Gaming posture: 7 tips for better health

Your gaming posture is incredibly important considering the amount of time you’ll spend sitting down. Fortunately, gaming posture is an extremely popular topic in the community, and there are many health care professionals, gamers, and organizations who are trying to bring awareness to the importance of body mechanics during long hours of practicing, streaming, or competing.

Perhaps the most important part of sitting is when you’re able to take a break from sitting. Regardless of how well you maintain your posture, prolonged sitting can still cause health problems. Check out our post, Physical health guide to your gaming grind, to learn more about how to break apart your routine.

What is gaming posture?

The term posture refers to the static position in which you hold your body. Gaming posture, therefore, is simply the position you hold your body… while gaming. And, most often, this is in a seated position.

When analyzing posture, we look at the entire person from the ground up, and each part of the body is significant in order to limit risk while sitting and gaming.

On this page, we will take a look at the optimal body positions for gaming posture. But first, it is important to understand the aforementioned risks of less-than-optimal body positions.

The trouble with seated gaming posture

First and foremost, sitting in a chair is not an anatomically normal position regardless of your posture and your chair of choice.

The natural resting position for a human is actually a squat position; for example, you may notice toddlers squat on their heels to rest (or pre-potty-trained when they have a bowel movement). Similarly, in areas of the world that are less-developed—where chairs are not always available—people will squat on their heels to rest, to eat, and to have bowel movements.

For those of us who have been sitting in chairs for most of our lives, our bodies have become accustomed to this abnormal resting position. In fact, most people in more developed parts of the world are unable to stay balanced or will experience pain or discomfort in a squat position—our muscles and connective tissue are often restricted.

Because chairs are anatomically unnatural, phrases such as “proper gaming posture” or “proper seated posture” are ones Esports Healthcare does not promote. Based on the anatomically appropriate resting position, sitting in a chair is not “proper posture.”

However, we can and should attempt to make the best of a bad situation. There is certainly a “more appropriate” way to sit that can help reduce the risks of prolonged, seated gaming posture.

Risks of poor gaming posture

You may have heard the phrase, “sitting is the new smoking,” in an attempt to emphasize the health risks associated with prolonged sitting.

Truthfully, is sitting as harmful as smoking? No, absolutely not. Smoking cigarettes is still significantly worse than sitting; however, the risks of prolonged sitting should not be understated.

Poor posture and prolonged sitting may increase your risk for:

Poor gaming posture and joint degeneration

Less-than optimal seated postures may create forces greater than 150% of body weight on your spine. The increased pressure on the discs and bones of your spine may lead to early degeneration (e.g., arthritis or “spondylosis”) which could then lead to more significant health concerns.

One of these possible concerns is called stenosis, or narrowing of the spinal canal where the spinal cord travels, or narrowing of the neural canals where the spinal nerve roots exit the spinal column. Stenosis may lead to spinal cord and nerve root irritation which may cause symptoms such as pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness in the arms, trunk, or legs.

Poor gaming posture and myofascial components

Prolonged seated postures have the potential to create remarkable restrictions and tension imbalances throughout your fascia (connective tissue) and musculature—the most prominent of which are the effects in the hip and shoulder regions of your body.

Chronic seated positions lead to densifications throughout the fascia which will present with the sensation of tightness in the muscles in the front of your body (namely, the hip flexors and the pectoral muscles) that tend to pull your body forward into a flexed position. Additionally, these densifications will begin to restrict or inhibit the muscles of the back of your body which hold you upright against gravity.

Complications of these myofascial imbalances (e.g., upper crossed syndrome or lower crossed syndrome) may include various areas of pain, tension-type headaches, compression of nerves or blood vessels (such as thoracic outlet syndrome), and may lead to irritation or damage of the joints throughout your body.

How can you fix your posture?

Sometimes, a simple reminder can help to keep your body in a better position. However, prolonged sitting—especially in a poor position—will likely lead to the imbalances described earlier.

When this happens, simply thinking about sitting more appropriately may still be ineffective. So, we developed Power-Up Posture with 21 exercise and stretches to help improve your posture!

Power-Up Posture: gamer guide to a healthy career

Power-Up Posture is an exercise and stretch program designed to counter the ill-effects of prolonged sitting—more specifically—the ill-effects of prolonged sitting with poor posture.

Sitting for extended periods of time puts your body in an unfavorable position. In response, fascial integrity begins to alter, leading to some muscles becoming hypertonic (tight) while other muscles will become inhibited from the tension imbalance.

Fortunately, Power-Up Posture is a comprehensive program to help restore tension balance throughout the body through stretches and activation exercises.

A “more appropriate” gaming posture

As previously mentioned, there is no such thing as “proper gaming posture.” But, here are some tips to minimize the risks associated with prolonged sitting.

1) Upper body

To relieve pressure on the spinal disks in your neck and to help keep the muscles and fascia in your shoulders and neck as neutral and relaxed as possible:

• Head: if your gamer chair has one, rest your head against the headrest.
• Neck: to help reduce the risk for neck pain and tension-type headaches, keep your head back and your chin tucked so your ears are on the same plane line as your shoulders.
• Shoulders: avoid shrugging and rounding your shoulders. Pull your shoulder blades downward and back towards each other, and rest your upper back on the back rest of your chair. Rounding forward may lead to upper crossed syndrome or thoracic outlet syndrome.

2) Gaming monitor

• As a general rule, the size of the screen in inches is the distance you should position the monitor from your face. However, the distance from your face—regardless of screen size—should be no less than 20 inches.
• The top 1/3 – 1/4 of your gaming monitor should be level with your eyes. Therefore, the monitor will be tilted at a slight angle upward to meet your eyes.
• Following these rules will make it easier to maintain the posture guidelines in Part 1 and will aid to prevent eye strain!

3) Arm rests

• Set your arm rests just high enough so your elbows are bent approximately 90 degrees.
• Your arms should rest gently on the arm rests rather than being propped up. Too much pressure from the arm rests on your forearms may lead to cubital tunnel syndrome.
• If your arms are not properly resting, you may also be using the muscles at your shoulder to hold your arms up. This may lead to a condition known as mouse shoulder.

4) Desk position

PC gamers

• The height of your desk should be just high enough that it clears the top of your thighs.
• The height of your desk should also be low enough that your forearms rest parallel with the floor and the table. If your desk is too high, your elbows and/or wrists will be strained to clear the height of the desk, potentially leading to mouse elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome or cubital tunnel syndrome.
• Pull your chair in towards the desk so you’re close enough to the monitor that you don’t need to lean forward, following guidelines Part 1 and Part 2.

Console gamers

• The height of your desk should be appropriate to follow guidelines Part 1 and Part 2.
• Likewise, to follow guidelines Part 1 and Part 2 pull your chair in towards the desk so you’re close enough to the monitor that you don’t need to lean forward.

5) Back rest

• If your gamer chair has the option, recline the back of the seat 90-120 degrees.
• Try to keep your lower back pressed against the chair. Sitting away from the back rest may lead to a slouched position.
• Sitting upright or with the chair slightly reclined takes pressure off the discs in your back and will help reduce the risk for lower crossed syndrome and sacroiliac joint dysfunction.

6) Hips and thighs

• Sit with your hips all the way back in the chair so your back is pressed against the back rest.
• Keep both thighs flat on the chair. Sitting cross-legged or otherwise off balance may lead to conditions such as sacroiliac joint dysfunction, piriformis syndrome (sciatica), or lower crossed syndrome.

7) Chair height, legs, and feet

• The chair height should allow your feet to rest flat on the floor with no additional strain on your legs. Too high and your feet may dangle freely. Too low and your thighs will not rest flat on the seat. Both issues may lead to sacroiliac joint dysfunction, piriformis syndrome (sciatica), or lower crossed syndrome.
• Your knees should be bent approximately 90 degrees.
• Rest both feet flat on the floor below your knees.

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