Sitting in a chair often leads to slouching and slumping, which in turn creates bad posture and stiff or painful neck, shoulders and back. An ergonomically designed chair that helps support the back, or an alternative chair that encourages active sitting on the part of the user, can help to improve posture and relieve back strain.
Adjustable Desk Chair with Footrest
A highly adjustable desk chair with a footrest maximizes the ability to design a sitting space that reduces spinal pressure, resulting in good posture and relief from neck and back stiffness. Elevating your feet while seated by placing them on a footrest or stack of phone books helps to shift the center of gravity backward and improve posture, according to Northwestern Health Sciences University.
Adjust your chair height so that the desk or work surface is elbow-height; the backrest of the chair should press against the lower back and support the spine all the way to the neck. An office chair with adjustable height, backrests,and arm rests will allow you to set these adjustments properly for your individual body dimensions.
Kneeling Chair
Chiropractic doctor Rodney K. Lefler, writing for the website Spine Health, recommends a kneeling chair to encourage good posture. A kneeling chair has a forward-slanting seat and no back. Instead of leaning back in the chair, the user's knees rest against a pad in front of the slanted seat; the hips slide forward, which helps to align the spine, neck and shoulders. This reduces spinal compression, according to Dr. Lefler, and allows the spine to rest in a more natural and comfortable position.
Balance Chair
Yanko Designs, a web magazine featuring innovations in industrial design, recommends an unusual balance chair created by designer Yoon-Hee Kim. The balance chair improves posture in a very active fashion: The center of the chair seat rests on a pivot bar running from the front to the back of the seat cushion support. If the person sitting in the chair does not sit with her weight equally balanced from side to side and her back upright, the chair seat tilts on the pivot bar like a see-saw. To remain seated on the chair, the user must maintain an upright posture and distribute her weight evenly from side to side. The chair seat is set within a modern tubular chrome frame sized to slide under most desks when not in use.
Exercise Ball Chair
A large exercise ball used as a chair requires the user to make constant small motions to stay aligned on the ball without rolling off. This helps improve circulation in the legs, according to Dr. Lefler. The exercise ball chair precludes slouching, as inattention to sitting upright will send the user rolling off of the chair. The constant repositioning necessary to stay seated squarely on the ball will naturally improve posture.
Member Comments