Back and neck pain is something that more and more of us have to deal with nowadays. These aches start to appear much earlier in life too and that trend is likely to continue with the number of desk jobs increasing every year. All that makes it paramount that we find a way to deal with the various muscular, bone, cardiovascular, and neurological problems that come from bad posture.
This is where good chairs come in. The best ergonomic chairs on the market are expertly made to help us deal with our bad posture and maintain good health while working and resting. Yes, proper exercise is also necessary but when you have to spend 8 to 12 hours a day sitting down, the way you do that is crucial as well.
So, let’s go over the 7 main benefits of the best ergonomic chairs on the market right now. There are thousands of different models out there, each with its own specific features but the seven benefits below are generally something you can expect from any good ergonomic chair.
The 7 benefits of ergonomic chairs
Most of the benefits of ergonomic chairs focus on helping us improve and maintain our health while a few are there just as luxury add-ons.
1. Start improving your posture with an ergonomic chair
Good posture is very much like any other habit – it needs time and effort to become a part of our daily life. Unfortunately, bad posture is just too comfortable at first – slouching just feels right when we’re young. That’s because it’s not natural for our bodies to be sitting still for too long every day.
So, a good ergonomic chair is important to help us keep our bodies in the right posture. With the right chair, we don’t need to even think about it – the chair just keeps our posture right. And, with enough time, the correct posture just becomes natural to us, like a well-established habit.
2. Help alleviate lower back pain with the proper lumbar support
Our lower backs are one of the most problematic areas for people who have to work sitting down all day. That’s entirely due to non-ergonomic chairs. When our posture isn’t getting enough lumbar support the entire weight of our upper bodies just falls on our lower back.
Yes, getting a lumbar support pillow helps but a good ergonomic chair does even more than that – it improves the way we position our lower bodies too which further helps alleviate the pressure on our lower backs.
3. Deal with or prevent neck pain
Neck pain is the other most problematic area for people who have to work desk jobs all day. In some ways it’s even worse than lower back pain – neck problems can lead to anything from chronic pain, through tinnitus (permanent ringing in the ears), to permanent nerve damage and loss of function in the limbs.
The best ergonomic chairs help deal with that by introducing the simplest of additions that many other chairs just don’t have – neck support. With the proper neck support and the right posture underneath it, all neck problems can be avoided or mitigated if they have already started developing.
4. Work to relieve hip pressure
Hip pressure is often overlooked when we talk about problems caused by bad chair posture. That’s both because it’s a bit slower to develop and because it’s not as related to the spine. Plus, hip replacement surgeries are becoming better and better these days.
But why let it get to that when a good ergonomic chair can keep your hips safe instead? With the right posture and the proper feet, hips, and back support, you can ensure that your hips will remain healthy and fully operational well into your golden years.
5. Get the right chair to boost your productivity
Fixing all these posture problems is not just great for our health – it’s fantastic for our productivity too. We often don’t think about it but having to correct your posture every two minutes, wincing in pain all the time, and just generally feeling uncomfortable takes away a huge chunk of our productivity every day.
So, if you work from a desk or you have office employees, one of the best ways to boost your/their productivity is to get the best ergonomic chair(s) available.
6. Look fashionable while improving your health
Ergonomic chairs are meant for much more than just being pretty. At the end of the day, our spine’s health is more important than our vanity. Nevertheless, the best ergonomic chairs can do both. So, if you want your desk or office to look as best and as presentable as possible, investing in a good office chair is a great thing to do.
7. Get a good chair to last you a long time
Another thing people often ignore is that the best ergonomic chairs are also made to last. That’s a big reason why quality is important in this niche – while a cheap chair will both fail your posture and break in a couple of years, a good ergonomic chair can save your health and last decades too.
That’s why, even if their price tag fills you with uneasiness at first, good ergonomic chairs are actually much more affordable than sub-par ones if you spread their price over the entire length of their lifespan. That, and all the medical bills they will save you.
In conclusion
Ergonomic chairs are one of those furniture pieces that we know we have to get but we postpone, often indefinitely. Even when we’re aware that we need one and that our current sub-par desk chairs are slowly ruining our back, neck, spine, hips, and shoulders, we still often think “Maybe next week”. And we do that until it’s too late.
Getting the right ergonomic chair is not just a necessity, it’s often an urgency too, even if we don’t realize it at the time. That’s how many benefits the best ergonomic chairs bring to the table.