The pandemic caused more and more people to move from proper office space to work from home, with a laptop set up on the kitchen table, a makeshift desk, or, what’s worse, on the bed. Although it might seem comfortable enough at first, with time everyone starts noticing first symptoms of general fatigue – back pains, neck strains, and stiff wrists are just some of the signals your body is sending when you’re not keeping a proper posture while working at a computer for 8+ hours a day. The question we want to ask you today is: do you have a proper, ergonomic office chair at home? What should you look out for and how can you prepare a nice workspace outside your typical office?
How ergonomic office chairs work?
If you set two office chairs beside one another and only one of them was ergonomic, you’d know right away which supports your posture better. Above anything else, it should be fully adjustable and fit for your body and size. You can get an ergonomic chair that is too small or too big and it won’t support you as well as it should. In this case, size matters, and being able to adjust the height of most elements of the ergonomic office chair is crucial.
For most people working from home just out of necessity, there’s usually no actual office space in the house. They take a kitchen or a coffee table, sit at a dining chair or a couch and work for multiple hours a day without any proper support of the spine. If you’re one of them, you should definitely consider changing your arrangements – we don’t know how long the pandemic will last, but having an office set up at home can be helpful in many situations. All you need is a desk and an ergonomic office chair. With simple changes, you will feel less tired and strained, even after an entire day of meetings, typing, and admin work.
What elements of an office chair are important?
If you want to focus on ergonomics, the first issue you should take a look into is the measurements of your desk, the monitor, and your chair. In an ideal situation, you’d sit at your desk with your back straight, supported by the backrest of the chair, feet flat on the ground or on a footrest, eyes looking at the monitor straight ahead. Having to look down on the screen, resting your hands by the wrists on the keyboard, slouching, or crossing your legs can and will affect your entire posture and will lead to some back, neck, and shoulder aches.
When choosing an office chair for your at-home office space, you should pick one that is as adjustable as it can be. Ideally, you should be able to change the setting on:
- the height of the chair,
- the height and angle of the backrest,
- the height and depth of the lumbar support,
- the height of the armrests,
- the height of the neck rest.
A fine, white ergonomic office chair from Unique might be the one that you are looking for.
Not all ergonomic office chairs have all the options, but for some of them have most of them allow you to personalize the chair to your needs. There’s no such thing as a universal, fit-for-all option – ergonomic chairs should make you feel like they were made especially for you. Your back will be thankful in the long run.
Working at the desk should be comfortable
We understand that working from home is not an everyday occurrence for everyone and feeling like you have to invest in a home office may be overwhelming. However, considering that you can spend up to 8-10 hours a day working, even a week with poor sitting arrangement can cause some serious back issues and leave you feeling more tired than ever. A proper ergonomic chair doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate – even the simplest of constructions that are adjustable in the right places will support your back properly and help to pass your working day without aches and pains.