Re: Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle

So, to summarize so far:

- Classical ergonomics is good: both posture and workstation.
- Regular breaks are good.
- Varying your lifestyle is good.
- Seeking medical advice if you have symptoms is good.
- Standard typing-training techniques are good.

To these, I would like to add the following:

- Improving your circulation is good.

Better circulation means more-efficient body self-repair time.

- Improving your infrastructure muscles is good.

Exercise in ways that will improve your core, so that your body will
be more easily trained into better postures, and so that you can hold
them longer without physical or mental effort. Work on your balance.
Yoga is great for this and can be done in the privacy of your own home.
Or so I'm told. :)

- Sleep is good.

Get up at the same time every day. Really. When your body starts
to get used to this, it will spend more time in deep, restful sleep.
This means better repair time, too.

- Weight loss is good.

If your weight distribution is off-center, your whole joint and muscle
system shifts over time to adapt -- which can cause long-term problems
(much like car alignment problems).

I lost 35 pounds -- two pounds a week like clockwork -- using this geeky
method (apologies for the 1995-era HTML and look/feel):

    http://www.alaska.net/~royce/diet.html

The Hacker Diet is also a great geek weight-loss resource:

   http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdietf.html

- Better diet is good.

With the right components at hand, your body repair systems can work
better. Supplements are good, but food sources are better -- and if
you're eating just a few better foods, use them to displace a few
not-as-good foods to double the benefit.

- Lowering your stress is good.

All the stuff that's supposed to make you a happier person is
probably good for your body. :) Lots of resources out there.

- Walking the right way is good.

A suboptimal gait can cause your back, ab, chest and shoulder muscles
to over/undercompensate, which can translate into bad posture,
joint problems, etc.

I've got to agree with Tim about the physical therapy. I can't
recommend highly enough to avail yourself of sports medicine docs
and physical therapists. You'd be amazed at how much then can tell
about your habits just by looking at which muscles are doing what,
how you walk, what you do when you get up from a chair or bed, etc.
They can recommend a few stretches and exercises that are focused on
shoring up your specific underused muscle areas, which can translate
into fixes for issues that you never even noticed before.

- A realistic picture of your actual posture/habits is good.

Set up a web cam to record yourself using the computer for a while.
Try to forget that the camera is there. Observe how you hold your
body when you're not thinking about it. You'd be amazed at how
contorted you're getting without even realizing it. Adjust accordingly.
Follow up with another check every once in a while.

YMMV - but make sure that they're a mix of highway, city, and
back-road/scenic miles to get the best bang for your body buck. :)

Royce

-- 
Royce D. Williams                                - IP Engineering, ACS
personal: [first]@alaska.net                  - PGP: 3FC087DB/1776A531
work: [first.last]@acsalaska.net         - http://www.tycho.org/royce/
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