Guide to Choose The Best Office Chair That Suits You at Home
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Guide to Choose The Best Office Chair That Suits You at Home

|Nov 8, 2018
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Welcome all, to our guide on how to select the best office chair for your home.

With many of us working from home nowadays, either occasionally or full-time, the importance of creating a productive and comfortable workspace where we live has never been greater. 

Many make the mistake of underestimating this task and instead of getting a great, ergonomic chair, they just go for the cheapest option possible. The problem with that approach is not just that lower quality products will need replacing more quickly, it’s that bad chairs can cause a variety of health complaints and a loss of productivity. 

We all spend a lot of time working, so it’s important to get the best office chair for your home that you can; it will make your work experience infinitely better. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons behind this. 

why you need a chair

4 Reasons why you need a great office chair

Uncomfortable seats are bad for health and productivity

The true test of a comfortable chair is whether you can sit in it for a long time or not. Some chairs may seem fine at first, but those that are poorly designed will always cause discomfort with prolonged sitting. The body simply isn’t designed to sit in an unnatural way and when your spine is put in a position that isn’t natural, your posture will suffer and that can cause long-term health problems. If you heed the old saying of ‘prevention is better than the cure’, you’ll save yourself a lot of pain and money. 

What every person needs is an office chair designed to provide a great deal of support and comfort, and as ergonomic chairs are designed with the body in mind, they provide just that. The best ones are highly adjustable, so you can set your chair up to support you perfectly and enjoy the health and productivity benefits brought by proper posture.

Office chairs eventually need replacing

While ergonomic office chairs should last for a relatively decent amount of time, they have a finite existence and will eventually need replacing.

Over time, your office chair will degrade and it’s effectiveness from an ergonomic perspective will obviously suffer; material rigidity can be lost, the various mechanisms can deteriorate and comfort can simply wain over time. The majority of decent office chairs should last for between seven and ten years, based on 40 hours per week of use.

If your chair is coming to the end of its life, you probably know already. This could be evident from it just not providing as much comfort or support as before or perhaps it simply looks drab or outdated. 

In any case, planning ahead is the best course of action and you should line up an effective replacement in advance. 

To look after your lumbar

For Lumbar Support

An important reason for choosing an ergonomic office chair is that they are specifically designed to offer lumbar support, whereas regular chairs are not. This is a particularly important feature and should be an absolute priority when choosing your chair. 

Studies have shown chairs that do not have dedicated lumbar support forces the back to be bent forward in an unnatural curve. This leads to the muscles of the lumbar region straining and being pulled out of their natural position, placing pressure on the spinal discs and reducing blood flow to spinal tissue. All of these cause the back muscles to fatigue, place inordinate pressure on the discs and can even cause pinched nerves in the back. 

Office chairs with great lumbar support obviously avoid this situation and the comfort and natural blood circulation they promote will help you feel more relaxed, give you correct posture and in turn make you more productive at work. 

For improved posture

Correct posture is one of the biggest advantages of owning a quality ergonomic office chair, and is as good a reason as any to invest in one. 

There are various steps that are required for maintaining good posture, and obviously it’s important to get yourself a chair that will allow you to do them. 

You need a chair that:

  • Allows you to keep your feet flat; either on the floor or placed on a footrest.
  • Provides a small gap between the back of your knees and the front of the seat edge.
  • Can be positioned to allow your knees to be below the level of your hips.
  • Has an adjustable backrest that helps you find a suitable position to support your lower back and spine.
  • Allows you to change position easily, so you don’t sit in exactly the same position for too long.

For good posture

4 tips for choosing the best office chair for your home

Finding the best ergonomic office chair for your home is a great investment and as detailed, the boost that it can bring to your health and productivity is worth it alone.

The right chair doesn’t just make it easier to work from home, it can also be used for other activities. Gamers, for example, spend a long time sitting and in addition to the ergonomic benefits, might want a chair with a more versatile and minimalist look in their gaming space than the garish, brightly colored racing options available on the market right now. 

Here are 4 fool-proof tips that’ll help you choose the best ergonomic office chair for your home:

1. Look for chairs that offer a variety of back support features

Ergonomic chairs come with many features but you should always look for one that provides multiple points of back support, so you can guarantee that you cover all the necessary bases. 

To provide yourself with the best features for work, look for a chair that has a reclining option, lumbar support, and a backrest with adjustable height. All will improve one’s productivity.

From a health perspective, an ergonomic office chair with a full-backrest will ensure correct posture as well as alleviating pain from ailments or conditions affecting the lumbar or other parts of the back.

2. Get one with a waterfall seat design

Waterfall seats take their name from their rounded front edge. They’re not just aesthetically pleasing, though, as  research has shown that chairs with waterfall-edged seat pans are the best at helping you maintain good posture. 

They achieve this in two ways. Firstly, their contoured and slightly downward sloped shape aids to relieve pressure and increase support behind your knees and on the back of your thighs, which in turn improves blood flow to your lower limbs. Secondly, the waterfall design provides a more even distribution of weight across the whole seat pan, which makes for a far more comfortable sitting experience.

3. Look for breathable upholstery

The-upholstery-must-be-breathable

Materials obviously play a big part in the creation of a quality office chair. More than just for aesthetics, they are essential for providing a comfortable seating experience across the seat pan, armrest, and backrest. 

As office chairs are there to be sat in for long hours, it’s best to find a chair upholstered in a breathable mesh. The main function of this material is to increase the airflow within the seat and thus stop it from being uncomfortably warm. This is particularly important in the summer or in countries that are hot all year round, as being sweaty at work is never a pleasant experience.

Mesh upholstery is also typically smoother, softer and less itchy than other material options, making it the best choice for office chairs. 

4. Go for something highly adjustable

To put it simply, the more points of adjustability an office chair has, the more you can personalize it to suit you exactly and reap the ergonomic benefits. At the very least, you should be looking for a chair that has an adjustable backrest, seat pan, and armrests. 

Starting with the backrest, it should be able to tilt both forward and backward, and has the option to recline or move closer for tasks that require more attention to detail. The seat pan should be height-adjustable, so you can move it to the right level for your desk. Finally, you should be able to adjust the armrest in multiple directions, with options to move it both up and down as well as forward and backward. 

Often overlooked, the position of your shoulders and arms on your office chair have a big say in whether a chair is comfortable or not. A chair that forces you to shrug your shoulders just to get your elbows on the armrest will cause a lot of discomfort fairly quickly, so should be avoided.

Recommended office chairs for your home

Recommended-office-chairs-for-your-home

Autonomous ErgoChair 2 - $349

Autonomous.ai is an innovative company that designs and creates a wide range of products with the goal of providing its customers with high-quality solutions at an affordable price. Their best-selling ergonomic office chair is the ErgoChair 2 and it comes packed with a variety of features that combine comfort and back support with modern design. 

The ErgoChair 2 ticks all of the boxes mentioned in this article. 

It is highly adjustable – You can set the armrest, backrest, and seat to the positions that are most comfortable for you, providing a unique and supportive experience.

It has lumbar support – This crucial feature does not only ensure comfort, it also helps in the correction and maintenance of the user’s posture. Lumbar support is a formidable tool in the fight against back pain and if you spend a lot of time sitting, you’ll certainly need it. 

It makes you super productive – The combination of all the aspects of the ErgoChair 2 makes it a perfect addition to your workspace. A high degree of ergonomic personalization, a waterfall seat pan, a breathable mesh to regulate temperature and solid lumbar support are all there to give you the energy and focus that your job requires.

Avochair

Autonomous AvoChair – $219

The AvoChair is a sleek and compact option that is budget-friendly but also packed with plenty of features and functions. 

As its name suggests, AvoChair was inspired by the natural world and is actually incredibly eco-friendly, as nearly all of its parts are recyclable. It is upholstered in an extremely breathable elastomeric mesh that provides plenty of support.

The chair also offers a good degree of adjustability, with movable armrests, backrest, tilt tension, and seat height adjustment all there to provide a comfortable, personalized sitting experience. 

Conclusion

Almost every modern home has a workspace and a need for a great ergonomic chair. Regardless of what you use it for, be it work or gaming, you need something that will provide you with comfort and promote proper posture. 

Choosing the best office chair for your home is a process that requires a little research and if you follow the tips and advice provided in this post, we’re confident that you’ll be able to find the office chair that suits you best. 

If you’d like to check out our range of office chairs for your home and other innovative products, feel free to visit autonomous.ai. To be informed of all the latest blog posts from our site, leave an email address in the box below.

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