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Much of working people’s daily activities involve sitting around in the office. Not many realize though that sitting puts pressure on certain areas of the body- a few examples to which are the lower back, the buttocks, and the hamstring muscles. As such, sitting posture is quite important so that people will not injure themselves or make their muscles weaker in the future. Hence, picking the proper equipment to help one sit correctly is a highly recommended decision to make, especially when one’s health is concerned. Given this, the equipment related to the activity of the sitting would be the chair. Chairs, specifically office chairs, are of different kinds. Some are built to have more stable footing, while others are built more towards mobility. Another difference is there are chairs with back support, while others are just saddle seats. With this, how does one choose the proper chair for him or her? With the innovations in office equipment today, one needs to look no further than orthopaedic office chairs. These types of chairs aim to help people’s postures while sitting; as such, deriving from the meaning of orthopaedic, these chairs help people correct or prevent muscle and skeletal disorders. An orthopaedic office chair will do this by focusing on ergonomics which is a kind of design in office equipment aimed at preventing injuries. With this, common features of chairs with good ergonomic design are adjustable chair height, available back rest and lumbar support, and armrests that allow office workers to comfortably rest their arms on the table. For the first criteria, chair height should allow workers to sit with feet flat on the floor. The reasoning behind this is that when the chair height is too high, pressure will be put upon the muscle behind the knees and this muscle is a sensitive area; on the other hand, if the height is low, the body weight will put added pressure on the lower back which may cause injury. Moving to the second criteria, a good back rest should allow a person to recline until an angle wherein the person can still see his screen without the need for straining, since reclining may minimize pressure on the lower back and spine. Nonetheless, a limit should be put to a chair’s ability to be reclined as reclining too far back may strain the other muscles. As for the lumbar support, great lumbar support design involves having control over the user’s position by being firm, which means that the lower back should comfortably touch and fit the lumbar support to reduce pressure caused by sitting. Moreover, a lumbar support should also help the office worker sit with the proper posture also which allows oxygen to flow through the muscles and allows one to move about one’s seat. Finally, the third common feature of a good orthopaedic office chair is the armrests. Armrests should be parallel to the desk space. This allows the shoulders to be rested comfortably by not being hunched or stretched upwards while writing or typing, otherwise, this position would put strain on these muscles. There are other features that one can use to consider when picking an orthopaedic office chair. Nonetheless, these are the common features that make these types of chairs function based on their purpose of helping people maintain good posture. As such, making the investment to purchase these types of chairs in the office would certainly reap benefits for one in the future. Joseph works for Norwich based Lockwood Hume. They offer a huge range of office furniture and office supplies, such as the orthopaedic office chair, providing stationary and furniture for home offices, corporate businesses and retail environments.
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