While there are a lot of products on the market that are branded as ergonomic - promising to maintain your posture while you type away - not all of them are that effective. With a new keyboard or mouse, consider the advice of Carrie Schmitz, a wellness-and-ergonomic research manager at Ergotron: “What you need to do is position the equipment in relation to your body in such a way that you’re not in some sort of an awkward posture.” Joseph Santillo, director of industrial medicine at ReLive Physical Therapy, thinks finding a mouse that you can use with either hand can help take off some of the strain.

“Your keyboard should be positioned in a way that keeps the wrist pointed straight and does not make the wrists face duck-footed outward or pigeon-toed inward,” Okubadejo recommends.

That’s why a wireless keyboard or Bluetooth mouse (or both) might be a necessary work-from-home accessory. Hirst adds that this isn’t always possible with the way most mouses on laptops are set up, however. Many of us using laptops tend to hover our hands over the keyboard, wrists extended, says physiotherapist Lyndsay Hirst, but the best way is to rest them instead. Still, you should probably understand the proper position for your wrists in the first place. The good news is that these long-term office injuries from typing can be prevented, especially with the right ergonomic desk setup. “Too much wrist flexion” - a fancy way of saying bending - “can undoubtedly cause pain and nerve compression,” Weiss says, adding that a movement as simple as reaching your pinky too far out over your keyboard or mouse can, over time, damage cartilage in your wrist. Emily Kiberd of the Urban Wellness Clinic. Or a weak grip, which “is tied to shoulder stability, or lack thereof, in turn leading to tightness in the upper traps and neck,” according to chiropractor Dr. Gbolahan Okubadejo, a spinal and orthopedic surgeon. Take, for example, carpal tunnel syndrome, which can cause tingling in the side of your hand, explains Dr. Scott Weiss, a physical therapist and board-certified athletic trainer, says, “The wrong mouse-and-keyboard setup can wreak physical havoc on your hand, wrist, and forearm.” There are plenty of potentially severe side effects to the wrong wrist position.

And the constant clacking on a keyboard or clicking on a mouse doesn’t help matters much, either. If you spend most of the workday staring at a screen, chances are you’ve developed tech neck or, even worse, a bad back.

Ergo apple keyboard