I have found after many years of programming that how I take care of my body before I ever sit down is much more important than the environment I sit down to. I have sat in over 100 offices of every possible condition (some you wouldn't believe) and have figured out that there's a "time warp" involved here... If I've taken care of myself, then I can function quite well in the worst client dump. If I haven't taken care of myself, then the most expensive of everything won't help much.
I have had scoliosis my whole life, so I've had to learn how to take care of myself or I never would have made it this far. Some of the things I always do:
- jogging (3-4x per week)
- body weight exercises (I love Hindu squats and push-ups.)
- stair climbing
- proper eating (a whole subject itself)
- monthly chiropractic visits
- getting out of my chair every hour (a must for ANY chair)
Oddly, I have never really followed most of OP's advice because I never thought it was very important. Most other programmers can't believe me, but here is my typical arrangement:
- cheapest chair from yard sale
- cheapest (disposable) laptop (currently $350 Lenova)
- one monitor (I can't stand > 1; I lose my focus.)
- good keyboard & mouse (the only things I don't skimp on)
- any work surface, as long as it's lower than 29"
- at least one feline companion
OP brings up some good points, but the most important thing is to find out what will work for you for years. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Studies have shown chiropractic to be no better than placebo for pretty much all conditions other than lower back pain. For lower back pain it is better than placebo but not massively and given the associated risks (please tell me you don't let him near your neck) you'd be better off with more conventional remedies.
Don't get me wrong, if it makes you feel better then that's fine (though you should be aware of the risks). Most Chiropractors are nice, well meaning people, but medically it is unfortunately largely bunkum.
(Incidentally as far as I can tell there is no good evidence to support chiropractic in the treatment of scoliosis, though I'm sure your chiropractor has a different opinion.)
100% agree though with looking after your body though.
Dude, how do you double blind a chiropractic treatment? It's very very difficult. What is the placebo for this trial? Again, this is a tricky ariiea and most current options are rrelatively poor. I research placebo and the only areas where we have good enough processes to disentangle placebo and real treatment is with pills freaks and injections. Anything else is pretty hit or miss. I'm not saying that chiropracty works, just that we have no good way of seperating the expectation effects from the 'real' effects.
A typical patient has no idea about the precise nature of the manipulations that are to be used - location, intensity, type of manipulation and so on. For chiropractic to be valid they need to be able to prescribe a specific treatment to a specific condition for a patient. If the prescription is valid then if the patient undergoes a different manipulation it shouldn't have the same effect. If it does then the idea that it was that specific manipulation is potentially invalidated.
You could actually even double blind it by having one chiropractor diagnose and prescribe treatment, and then have that treatment randomised so it was either done as prescribed or substituted for a sham treatment. That treatment would then be administered by a second chiropractor who was unaware of the diagnosis and not allowed to speak to the patient about it or modify the treatment.
Even if that was too complex or otherwise flawed a properly constructed single blinded RCT trial is still valid evidence, even if it's not the best of the best.
Here's the deal with Chiropractors. They heal symptoms. It seems to work great. You walk out feeling better without having to put in significant effort. They know your symptoms will keep returning and you'll end up paying them every week or two forever.
But you should figure out what causes the symptom, and fix that. It may take effort. Most times it takes strength training. But it's better for you then going to some guy to push your bones around once a week.
No, but I have read the results from a number of reasonable sized peer reviewed trials on it which show that whatever my personal experience might be, the most likely reason for any benefit I might experience (for any condition other than lower back pain for which there is a certain amount of evidence that chiropractic is effective) is the placebo effect.
I also have scoliosis. Chiropractic adjustments correct my alignment and balance; I walk taller, can stand for longer, and feel less pain after an adjustment.
To jump on a bandwagon, I also have scoliosis - 'marked' in my case (can't remember my Cobb Angle.)
As an aside, I'd be interested to know if anyone has ever done research on lifelong computer use (started when I was 6) and the rate of scoliosis.
In my case (obviously YMMV), chiropractic adjustments made me feel better immediately afterwards but gave me no long term improvements. The following other things have helped me incredibly, though, to the extent that I can't remember the last time I had scoliosis-related pain (which was a daily occurrence 5 years ago.)
- Swimming 2-3 times a week, mix of strokes.
- Finding a good sports physio, who really understands anatomy. This took a few false starts and lots of asking around, but eventually I found one who gave me extremely good advice on where to stretch, and where to strengthen, to start resolving the muscular imbalances that exacerbate scoliosis.
- Feldenkrais Method. I know this one will set the "skeptics" off instantly. However, Feldenkrais has helped me learn to pay more attention to my own nervous system and my own muscles. When I first got properly diagnosed (10 years ago, age 18) I used to regularly forget which side my curve was on and where it went. I certainly couldn't feel if I was moving "into" or "out of" my pattern, or notice when a part of me was tensing up or pulling me out of alignment.
Working with Feldenkrais was basically about teaching my brain (through repetition, over and over) all the subtle movements that my body was capable of, so I'm better at knowing where my body is at any given point, and at engaging all my core muscles when I move around.
There was a big "aha" moment when we realised that, in my case, my right side iliopsoas muscle can build up an enormous amount of tension (especially when I'm stressed or sitting a lot - hello programming!), and this exacerbates all my symptoms. Learning to release that (I use 'trigger point' methods so I can do it myself) made a massive difference.
- The noteworthy differences between the physio, Feldenkrais, and the chiro, was that the first two were teaching me skills to manage my body myself. I haven't felt the need to go back to see either of them in over a year, they've both given me pages and pages of handwritten notes and exercises, and encouraged me to notice what works and what doesn't and decide for myself what I should be doing.
Your Mileage Will Almost Certainly Vary (maybe completely.) Also, obviously (this scares me quite a bit), things are going to get harder as we get older (I'm only 28 now.) But hopefully some of it may be of use to someone else here with scoliosis, if they want to try and reduce their overall pain and discomfort.
But I bet you need another adjustment sooner than later. That's the deal with Chiropractors. Make you feel good enough they know you'll come back and pay them again.
I completely agree with this. Anecdotally from my own experiences. About a year ago, I decided it was time to be in shape again, lose some pounds, feel better, all that. So I went to the gym regularly, went for runs, bike rides etc, went dancing on the weekends. Nothing super heavy, just a lot of solid activity. About 2 months ago, I sort of fell off the wagon because I let work get in the way (then laziness crept in a bit too). So I am currently well versed in the whole gamut of exercise benefits (and non-exercise drawbacks). They directly relate to programming too! Not exercising is correlated with:
- Not sleeping well
- Feeling anxious more frequently
- Lack of focus
- Lack of motivation
- More difficulty following complex problem/solutions
- General irritability
After this next deadline in a week, I'm renewing my commitment to exercise and putting it in the non-negotiable list of things to do everyday.
For the last 7 months I have been completely focused on a project and have been neglecting exercise to a point where it feels like it has become a slog.
Some may say it's burnout, but I am not losing interest -- everything just feels like it has slowed down. Code that I should write quickly is taking longer.
I know it's marathon, not a sprint, but if you don't keep your body in shape that marathon can take longer than it should. So this week I have committed to focus on exercising and getting my energy levels back up.
In recent years, I have added yoga to my "body list." For the uninitiated, it likely sounds foreign, but the strength, flexibility and mind-centering aspects of a yoga practice must be experienced to be fully appreciated.
I'd like to take a yoga course which focused on strength and flexibility, without all the hippie mystical BS that seems to infect most of the yoga I've seen.
There's power yoga. I prefer Vinyasa, but the classes I've been to and the DVDs I've watched all have had some mysticism to them (for certain definitions of mysticism). That doesn't bother me, though. I enjoy the meditative aspects of it. I just ignore it when it starts to get a little too out there.
I found power yoga, where I did to be a bit too soft, I swastia is very good type of yoga to do. Also found something that around here they call pilates-mat, which is pretty close to the yoga that I didi without any of the hippie things.
I know a few people who felt Yoga sounded a bit "soft" (I know it doesn't have to be) but for those who want something a bit more physical you might want to look at pilates.
As I say, I know it isn't necessarily easy (perhaps gentle would be a better word), but that is a perception and for those people Pilates might be an alternative.
I am in a pretty good shape, working out and playing basketball multiple times per week. Still, the few times I tried yoga it literally kicked my ass. I've grown a lot of respect for those old ladies doing it.
My setup almost exactly matches yours (but I got two cats ha!). On the body side, I generally eat well, have been swimming once a week, but could do with more exercise.
I totally agree with you here. It doesn't matter how much you drop on your fancy chair (and I can't believe how much people debate this endlessly). If you don't get out of it for a few minutes every hour, all your money is probably going to waste in the long run.
I have found after many years of programming that how I take care of my body before I ever sit down is much more important than the environment I sit down to. I have sat in over 100 offices of every possible condition (some you wouldn't believe) and have figured out that there's a "time warp" involved here... If I've taken care of myself, then I can function quite well in the worst client dump. If I haven't taken care of myself, then the most expensive of everything won't help much.
I have had scoliosis my whole life, so I've had to learn how to take care of myself or I never would have made it this far. Some of the things I always do:
Oddly, I have never really followed most of OP's advice because I never thought it was very important. Most other programmers can't believe me, but here is my typical arrangement: OP brings up some good points, but the most important thing is to find out what will work for you for years. It's a marathon, not a sprint.