Tag Archives: monitor position

Is Your Computer Monitor Positioned Too Far Away from You?

Neck and lower back pain are such common complaints that we all know someone (if it’s not ourselves) who has experienced at least one of these complaints.  There are many causes for neck or lower back pain.  These can include different types of injuries, disease processes, genetic predispositions, and most importantly and commonly of all, our posture.  Our posture at work and our posture at home and at play.

Our work posture is getting more and more attention, especially since the advances in technology have relegated most of us to work behind a computer for long hours each day.  There are a host of things to consider in our work environment that can negatively affect our posture and cause our neck or lower back pain.

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Part of my job is going around performing office ergonomics for people.  One of the most common things I hear is people blaming their chair for their neck or lower back pain.  Most often, however, this is not correct and the real culprit is the monitor and where it has been positioned on the desk.  Luckily, this is a much cheaper and easier solution to the problem.

Your poor monitor position (read my post on 4 poor monitor positions that cause neck pain) is definitely one of the first places to look if you suffer from neck or lower back pain and you think your work posture is to blame.  There are a number of factors to consider in relation to your monitor position, but one very important and neglected element is the correct monitor distance that your monitor is positioned away from you while you work.

If your monitor is positioned too far away from you, you will find yourself leaning forwards in order to see your screen better, creating all sorts of problems in your spine (especially in your neck and lower back) and over activating your shoulder muscles, all leading you down the path of aches and pains.

Monitor Positioned too far
Image by US Navy under Public Domain

So what is the correct distance that you should place your monitor?

Generally, your monitor should be positioned a lot closer to yourself than you think it should.  And if you don’t believe me, ask yourself why you keep leaning forwards when you work.

How do you determine the correct distance that you should position your monitor at?  I call it the “Frankenstein” test.

  • Firstly, position your chair as close to your desk as possible while your arms and wrists are still able to comfortably work on your keyboard and be supported with an elbow angle of 90-120 degrees.  (In order to get close enough to your desk, you might need to adjust your armrests.  Generally I find that most armrests get in the way of the desk when you want to come closer, so one solution is to raise your armrest so that it just slides onto the surface of your desk, allowing you to bring your chair closer.  If you are unlucky enough not to have adjustable armrests and your armrests are really stopping you from bringing your chair sufficiently forwards, I recommend getting your building maintenance to remove them.  Use your desk for your arm support instead).
  • Then, lean backwards against your backrest and replicate Frankenstein’s outstretched arms – where your fingertips end, that is where your screen should be.

Closer than you think?  Give it a try and remember to keep leaning back against your chair’s backrest.  Your backrest is there to help keep you in good posture while you work.  A combination of those two factors (leaning back in your chair and having your monitor at the correct distance away from you) will go a long way to reduce your neck or lower back pain associated with poor working posture.

4 Computer Monitor Positions that Give You Neck Pain

Are you an office worker suffering with neck pain?  If so, you’re not alone.  Office workers are one of the population groups most at risk of developing neck pain, with an incidence of around 55% in some countries.

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If you are an unfortunate office worker suffering from neck pain, is there something that you can do yourself to reduce or prevent your neck pain rather than popping pills or going to see your OMT trained Physiotherapist?

Neck Pain
Image by J. Heuser under Licence CC BY 3.0

The answer is, yes, of course there is!

The first and simplest things that you need to consider is where your monitor is positioned in relation to yourself on your desk (check our our desktop software designed to help you correct your computer ergonomics).  A poor monitor position is one of the most common reasons why office workers suffer from neck pain associated with poor posture.  It’s happily also one of the easiest things for to change to help improve poor posture that could be causing your neck pain.

Consider the following 4 monitor position scenarios.  Do you see yourself in any of them?  All of these poor monitor positions are high risk postures for creating neck pain.

  1.  In this scenario, your monitor (laptop or desktop computer screen) is positioned too low on your desk causing you to bend your neck for too long, straining your neck and resulting in neck pain.  This is quite common, especially for people working on a laptop or tablet.  Mobile computer devices are handy to have, but they all need assistive ergonomic devices to help you work in a safe posture.  Read this post on correcting a low monitor position to help you correct this problem.
"Catching Up On Email..." by Ed Yourdon under Licence CC BY 2.0
“Catching Up On Email…” by Ed Yourdon under Licence CC BY 2.0

2.  In this second scenario, your screen is positioned too high for you, causing you to raise your chin and compress the joints in the back of your neck causing you both neck pain and headaches.  This monitor position will cause neck pain faster than any of the others and is one of the worst postures possible for a computer worker.  This posture is common in people who are aware that a computer monitor often needs to be elevated, but are unaware of their own posture and what the correct position for one’s head and neck needs to be to prevent or reduce neck pain.  Correct your position asap

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Poor monitor position, poor ergonomics, neck pain, monitor positioned too high
“Starcraft II: Triple Monitors” by Kyle James under Licence CC BY 2.0

3.  Here, your screen is positioned too far away from you, causing you to lean forwards away from your backrest and poke your chin out.  This posture will cause both headaches and neck pain.  Read this post on correcting a monitor positioned too far away to help you correct this problem and reduce your neck pain.

Poking chin posture
“Man uses laptop” by Bill Branson under Public Domain

4.  In this last scenario, you are working a lot from notes/papers/files and don’t use a document holder.  This means that you are looking down too often during the day and this constant bending of your neck puts you at a very high risk of developing neck pain.

Alternatively, you’re working a lot from notes and have positioned them on your desk between your keyboard and monitor causing you to push your monitor too far away and take a poking chin posture.

Both of these postures will create neck pain and possibly headaches.

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Monitor Positioned too far
Image by US Navy under Public Domain

I will write about how to correct these postures and position your monitor correctly in the near future, make sure you come back to find out how you can help yourself reduce your neck pain.