Beyond Ergonomics: Solutions to Cyber-Stress

If you spend a good portion of your day in front of a computer, chances are you've experienced cyber-stress. Symptoms include tired eyes, sore muscles, stiff joints and watching Amazon.com stock jump periodically throughout the day by as much as 20% while doing nothing about it (technically, this is referred to as "repetitive gain injury"). In Beyond Ergonomics, movement educator Tracy Penfield guides viewers through four primarily seated stretching/light exercise sessions in imagined settings ranging from a quiet clearing to...um...outer space. Some useful instruction lurks behind the New Age-y extras here, but people who just want to stretch are liable to be put off by the reminders to feel their "serpent within" or the "energy" shooting out of their knees, all delivered in a sing-song voice (it's the kind of offbeat robotic intonation you only hear at live poetry readings). Perhaps the only "instructional" video I can recall seeing that was listed in the credits as "created and performed" (italics mine), Beyond Ergonomics nevertheless offers solid exercise, stretch and relaxation suggestions, along with some excellent advice on setting up a computer workstation. For those reasons, this is a strong optional purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)