Although most manufacturers tend to make their chairs with generous sized seats, if you are very tall and or well built you may find your chair is cramped in the length or width leaving you feeling wedged into it.

This makes it very difficult to get comfortable as it restricts your movements and so consequently you can end up sitting in a very rigid way which is bad news for your posture and muscles.

Fortunately, the answer is pretty simple to fix because just as certain manufacturers realized the need to make below average seat sizes for petite users, a number also produce larger than average sizes.

Frequently these are referred to as Big and Tall chairs which is a good thing as it alerts potential buyers who they are best suited for.

A word of caution though, just because a chair is referred to as big and tall by no means makes it a good chair, it’s just a name with no guaranteed level of quality.

Here are some ideas for quality built big and tall chairs from specialist manufacturers.

First, Neutral Posture really understands the sort of chair needed by well built and or tall users and its NP6000 and NP8000 ranges are well worth a look. You could also consider an Aeron it comes in 3 sizes and likely a size C will be best, you can check here on the size chart, the new Embody is another potential answer. BodyBilt is yet another manufacturer to check out

A lot of office chairs are just plain big and petite and slim built people find them almost impossible to get comfortable in, for some it’s like having to wear size 10 shoes when you real size is a 6, not very practical.

So why does this happen? Well there are 2 reasons, first people frequently buy chairs on looks and more often than not big looks good, it carries a sense of importance.

Second manufacturers try and produce seats fitting the widest spectrum of users and consequently usually make things bigger rather than smaller. I suppose it makes some sense, a small framed user can always fit into a big chair, whereas a large framed person may not be able to sit in a small chair.

You should never buy a chair which looks big and imposing unless you are the right build for such a seat. As a rule of thumb a suitable office chair should leave around an inch at each side of the seat. So, simply measure the distance across the top of your thighs when sitting and then check it against the seat width and make sure it is a good fit for you.

Some of the better quality seating manufacturers recognize the need for producing chairs specifically designed for a petite office chair user and lighter framed people.

So, if you need a more compact sized seat take a look at HÅG H04, HÅG Futu, Aeron or a Neutral Posture 5000 series as these should work well for you.

In the next post I will take a look at seating problems big and tall users face and how to resolve them.

So when was the last time you cleaned or checked your office chair? For a lot of people the answer is can’t remember or worse – never.

It remains a fact the humble office chair is like any other piece of equipment it needs to be cleaned and checked over periodically, nothing too demanding just some common sense things which will help prolong its life.

Here are the things you need to take care of:

• Regular vacuuming
• Cleaning the casters
• Lubricate the gas lift
• Occasional cleaning of the upholstery

You should aim to give your chair a thorough vacuum clean once a week, the upholstery might not look dirty and yet you may be amazed at the amount of dirt it’s concealing.

Try this simple exercise, take off a shoe and give the seat a few smart blows, I bet there were clouds of dust coming out.

The trouble is all those minute particles of dirt act as an abrasive and can shorten the life of the upholstery significantly, so a weekly vacuum will keep them at bay.

Maybe you are finding your chair isn’t moving as easily as it used to, chances are the casters are chocked up with carpet fluff and other grime. Turn your chair upside down and inspect the wheels, if they are full of dust try either vacuuming it out, you may even need to use an aerosol duster which literally blows the dust away.

Once cleaned try spraying with some silicone to keep the parts moving freely, this only needs to be done once or twice a year.

It’s a good idea to occasionally move the seat up and down to keep the gas cylinder in good order. If it’s dry apply a small amount of lubricating oil.

If you have had your chair for some time you may find vacuuming isn’t cleaning the fabric completely and it’s worth using a fabric cleaner to remove stains and ingrained dirt.

Some cleaners although effective can harm the fabric’s natural oils, particularly wool, try and find what the manufacturer suggests is best.

Leather upholstery can become dry and brittle over time, so it’s a good idea to feed and clean it with something like saddle soap. Care should be taken with delicate leathers like nubuck, suede and aniline, leathermagic.com has an excellent range of products designed for this purpose.

An area which is often overlooked is office lighting and if poorly set up can frequently create a lot of problems with screen glare.

If your work space is poorly lit you may find you suffer from eye strain, headaches or back and neck pain caused by putting your body in awkward positions because of inadequate lighting.

Where you work near to a window it’s important to have your office chair correctly positioned, you shouldn’t sit with your back to the window as bright sunlight on your VDU can make it unreadable.

Instead, make sure you are facing the window to avoid direct sunlight hitting your screen. Where it is unavoidable and you have to have a window behind you, look to fitting a window blind so you can control the amount of natural light entering your work area.

If your office has fluorescent lighting it’s important to fit a good quality diffuser to the fitting which has been designed to remove glare and spread light evenly over the work area. Where this isn’t possible you will often find adding task lighting can help to illuminate the desk area removing shadows and giving a more even light distribution.

Another way of tackling this problem is by fitting an anti-glare screen to your VDU screen, these simply clip over your display screen and have polarizing filters designed to cut out glare problems.

Steelcase has an interesting article on office lighting and you will also find further information on anti-glare screens here.

When you work at or use a computer for long periods using the wrong type of chair is not a good idea.

I frequently see comments on social media sites where people complain about their back and legs killing them and admitting they are working in a dining room chair or on a sofa.

These types of seat are just plain bad news for working at a computer for extended periods of time and here’s why.

Take dining room chairs, they may keep you upright however they also keep you fixed and rigid and this is very bad news for your posture and back as aches and pains will soon set in.

Also as the chair is likely 4 legged it won’t swivel when you do, so you’ll be under strain as you twist from side to side.

Sofas are probably even worse for working at your computer, typically a laptop. The soft spongy cushions on the average sofa will soon have you slumping and rounding your back opening up your spine and discs which is not good at all.

So, if you are working regularly at a computer in your home office you need to get a proper ergonomic office chair designed for the job, here are the key features you need to insist on when making a choice.

Here’s a quick check list of 7 things frequently found on junky cheap office chairs, you’ve got to be really unlucky to suffer all 7 of them.

If you’ve got 3 or more then you ought to think seriously about replacing your chair with something better because it’s doing you no favors.

This list isn’t exhaustive, these are just some of the commonest problems.

1. Fixed arms – never seem to be where you want them especially the sort with a great curve in them, like we’ve all got curved forearms haven’t we?

2. Poor back height adjuster – a piece of oval steel on the back plugs into a hole in the back of the seat mechanism. It’s held in place with a single screw knob which just can’t seem to resist working loose all the time. And to hide this piece of non-engineering it maybe has the luxury of a length of concertina black plastic which always manages to ride up and expose the tube it’s supposed to hide.

3. Cheap seat foams – do you find after a short while of sitting back pain and discomfort sets in and it feels like the foam disappeared? Maybe it’s totally flat anyway, give away sign is chair fabric that’s all loose and baggy like clothing someone wore before they dieted.

4. Seat doesn’t tilt – let’s you sit at any angle as long as it’s 90 degrees and after a day sitting like this your body will be aching all over and thinking it’s morphed into a set square.

5. Chair has no tension adjustment – maybe you got lucky and are the same weight the manufacturer made the chair to suit. Chances are though it’s not like this for you, if you’re light built your chair will always dictate to you how you sit in it, you’ll always be fighting it. If you’re well built you may well experience being bounced all over the place because you’re stronger than the chair’s mechanism. Neither scenario is good, you just be comfortable or productive.

6. Seat doesn’t adjust to your leg length – this is still a feature that is the exception rather than the rule on office chairs, 80% don’t have it and yet it’s key to achieving proper seating comfort. Look around any office you’ll see the sufferers, short legged people perched on the seat edge because it’s way too deep. Long legged people sat back in their chair and still their legs overhang the chair edge by a mile.
Are you suffering discomfort as a result of this missing adjustment?

7. Adjustment levers are loose and imprecise – do the adjustment levers on your chair slosh around, are they really awkward to operate and feel like you’re stirring a cake mix? This is a common problem on cheap office chairs caused by poor design and low quality steel allowing excessive wear to build up in the moving parts.

Conclusion

So there you have it 7 tell tale signs which define junky office chairs. If your chair fails inspection on 3 or more of them, chances are you’re pretty fed up with it anyway, so maybe it’s time to look for a quality ergonomic office chair. Here’s a summary of the reviews of some quality office chairs worth looking at.

What are your pet office chair hates?

People sometimes ask how much foam padding they need in an office chair this is something that is largely down to personal preference.

Some just like the idea of generous padding on an office chair others prefer a fairly firm seating surface.

Really deep padding is rarely the best type of because it encourages the body to sink into it and people can often end up being poorly supported as a result of it forcing a poor postural body shape.

If you are unsure about the degree of padding best for you here’s a quick rule of thumb. If you are a slim built person it’s likely you will want more padding than someone of a stockier build.

The reason for this is your bones are nearer the surface and have less flesh around them, consequently you will likely appreciate good padding for comfort. Slim built people may find mesh backed chairs uncomfortable in prolonged use. Also as we age we tend to become a bit bonier, so again padding maybe more suitable for older chair users.

A number of manufacturers make a big play on memory foam, however I’m far from convinced it’s a good idea as it soon flattens and compresses to your shape and unless it’s a thick layer may be uncomfortable. It’s also frequently supplied with heavily contoured shaping and if your butt doesn’t match the shape it’s hardly likely to be comfortable.

Another point to bear in mind with padding is it can have a tendency to make you sweat. So if you are likely to be working in a hot environment without air conditioning you may well find mesh or a breathable fabric is best for you.

There really are no hard and fast rules about chair padding, it’s largely down to individual preference at the same time considering your body build.

Are you one of those people who suffers needless self inflicted pain and discomfort by not paying attention to how you working? You see examples of bad habits every day in the office environment. How about the person cradling the phone between their ear and shoulder?

This is a sure way to develop neck pain because it causes unnatural strain on the neck muscles and chances are, you’re using the same side each time you do it, unwittingly making the problem worse.

What about the slouchers? You know, the ones that lean forward and peer at their computer screen, setting their backs and shoulders in a horrible curve, miles away from their chair back. That chair back is there for a reason, to comfortably support your back.

Get into the habit of sitting with a straight back and adjust your office chair back so it gives you the support you need. If you’ve got a poor chair, think about using a back rest, it can be a great cost effective solution.

Just by correcting these two common bad habits will significantly improve your working comfort as well as doing wonders for your posture going forward.

I realized the other day that my office chair was getting really sluggish and awkward to move when working at my desk. The chair had got the right type of casters so I decided to look further.

It’s got industry standard hooded twin caster wheels and when I turned the chair upside I found they were choked with carpet fluff. I blew it out with compressed air, trouble is the wheel spindles are sealed so it didn’t help.

So this left two alternatives, either fit new casters with the prospect that the problem would come back in the future or buy a chair mat as the wheels would run a lot better on a smooth surface.

I opted for the chair mat and I’m glad I did my chair moves far better now, it’s surprising how conditioned you can get to a less than perfect situation, so problem solved and carpets protected at the same time too.

How important is the correct size of office chair, after all apart from the Aeron, office chairs only come in one size don’t they?

It’s probably fair to say that the vast majority of office chairs are designed to cater for the average sized person, very broadly speaking people between 5 foot 6 inches and 6 foot.

So, people falling outside this average who just go out and buy an office seat they like the look of or are attracted by the price of may very well end up with something quite unsuitable.

And it doesn’t necessarily follow that those in the average height range will end up with something that is right for them.

Some chairs have very large seat pans which aren’t suitable for lighter built users irrespective of their height, less commonly other chairs may have small seat pans that won’t work well for heavier framed people.

Here’s a quick rule of thumb there should be about 1 inch clearance from your upper legs and each side of the seat, so if there’s a huge gap or you’re legs are hanging over the edges it’s less than ideal for you.

In the next post I’ll continue with further help and advice for getting the right size chair for you.