Typing posture: desk, chair, screen and hands

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This is general, practical advice about setting up a comfortable place to type. It is not medical advice and it cannot diagnose or treat anything. Bodies differ, and what feels right for one person may not suit another.

If you have pain, numbness, tingling or weakness in your hands, wrists, arms, neck or back, stop pushing through it and talk to a doctor or a physiotherapist. A typing score is never worth an injury.

Chair and desk

Start from the floor up. Your feet should rest flat on the floor or on a footrest, with your thighs roughly level and your back supported by the chair rather than hovering forward. Sit far enough back that the backrest actually does its job.

Then look at your arms. A common starting point is to have your upper arms hanging loosely by your sides and your elbows bent at about a right angle, with the keyboard at or slightly below elbow height. If the desk is too high, your shoulders creep up toward your ears; raising the chair and adding a footrest is often easier than lowering the desk.

Keep the keyboard close enough that you are not reaching forward. Reaching pulls your shoulders forward and puts load on your upper back and neck after a long session.

Screen position

Place the screen roughly at arm's length, straight in front of you, with the top of the screen around eye level or a little below. You should be able to read the words without craning your neck forward or tilting your head back.

Laptops are the usual problem: if the screen is at a comfortable height, the keyboard is too high, and the other way round. For long sessions, raising the laptop and using a separate keyboard solves both at once.

Lighting matters more than people expect. A bright window directly behind the screen or reflections on it make you squint and lean in. Turning the desk so the window is to your side, and matching the screen brightness to the room, usually helps. Staring at a bright screen in an otherwise dark room in the evening tires the eyes for no good reason.

If you find yourself leaning toward the screen to read the words in a test, make the text bigger rather than moving your body. The settings let you set the font size of the test words to small, medium, large or extra large, and you can pick a theme whose contrast is easy on your eyes.

Neutral wrists

A neutral wrist is roughly straight, continuing the line of the forearm. Try to avoid typing with your wrists bent sharply up, bent down, or angled outward toward your little fingers for long periods.

The small feet at the back of many keyboards tilt the keys toward you, which tends to bend the wrists upward. Many typists find a flat keyboard more comfortable. Try both and notice which one lets your wrists stay straighter.

Wrist and palm rests are best used for resting during pauses, not for anchoring your hands while you type. When your palms are planted, your fingers have to reach by bending the wrists. Letting your hands float lightly over the keys keeps the movement in the fingers and forearms instead.

A light touch

Many people press much harder than the keyboard needs, slamming each key to the bottom. A key only has to travel far enough to register. Typing lightly is quieter, less tiring and usually more accurate, because tense fingers are less precise.

Notice tension in the rest of your body too. Shoulders lifting, a clenched jaw and held breath are common during competitive matches, when the clock and an opponent make it tempting to force speed. Before a match, drop your shoulders and take one slow breath. It costs nothing and keeps your hands looser for the next thirty seconds.

Breaks that actually happen

Short, frequent breaks are easier to keep than long, rare ones. The warm-up test on the home page runs for 15, 30, 60 or 120 seconds, and a league match lasts 30 seconds of typing, so there is a natural pause after every run. Use it: let your hands drop into your lap, shake them out, look away from the screen.

For your eyes, a commonly suggested habit is to look at something far away every so often, which gives the focusing muscles a rest. Blinking more deliberately helps too, since people tend to blink less while concentrating on a screen.

Watch the length of whole sessions as well. If your accuracy keeps dropping or your hands feel heavy, that is a good moment to stop for the day rather than grind out one more attempt.

Gentle hand and arm movements

Simple, gentle movements before and after typing can help your hands feel loose. Keep every movement slow and comfortable. Stretch only to a light pull, never to pain, and skip anything that hurts.

• Open your hands wide, spread the fingers, then close them into a soft fist. Repeat a few times.
• With your arm straight in front of you, palm down, let the hand hang and gently draw it toward you with the other hand. Then do the same with the palm up.
• Roll your shoulders slowly backward a few times, then forward.
• Tilt your head gently toward each shoulder and hold for a few breaths, without pulling.
• Shake your hands loosely at your sides for a few seconds between runs.

When to stop and get help

Mild tiredness after a long session is normal. Some signs are not, and deserve attention from a professional rather than another stretch.

• Pain that continues after you stop typing, or that returns every time you start.
• Numbness, tingling or pins and needles in your fingers or hands.
• Weakness, clumsiness or dropping things.
• Pain that wakes you at night.