We can often spend up to 10-12 hours a day sitting in our office chair and yet we often don’t pay any attention to it until we start to experience pain. Can you spot the problem with the above chair and resulting posture?
You may think a chair is just a chair, but as soon as you have a back issue, your back becomes sensitized to sitting properly, and anything other than a good adjustable chair that provides support where you need it is just too uncomfortable.
Signs that you should start to think of investing in a better one are:
- Constantly fidgeting due to discomfort
- Unable to sit for very long in one position
- Feelings of discomfort and tension slowly build up through the day
- New or long-term diagnosed back condition
Yes, there may well be an argument that movement is good, but there comes a point when you need to sit down, free of discomfort, to concentrate on your work properly. I have experienced this personally when, due to a sacroiliac injury, I couldn’t sit down on any other chair except my own Corrigo one for 6 weeks – seriously, tube and train seats were a nightmare! I was therefore personally able to test how adjustability is key to comfort. It was a lesson in how, if I didn’t have a comfortable chair, I wouldn’t have been able to work in the office until my injury healed enough to allow me to sit for more than 15 minutes at a time.
The Science behind your comfort
What do I need to look for in a chair?
In order to provide the level of support that actually allows you to recover from injury, tension and pain build up, and to maximise any rehabilitation work you are doing, it is essential that your chair adjusts to support you in a healthy upright position. This will stop you from slouching and putting pressure on your discs, allowing injuries to heal and preventing further damage. Below are photos of what happens to your disc when you do slouch
Upright healthy posture. Slouching and disc being pressed down and out.
So many people I see are just not aware of how to achieve a healthy sitting posture. So check if your chair allows you to adjust it in the following way:
- Is your lower back supported at the right height and depth that fits your own back curve? It should adjust to gently support your lower back in its natural position. This allows you to relax your lower back muscles, and avoid pain and injury.
- Is your upper back supported in an upright position? If not, you will tend to slouch forward, putting pressure on your shoulders, upper back and neck.
- Can you sit back against the backrest or is the seat depth too long. If you can’t sit back against the backrest, your muscles will tense up over time in the effort to keep you upright.
- Are your thighs supported? If the seat is too short, you may feel as though you are slipping off the chair.
- Are you able to pull the chair close to the desk and still support your arms on the armrests rather than having to lean forward on to the desk? This is the biggest cause of shoulder and neck tension, as if the armrests are too long, you will have to reach forward when typing, with your arms unsupported – our arms are surprisingly heavy and resting on armrests will greatly relieve tension build up in the neck and shoulders and keep your wrists straight and in line with the keyboard, to further keep these pain free.
Compare your chair to your mattress.
We all know that we need to invest in a good mattress, as we spend a lot of time on it, and you get what you pay for. A good quality mattress that will give you long-term support can cost between £500 and £3,000 plus.
However, we often don’t think that, as we spend an equal amount of time sitting on our work chair, it is just as important to invest in a good chair, and similarly, you very much get what you pay for.
A good ergonomically correct chair costs from £500 to £2,000 a day. A Corrigo chair, therefore, offers great value for money with unrivaled support for your back. With our 5 year guarantee, the cost per day can be as little as 38p! And think of all that Physio treatment you can save. To find out more, see https://www.corrigo-design.com or contact us at info@corrigo-design.com
Go from this poor posture To feeling and looking great in a fully adjustable Corrigo Chair
