What is an Ergonomic Chair?

We live in a world where we are exposed to a lot of active sitting. Either in our homes or long hours at our work places, we have spent massive amounts of time of our active life sitting.. Most of us tend to not consider the aspect of good seating practices when performing our daily tasks. We assume that it is not important, but that’s not true.

Poor seating practices can have immediate negative impact on the body. At first it can exert pressure on your spine causing pain in the structures of your backbone. It can lead to lack of good blood flow in your body leading to diseases like deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and complications like cervical spondylosis.

But all is not lost: ergonomic chairs have come to solve problems in regards to health seating. An ergonomic chair is a chair designed to suit a range of people. It has adjustable parts that enhance maximum comfort during sitting. It aims in giving the correct support of your posture, weight and lumbar while sitting. This supports tend to balance your body and protect you from future physical agony that may arise from bad sitting posture.  But exactly how does it do it?

What factors make up an ergonomic chair?

Unlike the traditional or standard chair, the ergonomic chair has some features that makes it well suited to be called ergonomic.

1. The seat height adjustment – for a chair to be considered ergonomic its seat height should be adjustable. Meaning it should contain features that makes it either lengthen or shorten to suit the person’s body dimension. It is recommended that the seat height should be adjusted to place your knees above your hips and your legs comfortably rested on the floor. If a chair contains such a quality then it can be fit to be called ergonomic.

2. Seat pan depth adjustment (seat slide) – this feature allows you to adjust the depth of your seat to a quarter inch specification between the edge of your seat and the back of your knees to allow for both of your legs settle in a way they can both support blood flow. Such a specification can prevent you from deep vein thrombosis whose main cause is lack of equal blood flow to your legs. If a chair contains such a characteristic then it exactly makes a chair ergonomic.

3. Back rest height adjustment – with this characteristic you will be able to adjust your back rest part of your chair. You can move it to different direction and instill the best optimum support for your back. This feature will have your back relaxed and less strained, giving you a healthy spine free from future pains.

4. Back angle adjustment – this feature allows you to turn the back of your chair to a comfortable position or angle. It is advised that change your back angles as many times as possible during the day or leave the back angle unlocked to automatically change the angles every time you move. This characteristic prevents you from sitting with the same posture for a long time that results to pressure on your spine.

5. Arm support adjustment – these arms support should be height and width adjustable so as to offer a pivot where you can place your arms while typing. This will give you a comfortable experience while typing saving you the time used to stretch due to intensive typing.

6. Quality casters – when entering or exiting the chair, your whole body weight is supported by one or two castors. Fake or cheap castor break easily but quality ones will last and give you the best support of your body weight as you exit or enter the chair.

7. Back tilt tension – these tension knob will let you adjust the pressure needed to roll back in your chair. It gives you the pressure and strength required to move back as you work

8. Headrest adjustment – a headrest is not a default requirement in an ergonomic chair, but if it is available then it needs to be adjustable. The essence of having an adjustable headrest is to prevent you from gaining a stiff neck while working

The stated features determine what exactly makes a chair ergonomic or not. There are benefit that comes from using an ergonomic chair instead of a traditional or standard one.

Benefits of an Ergonomic Chair

1. It supports your posture giving you a neck and a back rest, reducing the risks of having a stiff neck and shoulders. He clearly advises that one should adjust to a 90 degrees angle parallel to his or her hips to reduce constrains of the spine.

2. It make one comfortable. Uneasiness while sitting constrains our bones and exposes them to a lot of pressure. Such leads to bone problems that are very painful and can last for long.

3. Reduces neck problems. Support to your neck prevents one from gaining stiff neck and shoulders. Such stiffness can lead to complications like cervical spondylosis.

4. Reduces your back pain. Support offered by ergonomic chairs gives your backbone a stainless encounter while sitting. This in result reduces the risk of having back pains that can be very painful.

5. Reduces pressure on your hips. While sitting your hips need to be relaxed so as to perform thier primary duty of making you sit up straight. A good ergonomic chair should offer you a relaxed placement of your hips giving you comfort to perform your duties well as a worker.

It is now vivid on what exactly makes a chair ergonomic and the health benefits of having an ergonomic chair instead of a standard or traditional chair. We have seen on the features or characteristics that exactly makes a chair ergonomic and learned the benefits of having them.