceeds what the average human tendon or muscle is able to sustain. There are tools we use in our practice to calculate when these rates exceed what a person should perform on a day-to-day basis

4. Static loads at the muscles of the back, neck, shoulders and arms. This refers to what happens when a writer sits for long periods of time at the computer without taking micro-breaks and regular breaks in posture. The muscles will hold the joints of the back plus neck, legs and arms in place without movement occurring (which results in limited blood supply to the working muscles and leads to both fatigue and discomfort of these

5. Mechanical loads (which include writers leaning forearms onto the edges of their desks or onto those pads often used in tandem with mice. (These devices, sold as ergonomic, are anything but!) he writer leans the forearm onto the edge of their desk, or onto those pads often used in front of the mouse (they are sold as ergonomic but are anything but). Then, there’s the incorrectly positioned chair-seat pan which places pressure at the back of the knees and could well cause compression to the soft tissues, wrist and leg nerves and tendons which, in turn, may negatively affect circulation (which could, in some cases, lead to the development of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in the legs)

6. Environmental factors such as low levels of light, distracting sounds and air quality all need to be scrupulously monitored.

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