Choosing the best office chair involves a lot more than what looks good - it should work as hard as you do. Here are expert tips about what to look for when purchasing your next office chair.
Full Back
No Tools Required
Office chairs are essential for productivity and reduction of lost hours due to injury. Office chairs should be comfortable and have a full back. They should provide a multitude of adjustable positions, including lumbar support, height, and recline settings.
Recognizing the importance of adjustable office chairs for employee health, we recommend that chairs should be easily adjustable without a tool. Don’t be afraid to ask for a demonstration or try adjusting a chair for yourself before purchasing.
Waterfall Seats
Great Support Even When You’re Being Bad
The best office chairs will have a seat pan with a waterfall front (one that curves down) that prevents the seat from catching you behind the knees. The seat pan should also be contoured to allow even weight distribution and it should be comfortable to sit on. The edge of the seat pan should be soft and contoured so that it cannot cause compression of the thighs and buttocks. The rear of the seat pan should provide comfortable support.
Your chair should support your back as you sit, it’s okay to recline the chair back slightly, but too much can strain the neck as you try to right your head to view the monitor if you are using a computer.
The Seat Must Fit You for the Backrest to Work
If the seat pan is too big or the seat is too high, even where the chair has a backrest with lumbar support you may continue to be exposed to static loading because you cannot take advantage of the backrest. Many respond by sitting forward, instead of against the backrest, so that their feet can be on the ground, thus pressing the spine out of the natural curve and placing pressure on the discs.
Comfortable Joints
Common signs that an office chair isn’t the right fit for you is if the angles of your hips, knees, and ankles aren’t comfortably at 90 degrees. If your hips are not at a 90 degree angle then the chair is either too tall or too short for you. Same goes for your knees and your ankles. All of your joints should ideally stay at 90 degrees.
Encourage Movement
Moving, and an ergonomic office chair that encourages it, helps keep blood and oxygen flowing. The best office chairs not only let you move but let you move while giving you the support your body needs. So when you try out a chair, really give it a test drive.
Breathable Upholstery is Better
An office chair’s upholstery must be comfortable to the touch if you’re going to sit on it all day. You don’t want it to be abrasive, itchy, or something that may cause your body to overheat.
Arms and Shoulders
Easily Adjustable
Another common sign a chair isn’t right is if you have to shrug your shoulders to get your elbows on the armrests. Similarly, arm and hand positions should offer the same flexibility to avoid developing pain in the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.
The key to a good office chair is that it must be adjustable in all directions, the seat must adjust up and down, as well as tilt side to side. This is necessary to achieve proper posture when you’re sitting all day.
WINTER 2019 www.pei-living.ca
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