ergonomic chair

a superb collection of ergonomic chairs

Midlands based seat-store.com can offer you advice and source the right chair for you, if you're looking to buy an ergonomic chair.

The majority of companies, these days, recognise the importance of ensuring that all their staff's Health and Safety needs are met, and after carrying out a comprehensive Risk Assessment will look at ergonomics and in particular supplying an ergonomic chair.

One of the main complaints of employees is back pain, or desk-chair stations, which are not set up correctly, causing untold problems with sick leave due to back trouble. However, many companies and employees, do not know how to assess the suitability of an ergonomic chair, as there are a number of elements to consider:

1) The seat needs to be comfortable, and not too long for your body. The chair should not catch behind your knees, allowing you to sit back and use the lumbar support. If you are perched on the edge of the chair, your weight is not being evenly distributed and will cause backache.

2 The ergonomic chair needs to be easily adjustable, to allow for different operators to set as needed. The main two guidelines here are, your feet should be firmly planted on the floor, the chair allowing you to sit back and use the lumbar support, without catching behind your knees, and a foot rest is not needed the majority of the time.

3 Hold your forearms out in front of you and 90% angle from your elbow. This is the height your desk should be according to your upper body. If the chair is too low, your shoulders will be raised and cause acute pain, if your chair is too high, you will pull you neck and shoulder muscles as there is no support.

4 Make sure the chair has a lumbar support for supporting the lower back, and taking the strain off your pelvis. You should be able to sit comfortably in an ergonomic chair, and feel no strain on your lower back.

5 The chair needs to be adjustable for height and tilt supporting your upper body at all times.

6) Arm rests - some chairs do not fit under the desk adequately - this means it can be difficult to sit, supporting your back and with your feet firmly on the floor, so you need to assess if you have arm rests that they are curved to fit under the desks or whether you really need them.

7) The majority of the time, you should not need a foot support, but if you do a freestanding floor mounted support that allows you to rest your feet on it and provides even more lower back support is the best one to buy.

In a nutshell, ergonomic chairs are designed to allow us to sit for far longer than would normally be expected. When we sit in an ergonomic chair the upper body weight causes the pelvis to roll backwards leaving the lower back and pelvis unsupported. A good chair supports the pelvis just below the waist taking the strain off the lower back and if seated properly, supports the spine in this position with the lumbar support.

Principle of Ergonomic Chairs

When we sit into a chair the weight of the upper body causes the pelvis to roll backwards. The body can be supported on the pelvis and behind the thorax and shoulder girdle. The spine then adopts a natural curve between these two structures. When sitting in an office chair using pelvic support this curve may be close to the standing shape of the spine.

Pelvic Posture chairs support the wings of the pelvis just below the waist using a support shaped to contact these areas.
If you would like to speak someone with regard to the best choice of office seating and ergonomic seating, please ring us now on 0845 8380771