> ErgonomicsIt is clear why furniture ergonomics is important: it affects your health. The modern office job, which involves sitting at a desk and working on a computer for hours on end, puts a significant strain on your body. This affects not only the spine, but also the muscles, skin and even the internal organs. Compressed by incorrect posture, your internal organs also demand attention, but not always in a way that is obvious. It is only years later that it appears that something is wrong and you rarely link the symptoms to your position at a desk. And yes, how you sit is of great importance. If your work is office-based, you will probably spend one-fifth of your life sitting in a chair.
Luckily, thanks to physical ergonomics, you can make sure that working at a desk doesn't have a negative impact on your health. What is more, thanks to ergonomic furniture, you not only can take care of your body, but also improve your health a little bit.
In recent years the principle that in order to sit well, you need to move has gained prominence. Sitting in one position all the time is not an option – you need to stand up, move around, stretch and adopt different postures. Sitting ergonomics is basically about the work that you, the users, have to do. No, even the most expensive chair won’t do the job for you, but it will help you keep your body fit.
In this study, we have put together all that we know about office ergonomics.
For the purposes of this study, we are making a fairly simple distinction between ergonomic and non-ergonomic chairs.
Well, an ergonomic chair is great for sitting for hours on end. It has been meticulously crafted to ensure optimum comfort and support for the user in a seated position. It is designed to adapt to the natural movements of the body, helping to maintain proper posture while sitting.
The key word here is 'help', because an ergonomic chair only promotes maintaining good posture; it does not guarantee it.
Any office chair used for desk work should be ergonomic and have basic adjustment functions.
However, there are also plenty of 'non-ergonomic' chairs in offices, such as in meeting rooms, communal areas and canteens. According to our basic definition, a chair that is not ergonomic no longer has to support your posture, but this does not mean you should slouch.
Firstly, you need to realise that you are responsible for maintaining good posture, and the chair is there to support you.
Let's now look at the most common mistakes people make when sitting in an office chair:
Each of these positions is incompatible with the way your body is designed to work.
Your back should be straight because this is the only way to ensure that the vertebrae in your spine are in their neutral position. The lumbar spine should be bent forward. This curve is natural and, with the correct sitting position, it is exactly as it should be. However, when you lean forward, the vertebrae in the lumbar region are compressed at the front. Of course, if this lasts for a short time, nothing will happen, but if it becomes your permanent position, things will get worse.
Another problem with leaning forward is that it compresses your internal organs. Your abdominal cavity contains the organs that keep your body healthy, and when these organs are under constant pressure, their function is inevitably disrupted.
Leaning the head downwards is challenging for the upper part of the spine, and can result in neck and back pain. This can encourage you to hunch over and put extra strain on the front of your torso. There is a vicious cycle at play here: the greater the head's forward tilt, the more pronounced the hunch becomes. And remember, your head weighs around 5 kg.
If the correct sitting position is not adopted, with the feet not touching the ground, a lot of pressure is put on the back of the thighs. When sitting, your thighs should be supported, but not squeezed. If they are pressed, there is reduced blood flow to the lower legs, which can lead to a numb sensation.
We have only listed the basic mistakes that are unknowingly made when sitting in office chairs. Of course, the subject is much broader. In the next section, we will discuss potential issues and their solutions from the perspective of both the chair users and the support offered by chairs themselves.
The answer to the question 'How to sit correctly' is not at all clear, because on the one hand there are certain requirements for the correct posture when sitting, but on the other hand it is encouraged that you do not sit for too long.
Correct posture is therefore:
Let's start with the correct posture for sitting in an office chair:
The second element of correct posture is movement.
Ensuring safe and healthy desk work is dependent on movement being a fundamental factor. You have a great deal of responsibility here.
Every now and then, depending on your mood, you should:
Movement is fundamental to staying healthy, and office chairs will help you maintain the right sitting posture.
Comfort and wellness are key factors to consider when it comes to ergonomics in office chairs. In an era of remote working and long hours spent sitting in front of a computer, a well-designed chair can greatly reduce the likelihood of health issues arising.
A correctly adjusted chair can encourage good posture while you are working in a seated position. While most chairs do not have all of the following adjustments, you should still try to sit in correct way.
If we had to pick the most important elements, they would be:
Without at least one of these features, a chair cannot be considered an office chair, let alone an ergonomic one.
An ergonomic office chair is therefore one that people use for working for many hours in one position. Such a chair requires its parameters to be adjusted to fit your body. It is important to remember that even if you use the chair for 'working for hours', you should still stand up and move around every so often to stretch or change position.
So what adjustments are considered useful in an ergonomic office chair? Below, we outline all the parameters of the chairs. We also give a description of how they work. In addition, we describe the correct setting and we outline the benefits of using them.
Adjusting the height of the chair as a whole ensures that your legs are positioned correctly in relation to the floor. Office chairs are designed in such a way that most people can easily adjust the seat height to the correct position.
Ensure your feet rest firmly on the floor, with the sheens more or less at right angles to the ground. Position your feet slightly 'forward', rather than 'backward', in order not to obstruct the blood flow. The thighs should be positioned on the seat, but not compressed, and you can check this by putting your hand under the thighs. If it goes in without resistance, it means that your position is more or less OK.
The swivel and castors on the chair are designed to help you sit down and stand up comfortably from your desk or table, and to find the right working position. They also allow you to move the chair slightly when you want to reach for something.
The tilt tension control adjusts the mechanism according to your weight. If this adjustment is available, the mechanisms fall into two main types:
If tilt tension control is available, this usually means that the mechanism can be used in two positions: locked and unlocked. When working with the mechanism unlocked, the correct intensity setting is needed to find the balance between the force needed to tilt the back and the force of the mechanism, thus achieving a state of equilibrium consisting of the following:
The tilt of the back and seat is one of the basic functions carried out by a tilt tension control located under the seat. There are different types of mechanism, but the purpose of all of them is primarily:
Some mechanisms allow the tilt of the seat to be adjusted separately from the backrest. This can be useful when the settings of the other parameters are insufficient to achieve the desired position. For example, adjusting the forward tilt of the seat can relieve pressure on the thighs by tilting the seat forward by a few degrees.
This adjustment is used to set the correct distance between the seat and the backrest for good posture when sitting in the chair. The seat depth should not be used to adjust the chair so that you can 'lie down' or 'stretch out' on it as you would on a sofa. The seat depth should be adjusted so that when sitting in the middle of the seat with a straight back, the backrest is upright and supports the lumbar region.
Adjust the height of the backrest so that it touches as much of your back as possible. If the backrest has a fixed lumbar support, adjust its height so that it is positioned directly over your lumbar curve. If the lumbar support is adjustable, it is advisable to adjust it accordingly.
The height of the lumbar support should be exactly where your lumbar curve is. The support should be deep enough for you to feel its resistance, which should gently but firmly press against the lumbar curve of your spine.
The height-adjustable armrests allow you to comfortably rest your elbows on them. Your arms should be supported in such a way that your shoulders are not weighed down, while also not feeling like you have to work to keep your arms in this position. To relieve pressure on the shoulder joint and neck muscles and allow free blood circulation, it is advisable to maintain a right angle between the elbow and shoulder.
Ideally, the armrests should be an extension of the tabletop, but this is not always possible. When the armrests and the tabletop are at the same height, both provide elbow support. When the keyboard is placed under the desk top in a pull-out drawer, the armrests act as elbow rests while you are working at the keyboard. Your wrists should be in line with your elbows when using the keyboard – they should not be bent upwards.
When the keyboard is placed on the desktop, it then acts as a support for your forearms.
This is an additional adjustment of the armrest, which involves extending the pads forwards or sideways. The objective of this modification is to augment the range of armrest adjustment.
Forward/backward adjustment of the armrests allows you to move the chair closer to or further away from the tabletop when they are at the same height.
You can improve your comfort by moving your arms away from your torso, which you can do by adjusting the armrest pads laterally.
Well, the headrest on an office chair isn't really doing much, is it? When sitting upright, your head should not rest on the headrest. If it does, the headrest should not force your head forward in relation to your natural head position. The main purpose of the headrest is to support the head when the backrest is tilted back.
When discussing adjustable features of office chairs, it is worth mentioning standing desk stools, too. Although they are not adjustable, they fit well into the ergonomic office chair category.
We are mainly referring here to 3D seat mechanisms, i.e. mechanisms that can tilt to either side. Such mechanisms are used in high chairs, bar stools, and other types that do not fall within office chair category. The advantage of these chairs is that they move automatically in response to pressure from your body, enabling you to adopt an active sitting position. An active position is one in which maintaining a sitting position requires active effort, which involves not only in adopting the correct posture but also in balancing slightly. The active position comprises 'moving' while sitting.
Footrests are commonly found on high chairs, also known as bar stools. However, footrests are not usually found on traditional office chairs.
A footrest allows you to 'climb' onto a bar stool and helps with the 'descent', as the seats of bar stools are sometimes placed very high (up to 80 cm). At this height, the seated person is at roughly the same height as a standing person, which is why bar stools are an essential piece of equipment in cafés and bars.
The second function of the footrest is to provide a place to put your feet up, which is helpful because, with such a high seat, your legs would otherwise dangle unsupported.
Chair manufacturers, including ourselves, are racing to introduce new adjustments. While there are many ideas for improving chair ergonomics, some of which are promising, we feel that the features already provided in chairs are sufficient. While new solutions may improve comfort and add interesting functionalities, they will not fundamentally change the essence of office chair ergonomics.
For example, there is a solution that allows you to bend the backrest sideways to help you reach things behind your back. However, according to ergonomic principles, this is not the recommended way to reach for things. You should turn around in the chair before reaching. Additionally, the backrest should provide equal support on both sides. While the solution seems appealing, it may not necessarily be beneficial.
Similarly, the backrest can be split into two parts: right and left. From experience, we know that this is a very comfortable solution. However, the question arises: is the purpose of the backrest to allow you to lean on it unevenly?
Therefore, every solution should be viewed critically.
Obviously, a workstation is more than just a chair. It's a desk with a keyboard, monitor and chair. To ensure everything works together effectively, it is important to understand a few basic principles of workplace ergonomics.
Desks can be either adjustable or fixed in height. Working at both types of desk is the same, but a sit stand desk allows you to adapt the entire workstation to your needs, and not just the chair.
First, we will discuss the parameters for fixed desks, and then we will look at what can be achieved with a height-adjustable desk.
An adjustable desk allows you to change your position from sitting to sitting/standing, or standing, enabling you to adopt an active position. In this position, you sit on the seat while resting your feet on the ground, as if you were about to stand up. It's a combination of sitting and standing. This position requires special chairs that can tilt the seat in all directions. In the standing position, you simply stand at your desk and work in the same way you do as when sitting.
The monitor should be positioned in such a manner that the uppermost edge of the screen is at eye level when looking straight ahead in a natural upright position. The distance between the monitor and your eyes should be between 50 and 75 cm. However, we recommend keeping it as far away as possible, especially with wide screens. Your eyes should roam around the screen with minimum or no head movement.
The above factors help to maintain a neutral position of the neck and spine and reduce eyestrain.
It is important to position the keyboard in such a way that you can work comfortably on it without having to support your hands on the desk or armrests. Of course, when working, your hands will be on the desk or armrests.
The wrists should form a straight line with the forearms up to the elbows. Bending the wrists increases the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a fairly common condition associated with keyboard work. Wrist pads, which are available in many different types and sizes, can help to prevent this.
Any accessories you need while working should be within arm's reach so that you do not have to raise your arms above your shoulders. Use a chair with castors to move around. Some chairs have a side-tilting seat, which is useful for reaching things that are close but still out of reach.
In this section, we present some simple exercises that can be done at work. We have selected exercises that are swift and straightforward, require no equipment, do not involve any complicated moves and do not require a lot of floor space.
How often should you exercise? This depends on many different factors, so it's hard to give any specific advice. If you experience any discomfort, do at least one exercise to see if it helps. You can do one of these exercises every hour. You can do them while walking or waiting for your coffee. You can also exercise at home after work. If you sit properly and feel no discomfort, you may not need to do the exercises.
In summary, workplace ergonomics, especially chair ergonomics, are very important for your health.
Employers must take specific measures, as outlined in regulations and standards for office furniture dimensions and materials. The majority of products are manufactured with observing industry-standard dimensional and strength specifications. These parameters are meticulously designed to ensure optimum user functionality and convenience.
Maintaining good posture is something that ergonomic office chairs can help with, but it is up to the user to make the effort.
Ergonomics is about more than just comfort and productivity. It is an investment in your health.
Meeting the ergonomic requirements for modern office chairs is something we always aim to do. Most of our chairs can be adjusted in a variety of ways.
Would you like to find out more? We organise training on workstation ergonomics.
Please contact our sales department to find out more.
Intar Tools Sp. J.
ul. Szeroka 77
05-831 Parole
Poland
Chairs and armchairs
About ergonomics
