Over the past month, many Americans who can do their jobs remotely made the abrupt transition to working from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19 , the illness caused by the coronavirus.

If youre one of them, you may have a less-than-ideal office setup without ergonomic chairs, keyboards or computer monitors, and are experiencing new body aches and pains. Slouching, sitting too long, extending your wrists and relying upon a laptop screen put physical stress on your body that you may not notice but will definitely feel later.

If you are currently holding your neck from the pain of staring down at your laptop, you need to pay attention to what your body is telling you.

If people wait till things start to hurt, already theyve waited a little bit too long, said Alan Hedge, director of the human factors and ergonomics research group at Cornell University.

Keeping your body in a neutral, relaxed position while working is key to avoiding pain, Hedge said. If your work-from-home setup isnt ergonomic, you will accelerate the onset of musculoskeletal problems ranging from neck, shoulder, back problems, to hand-wrist problems, to leg problems, all because of working in poor postures, he said.

Here are some body aches to watch out for and ways to address them:

1. Your neck and shoulders hurt.

If your neck and shoulders are sending you warning pangs, your posture and the way you are looking at your work may be the culprit.

If you are looking at a low monitor, you are going to be flexing your neck and your head forward and down, which is going to change your posture, said Karen Loesing, owner of California-based The Ergonomic Expert, which evaluates ergonomics for businesses. If your monitor is at the correct height, its naturally going to pick you up and put you in the back of the chair.

Solution: Evaluate your work station to isolate what is causing your neck and shoulders to feel off. Cornell University compiled a Where It Hurts guide to address questions specific to your work setup.

For shoulder and neck pain, tips from the guide include positioning the monitor at eye level so that your neck and shoulders are in a neutral position and placing frequently-used objects nearby so your body doesnt have to strain to use them.

If youre working from home on a laptop and dont have the money to upgrade right now, there are still ergonomic upgrades you can do that are free. Loesing suggests placing the laptop on a table or desk that is preferably at elbow height. Change locations and positions frequently up to twice an hour to increase your circulation, Loesing recommends.

The best posture is the next posture, she said.