I love video games and I always have. Ever since I played Super Mario on my babysitter’s SNES. It’s where I started before I got into game development. For the past ten years I have had a loved and hated relationship with game development.

But there’s a little secret no one really tells you. It’s not the long hours or greedy corpos. Well, maybe your family mentions it when you’re young. Like most kids, you ignore it. It’s something everyone eventually learns the hard way. It can hurt. It can really mess up your back. Think about it: how long do you sit? Where do you sit? How do you sit? Do you take breaks? Do you exercise? Are you one of those people, the ones who text while they walk?

Most people don’t think about these questions at all. But they matter. My chiropractor told me a couple weeks ago that humans are incredibly good at ignoring problems that develop slowly—until they can’t ignore them anymore. I mean we are really good at it. You can see this pattern everywhere. The back pain people develop from long hours of gaming or working at a computer.

It’s part of a sedentary lifestyle. I used to work at a gym and thought I was doing fine. I’m not, and it’s not just me: many people including content creators like JtheSlopFrog, are having issues with their backs and bodies. Sitting too long, driving for hours, or simply not moving enough gradually affects your body. And this isn’t something that takes twenty or thirty years to show up. It can happen in five to ten minutes in some cases.

It often starts small. Maybe a slight pull when you turn a certain way. Nothing serious, just uncomfortable. Easy to ignore. So you adjust without thinking. You start turning the other way more often. You compensate, it becomes a habit, a bad one. Congrats you now have a minor issue; keep it up and you will have a major one. Over time, that small issue becomes a real problem. Maybe you can’t look behind you by just turning your head or maybe it’s worse.

There are plenty of articles, tools, and products out there that can help. But at the end of the day, it comes down to being aware and taking care of yourself so you can keep doing what you love for as long as possible. Here are a few simple tips often recommended by health professionals:

• Don’t slouch: It’s annoying advice, but it works. Shoulders back neck straight, yada yada we all know the drill.
• Taking breaks: A five to minute break every thirty to sixty minutes will not normally kill you; it’s about the length of a match in Mecca Chameleon. Even when playing D&D you can get up and act out what your character is doing instead of just sitting there.
• Adjust your setup: Chair and monitor height should be adjusted for you; it’s not one size fits all. The top of your monitor should be eye level, and you shouldn’t have to bend over or reach up for a keyboard.
• Shift the load: When sitting, you should feel more weight in your thighs than in your lower back. If you rear start getting sore you’re doing it wrong.
• Get some exercise: The one thing that prevents you from losing function is actually using muscles. Swimming is great for this, but any exercise that works the muscles you don’t use will help. Yoga is good to, though in my opinion not as fun.

Like games, there’s always more to learn and sticking to the same routines can hurt in the long run. We work because we have to, but we play and create because we enjoy it and we should be able to enjoy it for a long time. For a better guide and more exact advice take a look at the links provided.

Take care of yourselves. And have fun. For more resources from actual professionals take a look at the following links: posture and ergonomics, sitting at a desk, and text neck.

Featured Image: Death by Degrees (via Internet Archive)