I’m a 180cm F and of course I knew it would be an adjustment, but a year in it’s still pretty hard to get used to the lower desks, sinks, counters, and so on.
My neck is always craned down at my desk, and my back is messed up from hunching over the kitchen.
Any tips? Thanks in advance.
41 comments
I’m the odd one out in these complaints. I’m 183cm and have never had an issue with kitchen counters or sinks when doing dishes or cooking. The only time it did is when I sharpened my knives standing at the kitchen counter – that hurt the next day.
Hitting my head on the range hood is an issue. I used to do that daily.
Edit: From previous threads, I think the top solution was to stand with your legs spread as widely as comfortable.
Desk heights aren’t noticeably lower but the lack of monitors is an issue (your display should be roughly at eye level).
I’ve completely given up on my kitchen though….
Always stretch and get a new desk/monitor (whichever allows you to sit up straight, with screen at eye height).
hip hinges 🙂
Stretches as well: to me the worst of the worst are the small chairs.
Legs spread while washing dishes, lol.
Wu tang is for the kids.
As others have mentioned stretching usually helps.
191cm here. I’ve been here for about 6 months, and I think I’m going to die with a permanent divot in the front upper part of my skull bc of the amount of times I’ve hit my head.
Going to the gym/yoga helps
192cm here.
Bought a height adjustable desk, a gaming chair for tall people. Reformed my flat to have a higher kitchen, 2m doors etc..
Now I work mostly from home but before Covid I was always using low standing desk at work but with a chair.
Finally time to time I got to the osteopath.
Reading this thread I’m some how glad that I barely break 170cm.
I will have to raise up the bathroom unit as the top of head is cut off when I look in the mirror. Should have checked that before I moved in and had them increase the height. I’m having a company do it as I’m fed up of stooping to see my hair.
One thing that’s just become a habit is that when I’m washing dishes or cooking, I basically stand with my feet really wide apart, like doing some kind of ballet move. My wife always laughs when she sees me doing it, but it actually saves my back and neck while in the kitchen.
At least you can reach the cupboards, OP. I have a shelf in the bathroom that if my 149cm butt tried to reach with a stool, I’d fall into the toilet. Still, I have shoulder and back pain from the opposite issue and can’t recommend stretching and massages enough.
I do various stretches and thankfully don’t work in an office but my work involves other neck and shoulder pains due to my size – other than that just kinda deal with various regular soreness.
> My neck is always craned down at my desk
Raise your monitor – either use an adjustable height mount, or you can place something under the base to lift it. If it’s for your home desk, you can grab a frame or box that turns the space under your monitor into additional storage. For the office, whatever they’ll give you – adjustable stands are more pleasing to the eye if they’re concerned about that.
I got a monitor arm so desk height isn’t an issue.
Kitchen I just grab a stool and sit down when I need to something long than a minute.
Sumo squats.
198cm, pushing a decade here. My work has adjustable sit/standing desks and when building or house we got the counters raised as high as possible. But overall it’s never been that big of an adjustment to my life in Australia. Apart from seeming like I’m bowing at people every time I get off the train and duck my head, and the occasional bump, it’s just been life as usual. Only true frustration is finding 31cm shoes locally is near impossible, and very very little variety.
Good posture and a strong core will negate mostly any issues with height I think.
My SO is 178 and I’m 194 so we just had everything built taller and I just duck under doors now. It was a problem for the first 1-2 years.
My in-laws house is also great to visit as they are both super tall and so everything was built taller.
My office is thankfully newer and doesn’t have these issues.
Muscle mass pretty effectively protects bones and cartilage; it looks *so* fucking stupid to do in public, but if you have a gym membership and the right equipment you can do some cheeky neck-building exercises with light weights.
192, 7 years here.
You’ll get used to it.
Go for some good 整体 once in a while to put things back in place.
Only 178cms and I struggle with counter tops/sinks. Feel for you taller people. As others have said, master the ultra wide stance for anything low. Also got a standing desk for working at home.
I am 194cm. As for apartments, a lot of the problems can be avoided by making sure the apartment fits you. For my previous one, I kind of rushed into deciding on it and didn’t realize it had many “size” problems until it was too late. For example, I didn’t realize until many years that I couldn’t stand fully straight in the shower. I was leaning forward every single time without even knowing it. My current unmodified rental apartment has no problems. I can walk through every door standing straight, I can stand up normally in the shower, and the kitchen is perfect. (my gf has to use a step to get into the kitchen cabinets). For desk etc luckily my company allowed me to pretty much replace everything with stuff that fits me.
I know it’s bad to say but it’s just a fact, dating much shorter woman than me hasn’t exactly helped my 猫背 as well. (non stop looking to the side and down) But that problem would happen back home as well.
I’m over two meters. I gave up on this fight years ago.
when I moved here, I did get a deep cut bleeding injury on my head at one of the train stations. they removed one of the signs but left the metallic rail – think thin, long, sharp nails – in place. the ceiling was already under two meters so with my head down I walked straight into it. station staff didn’t seem to care at all. I’m still surprised I didn’t get tetanus at the time.
I still bump my head regularly, but I always have thick headsets on which cushion the brunt of it.
truth be told, this hasn’t been any better or worse anywhere else I have lived or visited (London, New York, Hong Kong etc).
I chose a hard mattress for my bed so my back is holding up okay even with the constant humpbacking.
the only thing I actively do is avoid any restaurants that have super tiny chairs or zaisu/pillows. most of my height is in my legs and sitting on my heels or on the ground gets painful in two minutes, my legs go numb in ten.
edit: somebody pointed out sinks and kitchen counters. I cook less often than I used to because of the latter and the lack of time, and I’m lucky enough to have a dishwasher so it’s not a big deal in my case.
185cm and 五年目 here.
I started to work standing up from 2 or 3 years ago. My neck didn’t become better but my legs start to hurt…
180cm here. For our kitchen, we had an ikea drawer set and countertop installed. Walked in picked the tallest one they had standard and it’s great. At my inlaws who have an exceptionally short countertop, I will just grab a pillow and kneel on the floor.
After hitting my head so many times, I just accepted that is life now.
My head is rock hard now, and I have taken up kickboxing. Or at least I think, the concussions don’t help.
Raise monitor at the desk, spread legs in the kitchen. Certainly helped a lot.
I’m 190cm, it’s not so bad:
Kitchen, slightly squat and keep your back always straight. Make it a habit to never bend your back or it will end up in bad shape.
Desk: invest in a flexispot desk.
Tall guy from the UK here. I find keeping my shoulders back and pinched keeps my back straight and posture good. 2 years in Japan and I started feeling the strain.
I kneel to wash the dishes.
Real talk. Is 180cm considered tall?
One tip that has saved me from tremendous back pain: When you do have to bend/hunch over for something, don’t let your head droop. Keep it pulled back so it’s in line with your spine, like you were standing at attention.
Before I started doing this, a couple of times a year, while bending over without any strain or difficulty at all, I would get sudden twinges of pain in my lower back that would result in me being in severe pain and significantly less mobile for days. If it seems odd that the advice for holding the head up is to protect the *lower* back, well… yes, it is. No matter what anatomy chart I look at, it makes no freaking sense. I just happened to finally catch it *almost* happening and identified the solution, and it’s helped me since.
Wu Tang!
Maintain your posture. No matter what.
Hold the line.
I bring dishes to my eye-level, and make my oldest do the same when we wash together.
A monitor stand is what, 1500 these days?
I just gave up cooking.
Can’t be bothered
I have a chair in front of my sink, leg extenders on my desk, the rest you can’t really deal with.
Husband is 198cm. He has accepted he will always hit his head sometime, somewhere. Strain is inevitable. Until you can build your own place, this is a part of being tall in Japan, sadly.
My fellow Titan, I suggest you protect your neck by hardening your skin. If you cannot do that, look for an over the counter hardening serum
I’m over 2M and my technique was finding a partner who does all the washing up and cooking for me. Good luck