It is crucial to prioritise your spine’s health, especially if you are working a desk-bound job that requires you to sit for long hours. Ensuring adequate support for your spine and its surrounding region when you sit can help to relieve a great amount of pressure applied on your back, joints, and neck.
With advances in technology and design, workstations are constantly evolving to fit modern requirements for good ergonomics. It is, therefore, easy to make necessary adjustments to your office chair and table. Hence, we have gathered together nine essential ergonomic tips to help you synchronise your office chair and tables to ensure a healthy spine.
Tip #1: Ensure your upper arms are parallel to your spine
When sitting at your table, always ensure that your upper arms are comfortably parallel to your spine. Your hands and forearms should then be properly rested on a flat surface, either your chair arms or the table. Do note that your elbow should be perpendicular. Hence, you might want to elevate or lower the height of your office chair until they are.
Placing your arms unusually lower or high places immense stress on your upper back or shoulder joints, resulting in pain.
Tip #2: Elevate your chair height to support a sit-stand motion
If your seat’s height is too low, you end up bending forward more while getting up, resulting in increased stress applied to your knees, ankle, and hip joints. An adequate seat height is when you can easily have both fit completely flat on the ground with your knees and hips at 90 degrees.
Tip #3: Support your feet if needed
If your office desk or chair is too high and cannot be adjustable, you might want to consider getting a footstool or any high-enough object to prop and rest your feet instead of leaving them to hang all day long.
Supporting your feet helps reduce the pressure applied on your feet and legs, decreasing foot pain common with the lack of proper foot support.
Tip #4: Match your work surface to your height
If you are tall or find yourself constantly having to bend over to read printed materials or type on your keyboard, you might need to consider getting a taller office desk. Raising your desk height by getting one of our many adjustable tableswill give you free rein to adjust your desk height to the right level for your height, which will reduce back strains.
Tip #5: Adjust the depth of your seat
Your seat’s depth might not be something you are aware of. However, it is a crucial element in alleviating any back pains. The depth of your seat refers to the length of the seat itself, from the front to the back side of the seat.
To measure proper seat depth, you will first have to sit all the way towards the back of the chair. Then, using your fist, check if there is enough room to fit your fist between your calves and the front edge of the chair. If you can, it means there is enough space for proper blood circulation. If not, your chair is too deep.
If you own an ergonomic chair, you are likely to adjust the seat’s depth accordingly. If not, changing your current chair to one or inserting a pillow, rolled-up towel, or cushion in between the back of the seat and your back might help.
Tip #6: Adjust the chair’s back support and recline
If your office chair offers reclining options, you should lock and restrict that motion to ensure that your chair is angled up to or slightly past 90 degrees, which provides adequate back support. In addition, some office chairs offer adjustable lumbar support for additional back support. Adjust them accordingly to fit properly.
Tip #7: Re-evaluate the way you sit
Making a conscious and deliberate effort to sit all the way to the back of the seat, not slouching, can be hard at first. However, with time, you will get used to it, and it will be second nature. To ensure that you are maintaining the right posture while sitting, do stand and move around every hour or so.
Tip #8: Watch your screen’s height
Once your chair and table have been properly adjusted, it is critical to ensure that your screen is ergonomically adjusted. The best ergonomic height for your screen is such that when you practise healthy sitting habits, you should be staring straight at the centre of the screen. Hence, if your screen allows adjustment of height level, do so until you achieve the right height.
If it is raised to the maximum height and you still are not able to achieve good ergonomic height, or if your computer screen is non-adjustable, then getting a sit-stand desk converter or a monitor raiser will help you get that additional height.
Tip #9: Adjust your armrest for better shoulder support
The armrest plays a crucial role in eliminating shoulder and neck strains, which are some of the reasons why people slouch.
Adjusting your armrest such that your arms are slightly raised at the shoulders will allow better support at the elbow, relieving any weight at the shoulder.
Conclusion
It is vital to make ergonomic efforts to synchronise your office chair and table to correct your posture and relieve unnecessary pain. If you find yourself in the market to purchase a new workstation set-up, do consider TakeAseat.sg. We are a furniture shop in Singapore that specialises in ergonomic products, from chairs to adjustable study tables and even accessories, such as kids’ bags, keyboards, and desktop mice. Do check us out at https://www.takeaseat.sg/ to find out more!
