Ergonomic nerds - armrest or no armrest for PC gaming?

[signal]

There may be some variables in determining this, like chair and table height, but in general, is it ergonomically better to use or not use an armrest on your chair, particularly for the mouse arm? I feel like my arm position is fine for my chair and desk setup, but I still get minor shoulder pain after some hours, and I'm wondering if it's better to not be resting the arm all the time.

 

[Satonaka]

Of course. It's not like you'll be resting your elbow in the armrest while holding the mouse, but during your gaming session you'll be changing postures a lot and laying your weight in different spots. Having armrests makes such a big difference.

 

[Aurica]

I have an L-shaped desk, and my right arm sits at the perfect height to lie on the extended part with the mouse. Seems like armrests just get in the way.

I also play guitar in that chair, so yeah... I took the armrests off.

 

[nsilvias]

the armrest forces me to sit more ergonomically

 

[red731]

I've removed them from my IKEA chair and have the arms now resting on the table instead. Basically no change.

 

[Cenauru]

My kb+m are at the edge of my desk, so absolutely yes. I'd be giving myself so much wrist pain if I wasn't.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Armrests are great at entangling my headphone wire, but I still keep them for some reason. Usually have my arms on my L-shaped desk though. Don't know how much I actually use the armrests.

 

[Symphony]

I removed the armrests from my chair, all they really did was lock my arm in place which is fine for wrist movement but when playing a shooter they're actively a hinderence. I have a large pull out tray on my desk with a giant mousepad on it so I just rest my arm on that.

 

[texhnolyze]

I game on the couch, so no armrest for that. But I do have a workstation as I WFH these days. At first, I didn't think the armrests is a good idea since it may restrict my movements, but after using the chair for a while I finally noticed its usefulness.

 

[Zukuu]

I play lying down / leaning in my bed and I have a pillow I use for arm rest for my left arm and the bed itself as armrest for my right arm.

Arm rests are super important. Until I got that pillow I had frequent pain after long gaming sessions in my wrist. They are gone ever since.

 

[Fizzgig]

I can't have a chair at my PC desk without armrests

 

[maouvin]

If possible, play without them and rest your arm on the table, up to the upper forearm (before the elbow). But keep the armrests available for when you want to watch or read something.

If your table isn't deep enough to fit monitor + kbm + confortably rest your arms, then yeah, you'll need armrests.
Just be sure that they don't keep you too far from the screen, or leave your arms at a big angle (some armrests are too long and cause that - with my old chair I inverted them so the longer part faced back).
Supposedly your upper and forearm shouldn't go under 90º and over 110º from each other, just need to find that sweet spot.