The shoulder pain nobody diagnoses - your arms have nowhere to rest
Each arm weighs about 5% of your body weight. If nothing is holding them up, your neck is. Here is how to tell, and how to fix it for nothing.
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| Pick | Best for | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIVO extra-wide keyboard and mouse trayBest overall | A desk built too tall for you, when raising the chair is not enough | $$ | Check price |
| BONTEC KMT01 keyboard trayCheapest that works | The same job on a smaller desk or a smaller budget | $ | Check price |
| Aloudy memory foam armrest padsOnly if your armrests are hard | Armrests at the right height that are simply uncomfortable | $ | Check price |
VIVO extra-wide keyboard and mouse tray
$$Best for a desk built too tall for you, when raising the chair is not enough
What we liked
- Wide enough for the keyboard and the mouse on one surface, which is the whole point
- Around 14,000 ratings and Amazon's own "Overall Pick" label
- Clamps on, so it fits desks you are not allowed to drill into
What we didn't
- Eats knee clearance under the desk, so measure before you order
- Clamp needs a clear, flat desk edge of the right thickness
The one to buy, and the reason is the width. A tray that takes only the keyboard fixes one arm and abandons the other, which is how people end up with one sore shoulder.
Check price on AmazonOpens in a new tab. We deliberately do not print prices — they change constantly and a stale number is worse than none.BONTEC KMT01 keyboard tray
$Best for the same job on a smaller desk or a smaller budget
What we liked
- Also takes the mouse alongside the keyboard rather than the keyboard alone
- Around 5,600 ratings at much the same score as the VIVO
- Clamp fitting, no drilling
What we didn't
- Narrower surface, so a full-size keyboard leaves the mouse tight for room
- Less adjustment than the VIVO
Buy this if your desk is shallow or the VIVO is more than you want to spend. Measure your keyboard first — if it is full width with a number pad, the mouse will be cramped.
Check price on AmazonOpens in a new tab. We deliberately do not print prices — they change constantly and a stale number is worse than none.Aloudy memory foam armrest pads
$Best for armrests at the right height that are simply uncomfortable
What we liked
- Around 19,500 ratings at 4.7 stars, the strongest feedback in this category by a distance
- Genuinely fixes hard plastic armrests digging into your elbows
- Slips over most standard armrests without tools
What we didn't
- Adds height, so it makes an already-too-high armrest worse
- Does nothing whatsoever if the problem is that your arms are unsupported
Read the test above before buying this. Pads solve "my armrests are hard". They do not solve "my armrests are the wrong height", and if yours are already too high these will make your shoulders worse, not better. Most people who buy these needed the adjustment, not the padding.
Check price on AmazonOpens in a new tab. We deliberately do not print prices — they change constantly and a stale number is worse than none.Hold your arms out in front of you, unsupported, for two minutes. It gets uncomfortable fast, and the discomfort does not show up in your arms — it shows up across the top of your shoulders and up into your neck.
Now consider that this is roughly what a lot of people do for eight hours a day, only slowly enough that they never connect the two.
Why this is worse than it sounds
Each arm is around 5% of your body weight. For an 80 kg person that is about 4 kg per arm, 8 kg for the pair. Something has to hold that up.
If your forearms are resting on something — armrests, the desk surface — the load goes into the furniture. If they are not, the load goes into the muscles that run from your neck across the top of your shoulders. Those muscles are not designed for sustained low-level holding. They are designed for movement.
The result is a dull, spreading ache across the top of the shoulders that appears in the afternoon, gets blamed on stress or on the chair’s backrest, and does not respond to either.
The test
Sit at your desk in your normal working position, hands on the keyboard.
Now consciously let your shoulders drop.
- They dropped noticeably. They were up. Something has been holding them there — either armrests set too high, or nothing at all supporting your arms so your shoulders were doing it.
- They dropped and your forearms lost contact with everything. Your armrests are too low, or there are none, and your shoulders have been carrying your arms all day.
- Nothing moved and your forearms stayed supported. You are fine. Go read about monitor height instead.
Fixing it for nothing
Adjust the armrests. Obvious, and yet: look under and beside your chair for the adjustment. Many office chairs have height-adjustable armrests their owners have never moved. Set them so your shoulders are relaxed and your forearms rest lightly — supported, not propped up.
Move the keyboard closer. A keyboard pushed far forward means reaching, and reaching means unsupported arms. Pull it towards you until your elbows are at roughly a right angle and stay near your sides. If you have the depth, resting your forearms on the desk edge in front of the keyboard is a legitimate support strategy.
Bring the mouse in. The mouse is usually the worse offender because it lives further away and further to the side. Every centimetre it sits out to the right is a centimetre your shoulder abducts, all day. Keep it beside the keyboard, not beyond it.
Get the desk height right first. If the desk is too high, no armrest setting will save you — you will raise your shoulders to reach it regardless. Fix that first, then come back to this.
When armrests are the problem, not the solution
Armrests that are too high, or that are fixed at a width wider than your body, are worse than none. They push your shoulders up or your elbows out, and both hold you in a shape.
If your chair’s armrests cannot be lowered enough and they are forcing your shoulders up, removing them entirely and resting your forearms on the desk is a genuine improvement, not a compromise. Most armrests unbolt.
The uncomfortable summary
There are three things in a home-office setup that cause the great majority of neck and shoulder complaints, and none of them are the chair’s backrest:
- Screen too low, so the head tips forward.
- Desk too high, so the shoulders come up.
- Arms unsupported, so the neck holds them.
All three are free to fix, all three take under fifteen minutes, and all three are usually present at once. Work through them before you buy anything at all.