

Ask HN: How does your job hurt your health and how did you fix it? - relaunched

I&#x27;m finding all the sitting hurts my back and screen time hurts my eyes. So, I&#x27;ve started getting up and taking walks, but haven&#x27;t taken the steps to try a pilates ball or standing desk. That doesn&#x27;t even count the unhealthy eating habits I was starting to adopt, like unhealthy office snacks or eating out of boredom.<p>What is your experience and how did you fix the negative effects of your job?
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coreymaass
Most people will tell you to devote real time to exercise every day, which is
correct, but I've never found that doable. I'm too busy/lazy/distracted. So
I'm a big fan of little efforts.

Definitely eat better. That's easy, and takes little effort.

For eye strain, use a timer and follow the 20/20/20 rule - every 20 minutes
look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds (I built timerdoro.com just for
this purpose, which I run in fluid).

For stiff back, and other aches and pains, try a standing desk. Whether you
stand or not, set a timer to stretch every 20 minutes. Just come up with a
simple routine and do it. It becomes pavlovian. :-)

For the last few weeks, I've done this 7-minute workout every day before I
shower.
[http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/projects/workouts/](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/projects/workouts/)
It's 7 minutes. I have no excuse not to do it.

In my experience, if you try to jump in with a big, real commitment, you'll
fail. Try little hacks and routines instead.

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deskamess
Not exactly what you are asking for, but perhaps of interest to you.

My problems started with exercises... I had a regimen of stationary biking for
the whole winter (7 miles on alternate days). By late winter I had serious
buttock pains sitting in a chair or driving after about 15-30 minutes. Dr and
physio could not diagnose it. Finally did some internet self diagnosis and
came up with piriformis syndrome - had to do with the biking/exercising one
set of muscles in one direction and not exercising alternate
muscles/directions. I am now following some exercises that take about 30
minutes per day, and give me considerable relief but there is no long term fix
for this.

Moral: When you do exercise try to pick exercise that have many dimensions.

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lastofus
My arms/hands have been in pain for the last 8 years. The only thing that has
helped is finding remote dev positions where I can set my own schedule and
workload, and avoiding companies demanding 50-60 hr work weeks like the
plague.

I'm working anywhere from 20-30 hours a week now, and the pain is manageable.
For the most part, clients are still pretty happy. It helps to find clients
that are happy with the end result of your work in the time it takes you to
produce it, as opposed to clients who think hours worked is the end all metric
of productivity.

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wikwocket
When I first read this, I thought you meant _mental_ health... that's a
different story!

Constant mousing was causing me wrist pain. I have since switched to using a
trackball at work and a high quality standard mouse at home. Also I try to
keep my chair and monitor at proper heights, as back problems will exacerbate
wrist pain.

I highly recommend investing in a good ergonomic setup. If you are going to
sit at a computer all day long, at least be comfortable!

~~~
relaunched
I think a discussion on mental health is appropriate here. Don't feel like
you're limited to physical health.

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denova
I try to put my hands behind my head when I'm not typing or using the mouse
(because otherwise they're always in front of me and my shoulder blades hurt
like hell). I switch mouse hands when my shoulder starts to get sore. I work
at a standing desk with a stool so I can sit when I need to. And when I'm not
working I try to spend as little time in front of a computer as I can. I also
do yoga.

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sarabmann
Go back to basics! Evolution is not fast enough, our bodies are still lagging
and attuned to 10000 year old habits, such as existing in nature, walking and
working in the fields. Though not advocating to go back 10000 years but at
least walk and spend sometime in the nature, trek etc. Believe me it works

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ddorian43
I only have back-pain, no hands/eyes/head.

Started kickboxing, also got injured there.

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panjaro
run for 30 min to an hour every day. I had all problems and everything is gone
now....

