Don’t Sit Up Straight

There is more to the perfect office chair than meets the eye. First of all, if the backrest is stiff and straight and is not capable of reclining, then this is not the chair for you. The sign of a good office chair is a chair that will enable your back to adapt its natural form. Did you know that our natural sitting position is not “upright”? We do not naturally sit up straight, so if your chair makes you sit that way, then most likely, you will have back aches due to stress. Remember that you have to sit on these chairs for at least eight hours a day. Comfort and stress can be a really big deal.

Medical researchers have confirmed that sitting up straight is indeed not the best position for you. The human spine needs to be at its most relaxed position. Using magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, they have discovered that the ideal office chair is the one that allows an angle of over 125 degrees between the thighs and the torso, to correct the posture and protect the discs in your back. On the other hand, a 90-degree sitting angle was discovered to compress the spine and lead to possible pain and long-term back problems.

“When pressure is put on the spine it becomes squashed and misaligned,” Dr. Waseem Bashir, the leader of this research has said in an interview. “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.”

So the next time you sit on your office chair, think again. You might not be relaxed mentally, but you do not have to stress your physical comfort too. If you feel uncomfortable, go ahead and tell the HR your very important concern. After all, they should know that productivity relies on the comfort of the worker.