How to Sit at Your Machine

Stephen J. Shastay

            Okay.  You have a machine.  It works.  What comes next?  How about setting it up?  When was the last time you compared the height of your machine to the height of the machine in your theory book?  Remember that picture?

            There is a reason that they put that picture in there.  The height of that machine is perfect for the person sitting at it.  Is yours?  Are you sure?

            Try this.  Right now before reading any further, set up your machine.  I'll wait right here while you do it.

            How did you set the height of the machine?  I'll bet some of you weren't even sitting down when you adjusted it.  I'll bet most of you haven't even set it up.  You are going to read this article, but you are going to dismiss the advice.  That's your loss.  This is basic, basic, basic.   

Set up your machine so that your arm from elbow to wrist is basically horizontal.  There is a reason for this.  The higher you raise your machine, the harder it is to reach the lower keys (SKWR RBGS).  The lower it goes, the harder it is to reach the number bar.  Try it.  Raise your machine three inches above your normal position.  Practice for two minutes.  Notice anything?

Now lower it three inches below your normal position.  Practice for two minutes.  Now what do you notice?

Was it still easy to stroke all the combinations?  If it was, that's good.  You must have your machine adjusted perfectly.  If it wasn't easy, if your fingers felt way out of place when you lowered it three inches, but you felt comfortable having the machine three inches too high, your machine is probably too low.

Conversely, if lowering your machine didn't hinder your performance, but raising it did, then your machine is probably too low.

Right now, if your forearm is fairly straight when you are sitting at your machine, you have found your basic home position for the height of your machine, but there is more to consider.

In a perfect world, we would all sit with our backs fairly straight up and down.  That's the best position.  That gives you the best use of your muscles.  That's how we should sit.

And we would… if this was a perfect world.  But it isn't.  Some of us have bad backs.  Some of us need to shift positions.  Some of us have to sit on hard, uncomfortable chairs.  And some of us just like to slouch.  No pity on you if you have a choice on what position to sit in and you pick the most comfortable position over the most beneficial position.

Still, I will show you slumpers how to sit and adjust your machines so you can at least get the most benefit out of your laziness.  But I'm only telling you so that the people who need to adopt a different position will benefit.  And remember this: these alternate positions are not as good as your main position.  You lose maneuverability when you aren't sitting straight.  That translates into: You lose speed.

A slumper can actually keep the proper finger position, but it is tiring on the arms.  They have to be raised higher than normal.  Sorry, but that's a fact.  Almost every slumper does the opposite of this.  They lower the machine and rest their forearms on their legs.  Don't do this.  If you're that tired, get some sleep, or at least take a break. 

Resting your forearms on your legs is wrong.  There are no benefits to it.  You will not improve.  But there is a huge downside to this horrible habit.

Your hands become immobilized when your arms rest on your legs.  You can't reach for the number bar correctly.  Take your left hand and grasp your right forearm half way between your wrist and elbow.  Grasp it lightly.  Now move the fingers of your right hand using the normal steno motions. 

With a light touch, you probably don't feel your arm muscles moving very much..  But if you grip harder, what would happen?  Try it.  Don't cut off the blood supply, but get a good grip on it.  Can you feel the muscles moving?  Yes, you can, and you can feel them because you are applying pressure. 

You need your arm muscles to move your fingers.  And when you apply pressure to them, they cannot contract and expand normally. You are making the muscles work harder than before to accomplish the same object. 

The same thing happens when you rest your arms on your legs.  So when you reach for that number bar, you are going to have to work harder to get those fingers up there.  Don't rest your arms on your legs.

Back to how to slump for fun and profit.  If you are going to slump, your machine needs to be a little closer to you than normal, and it needs to be a little higher than normal.

It needs to be closer to your body than your normal position because (duh) you are leaning back which means your shoulders are farther back which means you have to reach too far forward unless your machine comes in closer.

It needs to be higher because of the angle of your upper body.  Sit at your machine in the proper position.  Notice your upper arms hanging naturally.  Your shoulder muscles aren't used very much in this position.  The more you slump, the more those muscles must work to get your hands in the proper position..  This may be why you have that big kink in the back of your neck.

Okay, you're still sitting in the proper position waiting for me to show you how to slump.  So here goes.  First stroke on the machine for a minute or two so your muscles get a fresh memory of good hand position.  Now lean back and slump to your heart's content.  Go ahead.  I won't yell at you.  This time.  Remember not to rest your arms on your legs, and don't adjust your machine's height or distance from your body yet..

Write for a minute.  You should be experiencing difficulty getting to the number bar.  It's too far away for one thing.  Let's correct that since we already know that it must be in closer for you to slump properly.

Write for another minute.  Reaching the number bar should feel better but still not as easy as it is when you are sitting erect.

Can you figure out why?  Look at your fingers.  They don't have the same curve to them as they did before.  They are flattened out.  That means that even though your fingers can stroke the lower keys all right, they can't move as far forward as before because you have already partially straightened them out.

If you want to get that reach back, you have to raise your machine.  So let's do that.  First, raise your machine a little.  Now bring it in towards you.  Now slump.  Get your hands into the best position you can.  The fingers have to have the natural curve that they display when you are sitting in the proper upright position.  The wrist should still have its natural bend so that the back of the hand raises up just a little. 

Here is an easy test to see whether or not you have a prayer of stroking proper in this position.  How hard is it for you to reach the far edge of the top of the number bar?  No, you don't need to hit that far up to use the number bar, but if you can't reach the far side of the bar, you are probably feeling extra resistance just to reach it at all.  That translates into less speed.  

Your shoulders are going to get tired in this position.  Even inveterate slumpers cannot maintain the proper position indefinitely.  It is definitely more fatiguing than the standard upright position.  But if you have a bad back, you can rest it for ten minutes every half hour or so.  Remember that every time you adjust your body position, you have to adjust your machine position two ways: height and proximity to your body.

People who lean too far forward are an entirely different animal.  This condition can be the result of a particular condition: bad back, sore arm muscles, et cetera.  That would be the smallest group. 

The next largest group would be those who need to get up, take a break, and stretch for a few minutes.  Most likely, they are at the mercy of a very uncomfortable chair.

The largest group of people who lean too far forward are those who are trying to stroke faster than they possibly can.  They constantly write one word on top of another.  They pound the machine.  Sometimes it seems like they are trying to pound right through the machine. 

These guys need to relax.  That's all.  Feel sorry for them.  They are trying so hard.  These are the people that practice hour after hour after hour.  They aren't slackers.  They are the most deserving of success.

And yet they sabotage themselves by working from a poor position.

Never fear.  Help is on the way.  People who crouch over their machine can correct their hand position by doing the exact opposite of what slumpers do.  These people have to lower their machine just a little and they have to push their machine away from themselves a little bit.

Crouchers have no trouble reaching the number bar.  That's simple.  But it is harder for them to hit the lower consonants without shadowing the higher keys.  To correct that, they need to move the machine away from their body.  They hate that idea.  They want the machine close so they can pound downward nice and hard.  That is the most important step.  Move the machine away from the body if you are going to lean forward.

The second step is to lower the machine.  It doesn't have to go very far down, but it should go a little bit. Crouchers find that their fingers have too much of a curve to them.  It takes them longer to get the hands moving because even a stroke on the upper consonants requires that the fingers uncurl instead of just stroking downward.

Crouchers must look out for two extra problems.  They have a tendency to rest their fingers on the upper consonants instead of placing them on the crack between the upper and lower keys.  They must learn to move their fingers less forward to stroke the number bar.  This is bad enough, but what they do to compensate because they can't hit the lower consonants easily is obscene.

To reach the lower consonants, they move their arms back and forth as needed.  Oh, this is such a horrible habit.  No, I don't do that, they say.  Bull.  Watch them drill on the upper letters and then the lower letters.  Their arms move. 

To adjust your machine if you are a croucher do this:

Sit upright and erect in the perfect position.  Now crouch forward like you usually do.

How much did your shoulders move forward?  You have to move your machine away from you about 85 percent of that distance. 

Now lower your machine just a little, and place your hands on the keyboard.

Can you reach the lower keys with absolutely no problem?  I'm not saying can you stroke as easily as you normally do because that's the problem we are correcting.

I am asking if you can stroke the lower consonants just as easily as you could if you were sitting perfectly upright in the correct position. 

In the correct position, a stenographer has to move her fingers back only a tiny fraction to strike SKWR.  Crouchers have to pull farther back and their downward stroke is not straight up and down but is angled toward the rear.  Crouchers should never let themselves use the upper consonants as their home keys. 

The best position for them is a little lower than the natural position.  Instead of resting their fingertips on the center of the cracks of the keys, they should rest more on the lower keys.  They should touch the crack, but they should be on the lower side of it.  This position feels extremely awkward to crouchers.  They are too accustomed to a bad hand position.

There is no correct position for the fingertips that doesn't include touching the upper and lower keys simultaneously.  Your fingers are lost if they don't touch as many keys as possible, and that means resting their fingertips on the cracks.

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