What’s the best type of chair to sit on?
We get asked this question a lot from clients especially over the last two years with more people having their desks set up at home.
There are several options for sitting. The first one being for office work, the second one for relaxation.
If we start with office chairs, firstly, sitting is not the best position for our spines to be in for long periods of time. It often tends to be the most comfortable as it takes pressure off the legs but standing is the optimal postural position for long duration work.
You can check out our blog last week on ‘should you use a standing desk’ and who it’s suitable for. For office chairs, you need to make sure that there is enough support and manoeuvrability so that you can adjust it according to your height and your needs and work around the desk and your screen height.
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The fundamental things the chair must have are:
-A height adjustable lever
-A straight backrest
-Firm base
The reason the height adjustability is important is so you can adapt it to the desk height. It’s easier to change the height of the chair than it is the desk height.
What needs to happen when you sit on the chair is that the knees need to be below the hips. You’re not compressing the base of the spine and not compressing the hip flexors.
You need to make sure that you’re as close to the desk as possible to pull the desk into your lower abdomen and ensuring that your arms are tucked into your sides. Arm rests are good on the chairs as well, so that you can support the base of your elbows and you can rest them on there. That helps to lock the shoulder blades back into position. As well as that, you try and decrease the distance between your hands and the keyboard, by bringing the keyboard close to your body. Bring the shoulder blades back in, causing the neck to tuck in.
The support needs to be firm and upright. If you’re leaning back, it’s going to cause more lumbar compression and pressing the facet joints in to extension and it’s not what you need.
The base needs to be firm. Not too much cushion. If there is too much cushion, then the glutes will sink in and they won’t distribute the weight evenly through the hips.
Other important features when sitting at the desk are that the monitor height needs to be at eye level.
For lounging and relaxing chairs, sofas aren’t great because they do increase the flexion of your spine and they don’t give enough support, especially if you’re in acute back pain or you’ve had a back spasm. Lying on the sofa or sitting on the sofa isn’t the best position to be in.
You need to be sitting in a hard chair. That will keep you upright and provide support.
If you are going to sit down on the sofa, we would always recommend sitting on the floor up against the sofa. It’s always a good place to start.
One of the worst positions is to sit on a recliner sofa where the legs come up higher than the hips. This again will drive a lot of compression and weight through to the base of the spine and if they’re used for long periods of time can cause you long-term issues.
If you’re concerned about which chair to get, please let us know and we can offer you some more advice. We can also offer you a desk assessment setup for free. If you email info@westchiropractic.co.uk, we can send you more information about how to do that
Offer: Book a free consultation with West Chiropractic >
