Considering the number of time gamers spend in a seated posture, maintaining a good gaming posture is extremely important. Lately, gaming posture has become a widely discussed topic as people have started to understand its importance.
Many healthcare organizations and professional gamers have started to talk about this topic to bring awareness. They talk about maintaining a good body posture during long hours of competing, aim practice, and streaming.
One of the best things to do while sitting is to take a break and give yourself a rest. No matter how comfortable your sitting posture is, prolonged sitting can cause health issues. Continue reading this post till the end to learn about different gaming postures and ergonomics.
What Is a Proper Gaming Posture?
Posture is a term that refers to a static posture in which you must hold your body so you can stay healthy and fit. That means the gaming posture is nothing but a posture you must hold your body onto to improve your health and aim in the game.
A gamer’s entire body, each part of the body, is analyzed in the gaming posture from the ground up. It helps maintain better health and wellness while playing games for long hours.
What PC Gaming Ergonomics Issues Do Gamers Experience?
Among the commonly experienced ergonomic issues that gamers face, some common ones include repetitive strain injury. Gamers play repetitive actions, like odd finger posturing, continued button pressing, and rapid mouse movements. So, if you are a regular player, you might deal with repetitive strain.
A recent study revealed that regular gamers suffer from spinal damage, circulatory disorders, and tenosynovitis. Another loss, probably less serious, is the simple loss of performance that happens due to uncomfortable sitting postures.
Poor sitting gaming posture harms the health and also the gaming victory. Thus, you must improve your gaming posture.
How Can You Fix Your Gaming Posture
Sometimes you can fix your sitting gaming posture with just a simple reminder. But along with that, you must also try to create a balance by following the below-mentioned steps.
Upper Body
While playing the game and sitting for a long time, you must try to relieve pressure on the discs. In addition, you must keep your shoulder and neck muscles relaxed. If your gamer chair has a headrest, you must use it to relax your muscles.
When you keep your chin tucked and your head at the back, it helps you reduce the risk of neck pain and other neck-related headaches. You must not shrug around your shoulders. Instead, you should try to pull your shoulder blades back and downwards.
In addition, you must rest your upper back body on the back rest to avoid upper crossed syndrome or thoracic outlet syndrome. This way, you can create a proper posture.
Gaming Monitor
Gamers need to have a proper-sized monitor to see different elements on the screen. Also, the monitor must be placed at a proper distance.
Usually, gamers are advised to keep the monitor at as much distance as the size of the screen. Under no circumstance should make the distance of the screen from your face should be less than 20 inches.
Ensure that the 1/3 – 1/4 of your gaming monitor is at your eye level. For this, you must tilt the monitor a little to meet your eyes. Try to maintain a proper eye posture to save yourself from eye strain.
Arm Rests
It’s important to place your arm properly so you don’t feel tired between games. Try to set your armrest to approximately 90 degrees properly. This way, your elbows will be bent and not feel any strain. Your chair’s armrest must be the right size for your arm’s length.
Instead of propping your arm, you must try to rest on the armrests gently. If you put too much pressure on your forearms, it may lead to cubital tunnel syndrome.
If you are not properly resting your arm’s length while playing, you use the muscles to hold your arms up. Regularly doing this can lead to a condition called mouse shoulder.
Desk posture
It’s important to maintain a proper desk posture to avoid getting tired quickly.
PC Gamers
If you are a PC gamer, the height of your desk should be right above the top of your thighs.
Do not keep the desk too high. Try to keep it low enough to rest your forearms parallel with the floor and the table. If you are playing a game on a desk that is too high, it might strain your wrists or elbows. This situation can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome, mouse elbow, or cubital tunnel syndrome.
You must always try to pull your chair towards the desk, so you do not have to lean forward while playing your computer game.
Console Gamers
If you are a console gamer, you should keep the height of your right above the top of your thighs.
While playing the game, you should pull your chair forward to get close to the monitor. If you are far away, you would have to learn to see the screen properly. But leaning is not considered an ideal sitting gaming posture.
Back Rest Neutral posture
Maintaining a proper gaming posture also includes properly resting your back. You must always try to choose a gaming chair that comes with reclining the back of the seat to 90-120 degrees.
When sitting on the chair, try to press your lower back against the chair. If you sit away from the backrest, you might slouch after a while.
You can take the pressure off your discs by sitting with the chair slightly reclined. Doing so will reduce the risk of sacroiliac joint dysfunction and lower cross syndrome.
Hips and Thighs
If you want to maintain a proper sitting posture, you must sit back in the chair with your hips. When you press your back against the backrest, your hips and thighs are relaxed.
You can try to sit cross-legged or off-balance to keep both thighs flat on the chair. Not doing so can lead to severe conditions like lower cross syndrome, sacroiliac, joint dysfunction, or piriformis syndrome.
Chair Height, Legs, and Feet Flat
Ensure that the chair’s height does not restrict you from resting your feet flat on the floor. If it puts strain on your feet, you must try to sit differently.
Having a too high chair may dangle your feet freely. If the chair is too low, your thighs might not rest flat on the chair. You will feel discomfort and might even develop sacroiliac joint dysfunction, lower crossed syndrome, or piriformis syndrome.
In addition, you should try to keep your knees bent to 90 degrees. You should rest both feet flat below your knees. This way, you can have a perfect balance and better posture.
Switch posture
A general rule is that gamers must switch their postures regularly so the blood properly flows. Switching posture improves circulation and your reaction speed while gaming. You can also have a small pillow to allow you to better posture.
A Healthy Gaming Lifestyle
We usually think that gamers are unhealthy or lazier than the other population. This stereotype is a result of broad assumptions and mischaracterized fears. For this reason, there is not enough ergonomic equipment for gaming enthusiasts.
The computer ergonomic accessories available in the market are designed to target office workers. But gamers also require such equipment and should have access to such products as these tools can keep them fit while pursuing their passion. Regularly using ergonomic tools for playing can help you maintain a good posture.
Conclusion
If you are serious about gaming, you must try to create an ergonomic setup to improve your aiming in Fps games. Try to keep your shoulders relaxed. Also, you must relax your feet, wrists, back, hips, and thighs. This way, you can maintain a better gaming posture.
Furthermore, it’s also important to keep the desk, monitor, and chair at an ideal height. If you do not have the perfect ergonomic desk setup while playing, you might often encounter severe pains in different parts of your body.