Whilst we would all like to think that corporations supply employees with quality chairs, like an Aeron or Freedom Chair, the reality is that there are still an awful lot of employers out there who supply staff with lousy office chairs, buying on price with little thought for user comfort.

So if this is you, chances are you are already spending six to eight hours each working day sitting in discomfort with inadequate support, which is not good. Now maybe when you get home, you spend a few more hours at the computer surfing online or working at an online business to escape working for the man.

Well, after the pounding your body has taken at work all day, the last thing it needs is to be given more of the same when you get home. So if you’re sitting in a dining chair or on a breakfast stool or in a cheap office chair, you really ought to think about giving your body a break.

By treating yourself to a new quality office chair, you will find it a pleasure to sit in after that back-breaker at work, and it may even motivate you to work harder on that online business too so you can sit in it even more. Here is a quick summary of some ergonomic office chairs worth considering.

If you ever try buying an office chair online it can be a really overwhelming experience, depending on how you go about it here are some of the things you may find.

You visit a site selling office chairs and you are presented with a scrolling page filled with 100 different chair images and they are all shouting “Buy Me! Buy Me!” and when you get to the bottom of the page it says page 1 of 4 meaning there are 400 to choose from, just how are you supposed to make an informed choice?

Maybe you decide to try Twitter for help, surely there must be someone there who can advise you? Well yes and no, these days there are a ton of spammy tweets from suppliers carpet bombing the same message nearly every time,  hardly fills you with confidence does it?

Add to that the shed load of fake reviews through multiple Twitter accounts sure the headlines sound good – “Why You Need An Ergonomic Office Chair” so you click in hope and what do you find? Well after you wade through the AdSense ads you get to a review where the English seems like it was translated from the original Portuguese by someone whose first language clearly isn’t English and so you end up baling out after the first paragraph.

What about an auction site like eBay, although there are undoubtedly bargains to be had it also is not without its problems. First there is the logistics of getting the chair from one side of the country to the other in one piece should you win it.

Second you can’t be sure of the condition it is in, often the image on the auction is from the manufacturer’s website and even when it is a shot of the actual item photos tend to make things look better than they are in real life, it may be immaculate or it may have 200,000 miles on the clock you won’t truly know until it’s on your doorstep.

One of the most abused words these days is “Ergonomic” especially when used to describe an office chair and the reason is there is no clear definition of what it means, it’s little more than a concept a convenient term for implied quality. It is frequently used by suppliers to enhance often poor quality seating, making it more difficult for genuine products to be heard. Here’s my take on what makes an office chair ergonomic.

So what should you do to find the right chair for you?

I believe there are 5 key features you have to have on an office chair if you insist on these it will narrow the choice down considerably.

Unless you’re an occasional user $100 chairs aren’t the answer, at this price there are just too many components which will be a compromise on quality to keep the cost down, you need to be starting around the $350 level and even then you may not get all the features you need.

Sites like Amazon.com and the better online seating stores have user reviews and this is a great way to gauge an idea of how good something is, however remember office seating is a very personal choice so what may be great for someone else may not work as well for you. For this reason it’s best to choose a site with a rock solid 30 day return policy, this way you get a good opportunity to really test it out to see if it’s right for you.

Lastly, you could always take a look at my office chair reviews section which has a quick summary with links to the full reviews of some of the better quality chairs available.

Remember back in school when you had to write an essay usually it had to be a minimum number of words.

You would sit there thinking how am I going to write that much on this subject? And then after a while you would resort to padding and stuff it full of unnecessarily long sentences and repeat things to get the word count up and make it look good.

Reality was your teacher saw straight through it and you were in trouble for stuffing it full of useless content and told it was all padding.

Guess what a lot of office chairs are just the same, you see them all the time in the discount office supplies stores, great puffed up padded low grade foam and usually with very poor quality leather upholstery. And yet as you try it out sinking into that heap of foam it feels like it’s really comfortable.

And for the first 10 or 15 minutes it probably is comfortable, it is only after you have been sitting in it for a couple of hours comes the realization it’s not comfortable at all.

Why is this? It’s because there is no real structural support it’s a bit like sitting on a giant sponge, it just moves to wherever your body weight is forcing it. Before you know it your body has adapted a most unhealthy posture as your lower back rounds like a medicine ball and the discs in your spine start bulging into a really unhealthy shape resulting in back pain.

It only gets worse because in time what generally happens is the low quality foam flattens out with repeated use and your once fluffed up padding becomes more like sitting on a rock.

There is nothing wrong with padding on an office seat as long as it is of good quality and well designed. There is a world of difference between low grade packing type foam rubber and high quality polyurethane foam carefully sculpted to follow body contours and of high density designed to retain its shape for years. This is why companies like Humanscale are able to offer a 15 year warranty on its Freedom chair.

So don’t get taken in by a so called ergonomic computer chair with loads of padding as chances are the initial comfort it gives will rapidly disappear.

Recently my car had to go in to the local auto repair shop for a few days and so they arranged a loan car for me while the work was done.

I arranged to swap cars over Sunday evening to save time and I get to the repair shop early evening in the dark and it’s raining when I pick up the keys and get in the loaner.

Turn the ignition key zip, nada, nothing not a spark of life, so I double check it’s not in gear and all the usual things, still not a thing. In the end I go and knock up the owner, turns out you have to put your foot on the brake to get it to work – doh!

Next, where are the widow wipers, found them pretty quick and then there’s the back screen wiper this takes a bit longer. Not surprisingly there is no gas in the tank so I head off to fill up, cue drama number two how to unlock the filler cap cover, sorted it eventually turns out you need to press the key fob twice to release it. It was only after a day or so and reading the handbook I got everything figured out.

And it strikes me how similar it is with office chairs whether inherited or new.

Here’s a recent tweet from Twitter I saw:

“Guy just delivered my new office chair and had to train me on how to use it. I wish I was kidding.”

It’s like the car isn’t it? We think we know how to drive them, there all the same aren’t they?

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen comments like – “only had the chair 3 years and I finally found out how to make it recline.” Or “help, how do I adjust the height on my office chair” etc.

When you think about how long you spend every day in your office seat it’s surely pretty important to have it set up properly for your personal use.

It’s not surprising people suffer so much back pain and discomfort from their chairs, going back to the car scenario you know what it is like when you get in your car after it’s been in for repair and the guy road testing is a lot bigger or smaller than you, chances are you won’t drive it a yard until you get the driving position readjusted back to your settings.

So, it’s worth taking a little time to check your chair is set up properly for you, do you know what all the adjustments control? If you are unsure and know the make and model visit their website and download details on how adjust it properly.

You might just find you will be a whole lot more comfortable afterwards.

Depending on how much sleep you need there is a good chance you may be spending more time in your office chair than your bed. Certainly, this could be the case during the week maybe not so at the weekend.

Nonetheless it’s likely the amount of time you spend in one or other is fairly similar, either way it is a lot of time to be sitting and surely it makes to invest in a quality office chair to maximize comfort, health and productivity.

Think about it for a moment and ask yourself what did you spend more on your office chair or your bed? Chances are it was your bed and yet people frequently gripe at spending more than $100 on an office seat yet I bet their bed cost well over this.

When you are putting in serious hours doing office work you absolutely owe it to yourself to ensure you have a decent chair, one designed to give you proper support and help you keep comfortable during those long work hours.

And once you buy a good one it will last as long as your bed and you won’t find yourself driving down to the discount office supplies store for another of those $70 close out clunkers every 18 months.

Here’s a useful article to make sure you get the right features and functions on an office chair and there is a video too showing you what really matters.

Chair Giving Back Pain?

The Romans knew a thing or two about getting the best out of their troops, when they were covering long distances they would march for 50 minutes and rest for 10 minutes. They understood if they didn’t allow their bodies time to recuperate exhaustion would soon result.

The principal is exactly the same in the office, those of us spending 8 to 10 hours everyday working in an office chair have to take regular breaks otherwise you just seize up or become wracked with pain from sitting in the same position for too long.

Variation and movement is vital for healthy office working. Keep a close check on how long you have been sitting working on the same task and ideally every 30 minutes or so certainly every hour take a quick break.

Stand up maybe perform some simple exercises to get blood circulating through those seized muscles again.

We weren’t made to sit in a fixed position for long periods so it really is essential to vary your posture regularly if you are going to keep your body fit, healthy and comfortable. There are some simple office exercises you can do which will greatly help your body by injecting movement into your back and neck and help keep you working healthily.

In this final post in the replace the office chair turkey I’m taking a look at alternative types of office seats.

Some people find conventional office chairs just don’t work for them and this is where some of the alternative seating from Varier is well worth looking into.

It makes a comprehensive range of kneeling chairs, including the original commercial model the Variable Balans, from which it has developed a number of exciting new models.

Somewhat esoteric in design these seats work well in both the office and around the home and because of their lightweight portability they are extremely flexible in use.

To find out more about these alternative chairs here are links to reviews of the most popular models.

• Variable Balans Kneeling Chair
• Multi Balans Foldable Kneeling Chair
• ThatSit Balans Kneeling Chair
• Gravity Balans Multi Purpose Chair

Hopefully you have found this series enlightening on the idea of giving a loved one a quality office chair this Thanksgiving or have them buy one for you. It is a gift which will be remembered for many years as the office chair turkey becomes a distant memory.

Links to earlier articles in this series
Gobble Up The Office Chair Turkey This Thanksgiving
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 1 HÅG Seating
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 2 Steelcase
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 3 Herman Miller
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 4 Neutral Posture
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 5 Humanscale

Humanscale has a solid reputation for designing and producing highly innovative office products.

In seating it is most respected for the Freedom chair a very well designed product which has one of the longest warranty periods of any chair at 15 years. The Liberty chair is also an impressive product and well worth checking out. Both chairs need minimal adjustment and are very easy to work with.
And if you work at higher work surfaces the Freedom saddle seat is worth a look too.

Here’s where you will find more about these products.

• Freedom Chair Review
• Liberty Chair Review
• Freedom Saddle Seat Review

Tomorrow I’ll be taking a look at a different way of sitting from Varier which works particularly well in the office and around the home, see you then.

Links to earlier articles in this series
Gobble Up The Office Chair Turkey This Thanksgiving
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 1 HÅG Seating
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 2 Steelcase
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 3 Herman Miller
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 4 Neutral Posture

It’s day 4 of replace the office chair turkey and I’m looking at Neutral Posture which has some of the most highly adjustable chairs available fitting quite possibly the biggest range of individual user sizes too, both large and small.

It has chairs for people weighing anything between 90 and 500 pounds, so whether you are petite, average build or big and tall Neutral Posture is the most likely company to have a chair to fit you or your loved one.

Typically its models have 10 different adjustments as standard, so if you like the thought of fine tuning settings it is possible to tailor things exactly as you want.

Here are links to 3 reviews of its most popular models.

• NP 5000 Series Chairs
• NP 6000 Series Chairs
• NP 8000 Series Chairs

Be sure to check back tomorrow for yet more great office chair ideas as Thanksgiving presents.

Links to earlier articles in this series
Gobble Up The Office Chair Turkey This Thanksgiving
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 1 HÅG Seating
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 2 Steelcase
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 3 Herman Miller

For day 3 of replace the office chair turkey it’s time to call on the other office seating giant Herman Miller which has the distinction of producing what has become the best known chair brand in the world, the Aeron®.

Since launch in 1994 the chair has been hugely successful and features on many peoples’ wish list of their ideal chair.

It is a great chair for those preferring a firm seating position and like the idea of good air circulation on those hot summer days.

Miller actually has many models in its different ranges and one which has been creating quite a buzz is the Embody, launched a year ago and already proving highly popular with office workers and some users report it feels like they are floating when sitting in it.

You can read more about these 2 highly popular models in these reviews.

• Aeron® Chair Review
• Embody Chair Review

Tomorrow I’ll be looking at Neutral Posture which has quietly built an enviable reputation for producing some excellent office seating solutions over the past 20 years.

Links to earlier articles in this series
Gobble Up The Office Chair Turkey This Thanksgiving
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 1 HÅG Seating
Replace The Office Chair Turkey – Day 2 Steelcase