Choose the right chair for your workspace at home Work from home is the new normal! Mostly everyone is working from home nowadays hence creating a comfortable and productive workplace has never been so important. People make the mistake of underestimating this task and instead of looking for a good ergonomic chair, they go for the cheapest one. The drawback of this mindset is not just that low-quality cheap products require to be replaced more frequently but it's the bad chairs lead to several health problems and also loss of work productivity and efficiency. A chair on its own is not enough. It has to be individualized as per the anthropometry of the individual and also with the height of the table and the lighting of the workspace. If we go by the calculations one will get to know that we all spend a lot of time working hence you need to buy the right chair for both office and home. Let's know some of the reasons behind it. Reasons why you need the right ergonomic office chair – To maintain comfort and good health. The best chair is the one on which you can sit for long hours without discomfort or pain. Some chairs will seem to be fine at first but by the end of the day, the pain in the back will speak for itself. If your chair isn't right, it will affect your sitting posture and it will cause serious health issues. THE RIGHT ERGONOMIC CHAIR SHOULD– Keep your feet flat Provide a little gap between the back of your knee and the front edge of the chair Allow your knees to be a little lower than the level of your hips Allow you to change positions It is always said prevention is always better than cure. Good ergonomic chairs are designed by keeping the individual body in mind which provides comfort with proper lumbar support. According to the studies it has been found that lack of lumbar support leads to pressure and strain on the muscles and reduction of blood flow in spinal tissue damaging the disc and pinched nerves in the back. Chairs with lumbar support avoid this situation by maintaining proper blood circulation which promotes comfort and provides correct posture that in turn makes you healthy and reduces back issues. Gaming Chairs: Are They Good For Your Back And Posture? There is a lot of buzz around gaming chairs, but are gaming chairs good for your back? Besides the flamboyant looks, how do these chairs help? This post discusses how gaming chairs provide support to the back leading to an improved posture and for better work performance. It also discusses how having better posture means overall wellbeing in the long run. Sitting in cheap office chairs for a prolonged period leads to poor posture. Poor posture also affects your mood. A bad posture affects the position of your bones, muscles, and internal organs in the body. This exerts pressure on your muscles and tendons, leading to conditions that can be hard to reverse. You may experience trouble sitting for long hours or even sitting at all. Slouching also causes breathing problems, stiffness in the joints, and poor circulation. All of this can lead to chronic fatigue. It is a major concern, given the modern sedentary lifestyles. The journey of our ancestors from hunter-gatherers to farmers resulted in decreased mobility and lower limb strength. Today, an average American spends 13 hours sitting and 8 hours sleeping per day; 21 hours of sedentary time. A sedentary lifestyle is bad for your back, but it’s an inevitable outcome of modern work. It’s true that sitting for too long is bad for your back regardless of the kind of chair you use, but a cheap office chair increases the likelihood of health risks in two ways. Cheap chairs encourage sloppy sitting habits ii. A saggy spine causes severe strain on the neck, back, and shoulders. Besides having a comfortable sitting experience, gaming chairs also provide support to your back, neck, and shoulders. Unlike the office chairs, gaming chairs are ergonomically designed, keeping in view the sedentary lifestyle. Even the padded chairs may do no service. A well-built gaming chair supports your lower and upper back, shoulders, head, neck, arms, and hips. A good gaming chair helps to maintain the correct posture. When your head is correctly positioned, the strain is taken off your neck. Also, properly aligned spine reduces the back pain. When your hips are in the right posture, you can comfortably sit for long periods of time. Sit Back, It's Better for Your Back A new study suggests that sitting upright for hours at a time -- for example, when working at a computer -- may lead to chronic back pain. Instead, the best position for your back is somewhat reclined, sitting at a 135-degree angle rather than the 90-degree angle most office chairs are designed for. "A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal," says researcher Waseem Amir Bashir, MBChB, clinical fellow in the department of radiology and diagnostic imaging at the University of Alberta Hospital, Canada, in a news release. "Sitting in a sound anatomic position is essential, since the strain put on the spine and its associated ligaments over time can lead to pain, deformity and chronic illness." Bashir presented the results of the study this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago. Comparing Sitting Positions Back pain is one of the most common causes of work-related disability in the U.S. and helping to identify bad seating postures may help protect the spine and prevent injury. Using "positional" magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) researchers studied the sitting positions of 22 healthy volunteers with no history of back pain. The MRI machine allowed freedom of motion, such as sitting or standing, during imaging. Conventional MRI machines require the patient to lie flat and may mask some causes of back pain. Researchers used the MRI to examine spinal positioning while the participants assumed three different sitting positions: slouching forward (such as hunched over a desk or video game console), an upright 90-degree sitting position, and a relaxed position with the back reclined backward about 135 degrees while the feet were still on the floor. What Is a Lift Chair? A lift chair is a recliner-style seat that uses a motor to help a person safely and easily get out of it from a seated position. The powerlifting mechanism inside pushes the entire chair up from its base to assist the user to stand up. While it might sound like a luxury, for many people, it's a necessity. Lift chairs can also help seniors sit down from the standing position safely and comfortably. “For seniors who struggle to stand up or sit down, this [assistance] can help decrease pain and potentially ease anxiety,” says Josie Rhoades, vice president of clinical operations at BrightStar Care, a national private-duty home care and medical staff franchise. Seniors who struggle to sit or stand on their own can end up overly relying on their arms and may end up slipping or harming themselves. The reclining positions of lift chairs also provide benefits. “Seniors often require the use of a lift chair because the chair’s lifting and reclining positions help elevate their legs to reduce the excess buildup of fluid and improves circulation in their legs,” says Rhoades. Types of Lift Chairs According to Rhoades, there are three main types of lift chairs: Two-position. The most basic option, this lift chair reclines to a 45-degree angle, allowing the person seated to lean back slightly. It contains one motor, which controls the chair's lifting capabilities, reclining capabilities and the footrest. “When the backrest reclines, the footrest must extend,” says Rhoades. “They cannot operate independently of each other.” These chairs are generally used for watching television and/or reading, and they don’t take up too much space. Three-position. This lift chair reclines further to an almost flat position. It is powered by one motor, which means the footrest doesn't operate independently of the backrest. “The person seated will be positioned in a slight ‘V’ formation at the hips with the backrest reclined and their knees and feet higher than their hips,” says Rhoades. Because it reclines so far, this chair is ideal for napping and helpful for seniors who aren't able to sleep lying flat in a bed. Infinite position. The most versatile (and typically the most expensive) option, an infinite position lift chair offers a full recline with both the backrest and the footrest parallel to the floor. “Infinite position lift chairs usually contain two motors,” says Rhoades. “The first motor typically controls the backrest, and the other controls the footrest, allowing for seniors to be properly positioned in seated position with their legs extended in front.” Before buying an infinite position lift chair (sometimes called a zero-gravity chair), consult with your doctor, as it's not safe for some seniors to be in this position. What Wood Is Best for Chair Making? Chairs can be built from any wood available. For fine furniture, the hardwoods are the best choice, but some of the most comfortable chairs are built from some of the softest woods. Some of the hardwood chairs take special blades, while most of the softer woods can be used with any tools available to the handyman. If you are going to build a mission-style chair, use hardwood. For an Adirondack-style chair, go with soft. For traditional strength and longevity, no other wood lasts like oak. It has a tight grain pattern that is somewhat chaotic. This means that it is unlikely to split down the grain pattern. It's not prone to shrinking as much as other semi-hard woods, and has that familiar look of fine furniture. There are two species most commonly used to make oak chairs — American red oak and American white oak, with white oak being the harder with a tighter grain. These hardness characteristics can also mean that it is harder to work with. Chairs Made of Mahogany The availability of mahogany worldwide makes it an obvious choice for making chairs. Bassett Furniture notes that this wood is lighter in weight than some other types of wood, but it is strong as oak. Mahogany's warm colors and semi-soft texture make it easy to work with. It is straight grained, blends well and is reasonably stable due to straight-grain patterns that are usually laminated, making a mahogany chair almost split proof. Mahogany grows on every continent, therefore, there are probably more mahogany chairs in the world than any other specific wood. Chairs Made of Maple Maple has an extremely tight grain pattern that is also chaotic like oak. On a hardness scale maple is the second hardest domestic hardwood available, second only to birch, which is rarely used for furniture. Maple has a warm, light-colored glow that makes it great for chairs, but only the sharpest, carbide-tip saws and drill bits are recommended for milling maple. Glue will sometimes fail to adhere to the smooth, hard surface on the inside of dowel holes. Care and patience need to be applied when building a chair out of maple.