Do you ever feel your legs are uncomfortable in your office chair, maybe feeling heavy or dead? Or maybe you are getting pain in your thighs on the underside or top, possibly numbness?

This can often be the result of not working at the right height. Whilst it’s fair to say the vast majority of swivel office chairs are height adjustable, it may well be you haven’t adjusted the height correctly or worse the height adjustment range simply isn’t right for you.

This is a common problem for short and tall people, however it can affect anyone who hasn’t set their chair height properly.

So, begin by checking how you are sitting and make sure your feet are firmly on the floor and your thighs are at an open angle somewhere between 90º and 110 º. At the same time make sure your arms are roughly at right angles with your work surface.

If you find that you are unable to adopt the right sitting position because your feet don’t reach the floor properly or they do but your knees are sticking up in the air forcing you to sit in closed up posture, it’s time to look at changing the gas lift height adjuster.

Many better quality chair manufacturers offer alternative sizes of gas lift enabling users who find the standard pneumatic lift isn’t suitable for them to gain the correct seat height setting for their needs.

Here’s a simple way of checking whether a seat’s height adjustment will work for you. Measure from the floor to the inside of your knee joint without shoes on. Then check the chair will adjust a little up or down from this measurement, this quick test can be used on existing chairs as well as any new model you may be thinking of buying.

And if the pain still persists other causes could include incorrect seat depth for your leg length or cheap seat foams which have degraded and flattened, a new chair may be your only alternative.

Here’s a free report which explains the commonest causes of office chair discomfort and how to resolve them.

One last point it’s never a good idea to work at a computer or desk in a fixed height chair like a dining or meeting room chair. Apart from height issues it also restricts your body movement and can cause other pain and discomfort problems.

People take chances when selecting a new office chair, they see a post on a forum or somewhere like Twitter or Facebook, where a poster says something like:

“I just got a new leather chair for my office from Staples, it only cost $79 and it’s brilliant.”

A lot of the time the chairs being endorsed by people are poor quality, basic models with some flashy trimmings to make it look good.

So why do people sing the praises of these sorts of chair?

Probably the  2 main reasons, are first might be their existing chair was dropping apart so anything was going to be an improvement. Or it could be they had previously worked at their computer on a dining room chair or a stool and naturally any swivel chair is likely to seem like a major improvement.

The truth is that an office chair is a very important piece of working equipment and needs to be well designed and have a good range of adjustment flexibility covering the users height, weight, leg length and sitting preferences.

Often these vital adjustments simply aren’t included on budget priced chairs made to fit a price band rather than their user and so only cover very basic things like height adjustment.

The person posting about how wonderful the chair they just bought is may just be lucky it was a very good match to their size, height and leg length.

Such a chair may very well be totally unsuitable for someone else of a different build, height or weight and who could well be bitterly disappointed with the poster’s recommendation.

Remember too, if someone had been using a worn out or static chair, virtually any new swivel chair is going to seem great at first.

It would be interesting to ask their opinion 6 months on, when maybe the cheap foams typically used in these sorts of chair have flattened out and become uncomfortable, or the lack of adjustment options have started to affect their comfort and posture.

By all means look at the chairs others post about, then check the specification closely to see if they include the essential features any good office chair needs.

Read product reviews, look at users comments on shopping sites like Amazon and remember sub $100 chairs are highly unlikely to provide a lasting solution for your working comfort and needs.

In my last post I began by looking at whether your office chair is the right size for you pointing out the majority of office chairs are made for people of average height as well as how the size of seat may be less than ideal for you.

Let’s continue with some other important things to consider.

Does the seat height adjustment suit your height? Here’s a quick rule of thumb, stand without shoes on and measure from the floor to your knee joint at the back of your leg. Make sure that your chair’s seat height is able to adjust to this length as it will be pretty close to what you need. When correctly seated your feet should be squarely on the floor.

Next, is your chair’s seat depth right for you? When sitting there should be a gap of about 3 to 4 inches between the front edge of the chair seat and the back of your legs. As a quick check, can you place your clenched fist between the chair edge and your legs?

When there is little or no gap or conversely your legs overhang far more, then you’ll be unlikely to get comfortable in the chair. If your chair has seat depth adjustment adjust it to suit your needs, unfortunately far too few chairs include this function and so you may not be able to make the required adjustment.

Finally can you adjust your seat’s back height so that it gives comfortable support to your back, particularly your lower back? If not you’re going to struggle to find lasting comfort in your chair.

You can find further details on how to correctly adjust your office chair in this article.

I spend a good deal of time surfing the web reading topics related to office chairs and I am frequently surprised at the vitriolic comments about certain products, particularly good quality ones.

No doubt some of these views are justified but I suspect that a lot of them are not and this is a real shame, as it could put someone off considering an excellent chair due to the prejudice or ignorance of others.

So, why does this happen? There seems to be 3 main reasons.

1. Not trained in how to use the chair

This is probably the biggest reason and perhaps isn’t all that surprising given that few companies seem to take the trouble to show their people how to adjust their chair correctly.

I recently saw a comment by someone who said that their chair was very stiff and was constantly trying to catapult them out of the seat.

This was clearly a case of poor adjustment and not knowing how to adjust it, as the chair in question has excellent tension adjustment to cater for virtually any size or weight of user.

2. Don’t like the chair’s appearance

This is quite a common reason, the image of the chair in the user’s mind didn’t match their reality, the color was wrong, the back wasn’t high enough etc.

This can also often happen when the user didn’t have any say in the chair’s selection, purchasing went ahead and got them a new one.

3. Chair has an unusual feature

Often a chair will have an unusual feature that the user takes an instant dislike to, sometimes it’s justified, other times it’s not.

A good example of this is the Aeron pellicle upholstery, which probably gets more bad comments than anything I’ve seen. Nonetheless, it also gets a lot of praise, so it really is down to personal preference.

So, if you are considering buying a particular model of chair and come across a negative comment, don’t let that one comment put you off. Look around for other opinions, ask questions in forums, check reviews on epinions.com and try and get a more balanced opinion.

You can always ask for my help by firing me a question through the contact us form and I’ll give you my thoughts on your concerns.