How to Choose an Office Chair

Physio Med

There are many types of office chairs and many factors that influence the
choice of which chair to use.
Ergonomic chairs that offer better leg, pelvic and lumbar positioning have become popular, but they still have
their own drawbacks. Using one of these chairs can be taxing on your muscles and may take some getting used to.

Here, we look at the pros and cons of various chair options.

Kneeling Chair/Stool
Research supports the use of kneeling chairs as they
can improve the curvature of the lower spine. We know
that having the correct posture at one end of the spine,
e.g. pelvis, leads to better posture at the other end,
e.g. head/neck. For this reason, kneeling chairs are said
to aid both the correct lower back position, as well as
the upper body position. In reality, this is only true if
your desk and the rest of your workstation are set up
correctly, and if you don’t slouch.

Kneeling chairs (often called stools) have a great

advantage over normal chairs in that you don’t have to
have your feet on the floor when using one. This means
they can be adapted to almost any height of desk as
the elbows can always be placed in the correct
position. They are also generic in that normally only the
height needs to be adjusted, so they work well for
multiple users at one desk. However, it is only practical
to use kneeling chairs when wearing trousers as the
central bar is between the legs.

Advantages:
• Correct leg/pelvic/lumbar position
• Do not need feet on floor
• Adjustable to almost any desk
• No individual adjustment so multiple people
can use

Disadvantages:
• Anyone with knee problems is excluded.
• Need to wear trousers to use
• Tiring on spine muscles

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

Saddle Chairs/Seats
The saddle chair has become the seat of choice for
dentists and anaesthetists because they are shown to
reduce spinal pressure and therefore prevent spinal
injury. This is a common problem in these professions
due to the long periods spent sitting. Dentists and
anaesthetists also have to lean forwards and so cannot
use the back of a chair.

The use of saddle chairs (shown) promotes better

spinal postures, including those in the upper body,
head and neck. Scientific literature supports the fact
that these chairs reduce the risk of injury even
compared to other ergonomic chairs.

Advantages:
• Correct leg/pelvic/lumbar position
• Sit like an ordinary chair
• No individual adjustment so multiple people
can use

Disadvantages:
• Generally need a higher desk or preferably a
height adjustable one.
• Limited to wearing trousers only
• Tiring on spine muscles
• Expensive

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Exercise Ball/Ball Chair

Advantages:
The use of a ball or ball chair has risen in popularity in
• Better spinal posture
recent years, as they have been shown to improve
spinal posture and increase the use of the spinal • Increased muscle activity
muscles, leading many people to say it is like
exercising at work. Scientific research has indeed Disadvantages:
shown that the muscles of the lower back do work • Spinal shrinkage after one hour
harder when sat on a ball, however this is negated by • No height adjustment
the spine shrinking significantly when sat on a ball for
• Large and cumbersome
as little as one hour.
• No positive effects on upper body
Ball chairs do not seem to have the same muscle • Trousers only
activating effects on the upper body. Despite many
• Nearly everyone reports discomfort after an
people having their arms in a better position whilst
hour
using a ball chair, the trapezius muscles in the neck/
shoulders are not improved.

Ball chairs are made for height ranges, not each

person, so should be chosen for individuals. They are
also large and cumbersome to store when inflated, and
most scientific studies agree that the advantages of
ball chairs are outweighed by their disadvantages.

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

Ergonomic chairs 1) The chair should fit you.

There are many different types of ergonomic chairs The seat pan should be at least one inch/three cm
and, despite the fact they are designed to support the wider on each side than you are.
whole body, few have all the available adjustments of
the one below.

TOO CLOSE GAP

A good ergonomic office chair will look similar to this
and will have enough adjustments to suit most people.

The seat pan should allow you to sit touching the back
of the chair with a one inch/three cm gap behind your
knee – if it is too deep it can restrict circulation and
cause knee problems.

There are a number of considerations when choosing a

suitable ergonomic chair.

A cushion shaped to fit your spine can be used, but this

does make the shape of the back of the chair
redundant.

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Physio Med

2) The chair should be adjustable for If tilt adjustment is not available, a cushion designed at
the correct angle can be used. The cushion should still
height.
fill the criteria above - it should be wider than you, fill
Pneumatic adjustment is the norm nowadays as it the seat from front to back and not hit the backs of
allows for small adjustments whilst sat in the chair. As a your knees.
general rule, if you stand in front of a chair with its
Standard cushions often don’t match all of the criteria
height adjusted so the chair pan is level with your
but, on balance, the ‘thigh down’ posture is much
knees, it should still be able to go both up and down.
better with a badly fitted cushion than the flat posture,
as long as it doesn’t hit the backs of your knees.

3) Seat back
In an ideal world the seat back would be the right
height for you, finishing just above shoulder height.
Some chairs have height adjustable backs but many
don’t.
Seat pan tilt:

Tilting the seat pan to allow the thighs to point down is

advantageous for the lower back/lumbar spine, so
adjustment of the seat pan for tilt - up to 30 degrees -
is always an advantage.

To compensate for this, many chairs have oversized

backs, which is fine as long as they support you in the
most crucial places.
20-30o

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

Some ergonomic chairs have backs which adjust The ability to adjust the seat back from fully upright
forwards and backwards in relation to the seat pan. may be an important consideration if you intend to use
This adjustment is simply to set the thigh length/seat the reclined seated posture. Ideally, you should be
pan depth and is very useful if many people of differing able to recline the seat back to an angle of 135
heights use the same chair, but is not necessary if you degrees (although most people prefer 110 degrees).
are the only user.

135o

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The use of supports on the backs of chairs is the main difference between ergonomic chairs and ordinary chairs. If,
when sitting with ‘optimal’ posture, you still require support because your back muscles cannot maintain the
position, you need to consider the main lumber and thoracic curves of the spine. Researchers argue about how
the lower back should be positioned and claim there are four ways of sitting on a chair for your lower back.

Slumped posture is the most commonly seen.This is Flat posture is where the lower and upper backs make
considered to be a bad posture which increases spinal a straight line. In this position there is little muscle
pressure and has been said to lead to back injury over activity and the whole spine will require support from
time, so should therefore be avoided. the chair. This posture has been advocated by some
authors.

The main issue with this posture is the increased

lumbar spine disc pressures, which means it is not
popular amongst the medical and rehabilitation
communities.

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

Long Lordosis is a posture which creates a curve in the Lordotic is the posture most people agree is the best
lower back that carries on at the same angle into the position for the lower back, as well as the rib cage,
rib cage (thoracic spine). This posture has the thoracic spine and the neck, and is the one we are told
advantage of reducing lower spinal disc pressures. to stand in. In the lordotic posture the lower back
curves one way and the rib cage curves the other,
which offers the advantage of reducing stress on the
discs in the lower back, keeps the centre of gravity over
the pelvis to reduce muscular work and strain and puts
the neck in a neutral position.

The main problem with this type of posture is that it is

very difficult to attain and then maintain. Studies have
found that this posture needs extensive coaching by an
expert and that many people simply cannot achieve it
with most being unable to maintain it on their own.
This last posture is generally considered to be the best
because the curves in the spine mean the lower back
would be away from the chair back if the back of the
chair was just straight.

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Physio Med

Having a chair back which fills this curve is what most Many people recommend trying chairs with built in
people consider a key factor for an ergonomic design. back supports and seeing if you like them. However,
Obviously everyone is a different shape and some how a chair feels in the first five minutes of use can be
chairs have a fixed support - or none at all - so they will very different to how it feels after an hour. To confound
either fit you or they won’t. Chairs that are said to be the issue, some people have a naturally bigger curve at
ergonomic often have an adjustable support, meaning the bottom of their spine, whilst others are much flatter.
different people can use them despite differences in
their sizes and shapes.

Adjustable up
& down, and in
& out.

As a general rule, if you were to sit fully back and press

your back flat into a straight chair, the amount of curve
you need is the equivalent of pushing your own hand
flat into the small of your back between your lower
back and the chair.

If you can’t get your hand into the gap comfortably

If your chair has an adjustable lumbar support, it should then you don’t have enough curve. If you can get your
fit into your lower back and create a curve away from forearm into the gap then the curve is too big. Ideally,
the back of the chair. The key here is how big the curve your chair back will be shaped just enough to fill the
should be. In tech speak, the best angles are between gap. Some chair backs have a section that is adjustable
3.1 and 3.6 degrees but how do we achieve this in the in depth for different sizes of curves (also often found
real world? in car seats). This lumbar support can often be adjusted
for height; in some cases, the whole chair back can be
adjusted for height.

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

If you cannot get a chair with correct lumbar support, • D Roll

there are devices to help maintain the lumbar curve.
Arguably the simplest one, as advised by many A ‘D’ shaped foam support that does not push you as
clinicians, is the use of a small rolled up towel. This is far forwards, and is available in many sizes.
also a good way of gauging how much curve you need
before buying a chair. Simply use a flat backed chair
(make sure it is the right seat pan depth) and put a
small rolled up towel into the curve of your lower back.
The towel can be rolled less or more to create varying
sizes of curve until you find the right one for you. This
method has the advantages of being cheap, readily
available and almost infinitely variable, but is not a long
term solution as the towel falls away when you stand
and will squash flatter and flatter over time.

More formal devices include: Larger Smaller

• Lumbar roll • Lumbar cushions

A foam roll that sits in the small of your back Shaped lumbar cushions of various sizes, shapes and
maintaining the curve, and is available in many depths. designs.

Solid Ventiliated

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Physio Med

4) Supporting the thoracic spine or rib There are shaped supports for this area of the back,
however the thoracic spine/ribs should be the opposite
cage
curve of your lumbar spine, so the area can be
Ideally, a chair back should reach the height of your supported with a plain chair back.
shoulders as you sit upright.

If you are sitting with the correct pelvis and lumbar

spine posture, your thoracic spine/rib cage will be over
your centre of gravity and, therefore, your upper body
will need less muscular support. However, over time,
the muscles supporting the upper body will tire and
some support from the seat back can help. Getting up
and moving around will also help!

Don’t worry too much if your chair back is not high

enough to support your thoracic spine/rib cage - just
putting your pelvis and lumbar spine in the correct
positions has been shown to help position your
thoracic spine correctly.

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

An adjustable back angle is common in chairs and has Support of the neck/head on a chair is rare. Even where
often been linked to seat pan position. Studies of there are head supports (e.g. cars), people very rarely
people using computer monitors show a link between use them. We generally sit with our heads supported
the amount of back angle adjustment and comfort in by our muscles and, in fact, supporting the neck is not
the spine. usually recommended – the correct positioning of
desk/monitor height is much more important.

135o
However, ergonomic chairs with head supports are
available and those with both height and depth
adjustments are best. When sitting upright, the neck
should be in the neutral position with the earlobe
positioned between the collar bone and the muscles of
the neck:

The optimal amount of angle adjustment is said to be

70 degrees, which fits with the laid back posture and is
known to reduce lumbar spinal pressures. In that
example, the angle used was 135 degrees at the hips,
or 45 degrees of chair back angle.

Remember, this reclined position may reduce lumbar

spinal pressure and improve comfort but it is not
recommended long term for the shoulders and neck.
Being able to lean the chair back might feel nice but,
as it reduces the strain on one part of the back, it
leaves the other parts at risk.

If you are sitting correctly with your knees lower than

your hips (thighs down), you should set your chair back
to an angle of 90 degrees.

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Physio Med

If you spend part of your time NOT sitting at a desk then armrests are important – but they need to be in the
correct position.

Firstly, the armrests need to be the Next, the armrests should support The relaxed position is where the
right width. If they are too far apart, your arms at the correct height shoulders are level (neither up nor
you will sit with your arms out at an when you are sitting correctly, down) when resting on the armrests.
angle which is not ideal, as having meaning adjustable armrests are
the shoulders in a permanently best. Armrests should be large enough to
abducted (out to the side) position support most of your forearm and
can lead to shoulder and neck If the armrests are too high, your soft enough to allow the support of
fatigue. shoulders will shrug and force the the soft tissues, but not so hard that
shoulders out of position. This can the bones and nerves are jabbing
create stress in the shoulders where into them.
the base line muscle tension
increases, as the muscles are
constantly held in a short position.

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 Maintaining a fit and healthy workforce

Ergonomic chairs, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and range in price too. For most office workers a well-built
budget office chair with adjustable height, tilt and lumber support will suffice. However with the many chairs
available there are plenty to choose from to suit all types of people and budgets.

The most important thing to remember when sitting is achieving good posture.

If you have followed all this advice about correct sitting

posture and the use of various chairs and adjustments,
this is how you should look when sitting down.

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Tel: 0113 229 1300

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.physiomed.co.uk