Laptop Computers and Notebooks Don’t Lend Themselves to Comfortable Computing.

Laptops are ergonomic disasters.  You may not feel it now.  But down the road, prolonged use can lead to having your head stuck forward, rounded shoulders, neck pain, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and more.

There are a few ways to use a laptop computer or notebook with less stress.

As I mentioned in False Carpal Tunnel from Tight Pectoralis Minor – if that muscle is tight it can cause the shoulders to round forward and create pain between the shoulder blades. 

If very tight, it can cause numbness or tingling in your fingers, hands, and even up you arm.  If very tight it can also pinch an artery leading to the hands, causing poor circulation in them.

One way to tell if the Pectoralis Minor is causing the numbness in your fingers is to raise your arm.  If after a few minutes the numbness your numbness is worse and if lowering the arms makes it better, the problem is most likely a tight pectoralis minor muscle. 

If you get numb hands riding a bicycle, motorcycle, driving, or doing anything else where your arms are somewhat up — BUT lowering them relieves them — look to the pec minor.  Forearm muscles are also frequent culprits as well, but with them it doesn’t make any difference in the feeling whether your arms are up or down.

However unless you loosen the pec minor, your hands could become numb most of the time.

Because most of us work with our arms in front of us.  This muscle is usually tight on almost everyone.  But seldom do we feel any pain there.  Because they pull the shoulders forward, the muscles between the shoulder blades (the rhomboids) are continually fighting to keep your shoulders back. 

The solution is to loosen the pectoralis minor (First go to:  False Carpal Tunnel from Tight Pectoralis Minor) then watch the video below. 

The other thing to do is strengthen the muscles of your upper back.  (I’ll get to that another time).

This video shows stretches for the Pectoralis Minor.

This is a self-help technique video.

If you saw the other videos, you know that numbness in the hands and fingers can come from any of several along the nerve pathways. 

It is not unusual for more than one location to cause the problem.  Doctors frequently only look at the wrist as being a problem. 

Unfortunately people have had carpal tunnel surgery, when the carpal tunnel wasn’t even the problem at all. 

In previous videos we looked at the forearm muscles and how they can cause problems when tight. — And showed a very effective self-treatment.

In spite of it’s name the pectoralis minor muscle is very significant.

However, the pectoralis minor muscle is often overlooked.

But it is often very tight. When tight, it causes the shoulders to round forward. This causes the muscles between the shoulder blades to continually try to counteract that. And that causes pain between the shoulder blades.

As the video tells, when the Pectoralis muscle is tight, it can pinch on the nerves going into the fingers. It can pinch any or all of the major nerves that go into the hand, and can even cause numbness up the arm.

If you experience numbness in any part of the hand when your hands are up, but not down, it is very likely the Pec. minor. Although if very, tight it can create numbness all or most of the time.

If you get numbness, even when you arms are partially raised – as in driving a car, riding a bicycle, motorcycle, operating lawn equipment, etc., the Pectoralis Minor muscle could be the blame. Although you want to look at the forearm muscles first.

This video shows you how to work on this muscle yourself.

Part 2 will show you some stretches for the Pectoralis Minor. But this is sufficent to get you started.