How to choose an office chair? It is not an easy choice, because a good office chair for working (or smart working or even for home office) must have certain characteristics that make it suitable to support the weight of the body for a long period of time.
Moreover, it is important that an office chair is adjustable in height (possibly also as regards the armrests and not only the seat), so as to be able to adapt to different physiques.
The best office chairs are also equipped with a reclining backrest: an important characteristic for the comfort and ergonomics of an office chair.
The choice is made complex also by the fact that many different models of these chairs are available on the market and that opinions on the office chair are different (there are those who prefer more spartan models, such as the Swedish ones, and those who instead aim at managerial models).
In any case, it is important that an office chair certified uni en1335 and homologated to work 8 hours is able to turn out to be a working tool able to promote a correct posture to avoid physical problems and improve productivity over time.
As far as the adjustment of office chairs is concerned, great attention must be paid to certain elements. In particular:
As far as the dimensions of an ergonomic postural office chair are concerned, there are minimum limits set by the relevant regulations. However, you must remember to choose a chair that is suitable for your body size or at least can be adjusted to fit your body.
A chair that is too small or too large risks proving uncomfortable and creating problems in terms of posture, problems that may result, with the passage of time, in significant pain.
Italian office chairs respect the standard dimensions foreseen by law, but if it is necessary to procure a model suitable for particularly tall or overweight persons, it is possible to find suitable models also in online catalogues.
As far as the materials for an office chair are concerned, they must necessarily be of good quality: this is important to guarantee the comfort and solidity of the chair, as well as its durability.
As for the "skeleton", that is the structure of the chair, it is important that it is made of steel, a material that manages to combine lightness and resistance, even if more expensive than other materials. An interesting alternative can be aluminium, which is even lighter, while plastic and nylon are normally reserved for cheaper office chair models.
If you choose an office chair model with castors, it is also important to choose rubber castors: this is a more expensive material, but one that has a longer lifespan (compared to plastic) and does not risk damaging even the most delicate floors (such as parquet or marble).
A good office chair must have characteristics that make it ergonomic, i.e. able to adapt to the body of the person using it and also to provide the right support, so as to always maintain the right posture and avoid incorrect positions that in the long term can create problems for the neck, shoulders and lumbar region.
For this reason it is necessary to choose a chair that can be adjusted widely and is equipped with armrests and a headrest. In addition, it can be useful, especially in the case of lower back problems, to choose a chair with lumbar support, which will further improve comfort.
The objective of an ergonomic office chair is to offer a correct and restful position for long working hours: the weight of the body must therefore be distributed correctly, not concentrating on a single part and not forcing the spinal column to be compressed.
Among the ergonomic office chairs that are certainly very interesting are the Swedish postural chairs, studied and designed to obtain an absolutely safe working position that avoids the formation of muscular contractures and combats the tendency to bend the back, which is thick after spending a long time sitting.
