Ever been in the market for an office chair? Received the quote for your desired chair and been gob smacked by the price, so you rather popped in at your local supermarket and bought a cheaper version?
After yet another day where you had to take a break to help soothe your aching back, we knew it was time to take a deeper look at how people work. Surprisingly, or not, we’ve found that back pain increases when people work for prolonged hours sitting at their desk.
Ergonomics are important, but buyers had mistakenly thought that if they had their desk at the correct height and hands in the optimal position for typing that they could get away with an inexpensive poorly design chair for the office. After reading a six-page report they are no longer laboring under such misapprehensions.
You ask yourself, what about chairs affects your health while working? Well, it’s all about the back. A good chair provides proper lumbar and pelvic support, which results in your back muscles being less stressed. Unfortunately, many chairs do not offer adequate support and, combined with long periods of sitting down at work, explains why people who sit all day have about as much lower back pain as people who spend most of their time in a standing position. Studies have proven that the more we sit, the higher our risk of herniated discs and other back troubles.
Studies also show that slouching and similar seated postures can cause backaches, headaches, fatigue and poor concentration. A healthy posture–when the spine is properly aligned–promotes greater overall comfort, including improved concentration and endurance through long hours of seated task work.
The key to this healthy posture is lumbar and pelvic support, lumbar support alone is not enough. Too many of the chairs that are branded as office chairs were designed with only lumbar support in mind because they were based on work patterns of office workers before the computer gained the dominance that is has today. For many of us, almost all of our work involves staring and interacting with a computer and this was not the case 20 or so years ago.
With lumbar and pelvic support comes better posture, better breathing, and less fatigue, so do yourself a favour and give your work chair a good hard look and see how it measures up.
Phone our Office Group consultants, and let them help you choose the perfect office chair to support you and give you ultimate comfort!