KEY WORDS / VOL. 16, NO.4

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2008

by Cathy Seckman

You know the feeling.

It's the one you get at the end of a long and intense text-entry session. You drop your hands from the keyboard, lean back, take a deep breath, and - OWl I A flare of pain spreads across your upper back. What IS that!?!

It's your trapezius muscles. Those long-suffering trapezii, which run from head to spine and from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, are complaining about the ergonomics of indexing.

It's a common complaint of desk-bound professionals who spend their workday hunched over a computer keyboard, peering at a monitor. To address the ergonomics of our profession, let's look at three key factors: posture, equipment, and exercise.

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