A warning from my physio: sketchbook sprawl is a real posture killer

Spending entire afternoons flipping through tours without moving around does a number on your spine. I'm now on a strict regimen of hourly stretch alarms.

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nina14h ago

Yeah that whole "artist's hunch" is no joke. Read an article last week about how illustrators and drafters have some of the worst rates of chronic neck and upper back pain, worse than many office jobs. The compulsion to get closer to the page just wrecks your alignment over time. My own physio told me to treat my drawing table like a standing desk and alternate every twenty minutes, which feels impossible when you're in the zone.

blakec486h ago

Watching a close friend deal with that exact thing was brutal. He's a concept artist who ignored early twinges for years, until he herniated a disc in his neck from hunching over his tablet, leading to months of physical therapy. The mental toll was awful (the guilt from not listening to his body sooner rivaled the pain itself). His therapist enforced timer-based position shifts, which he initially hated for disrupting his workflow. But after a few weeks, the forced breaks helped him return with fresh eyes, ironically boosting his output. Now he swears by the timer method, even though it feels absurd when immersed in a piece.