What to Look For in an Ergonomic Office Chair (Task Chair)

If you want a new office chair for work or home, give careful consideration to the features that the chair offers in terms of adjustments and position alterations.
A good ergonomic office chair will keep you comfy, alert and refreshed, whilst a poor chair will leave you with aches, tension and concentration difficulties.
When it comes to buying a chair remember that, like a bed, you will spend up to one third of every day using it.
This makes it critical to your health and well worth spending your hard earned money on.
What to look for If you spend several hours a day in a seated position, particularly when using a PC, laptop, or crouched over a desk, you need a good supportive chair.
In order for this chair to work properly it needs to be customised or fitted to your proportions, activity and comfort.
The best way to achieve this is to buy a chair that has multiple adjustments enabling you to vary features like the chair's height and the angle (or rake) of the backrest.
Features like these are found on most task chairs, however these limited adjustments simply make a chair bearable rather than comfortable and supportive.
If you really want a good ergonomic task chair, then you need to be able to alter features like the following:

• Seat angle adjustment - the angle, offset to the horizontal, of a chair's seat is probably the single most important adjustable feature to look for after seat height movement.
  Most people who work at a desk are surprised at just how much of a forward tilt they prefer when having a tilt option on their chair.
  This feature is enhanced if the seat has a "waterfall" front and results in the seated person sitting upright with their weight being correctly transferred downwards and their back supporting itself.
  
• Seat depth adjustment - different people have different lengths to their legs, some are short and some are long.
  Being able to extend or withdraw the seat (i.
  e.
  pull it in or out) makes it possible to gain maximum support for the thighs without placing pressure close to the back of the knees.
  
• Backrest height adjustment - most backrests have a fixed or adjustable lumbar support zone.
  This is simply a portion of the backrest's padding that projects outward to fill the gap in the small of the back.
  But for this lumbar support to work it needs to be manoeuvred into the correct anatomical position for each individual.
  Having an adjustable backrest that slides (with a ratchet mechanism) up and down allows this lumbar zone to be positioned perfectly.
  
• Backrest recline - in a good chair this feature is often overrated and unnecessary as the user will tend to find a position where the backrest is only used when leaning back, e.
  g.
  when reading something.
  Even so, being able to vary the backrest angle allows different back support positions to be set and adjusted.
  

Other adjustable ergonomic chair features include:

• An inflatable lumbar support balloon in the backrest.
  
• Armrests, which should be height adjustable and may also have a twist (in or out) motion to help align the arms with any given task, e.
  g.
  typing.
  
• A headrest, which is more of a gimmick than a useable feature, unless you intend to nod off.
  
• A breathable mesh backrest that prevents sweatiness, but which is more of a gimmick than a real feature.