It’s not just the chair….

Well hello again!

In the hunt for a good chair for you, one thing most people don’t consider is that how they work at the desk means they could be sitting on a rock, for all the good the chair is going to do you.

I’ve seen some rather…. interesting search terms on google- chairs for short, petite chairs, chairs for petite people, chairs for small, chairs for tiny people- you get the point?

If you’re not that tall, try using a foot rest. The type that move are great, allowing you actually move your legs while seated increase blood flow and reduce pressure points. In fact, had a 5′2″ customer in this morning, the second thing I showed her was a foot rest and she was amazed at the difference in how she sat.

Think about it, when you’re shorter, the weight of your legs is not supported, so they are actually pulling your body out from the back of the chair. When your legs are supported, you end up sitting back into the chair as you’re supposed to do. It really does feel good, try it!

Here’s a picture of the Humanscale foot rest (commercial plug- ) available at SitBetter.com

Some like how this rolls easily, but I’ve found that is not a universal preference. Sitting in a chair with wheels on very thin carpet, floor mat or hardwood floor, some people find themselves actually moving about a bit much.

This is not a problem in areas with thicker carpet, since the chair does not tend to move easily.

If you feel that may be an issue for you, try this sort. It does not move as easily, and there are little rubber stoppers on the legs to keep it stable, in fact.

Again, the main purpose of these is to give the feet a platform on which to support. There are many out there from which to choose, just consider that it’s going to help adapt your environment to your body type, which is a far better thing than trying to force your body to adapt to your environment!

For more information (of course, another crass commercial plug!), contact me here or at Sitbetter.com!

Buying a New Office Chair

First off, I’ll always be honest, my site is sitbetter.com (I’ll try not to be too blatent, this’ll be good information!). That disclaimer over….

When buying a new office chair online, you can get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of office chairs out there. Different sites categorize them in different ways, so how can you find the chair which is right for you? I am going to restrict this to chairs which are certified as business qualified by BIFMA (Business and Industrial Furniture Manufacturer’s Association).

First you have to define what chair you ‘need’ and ‘want’. Those two terms are separate, of course, what you want might be a big plush, poofy, leather office chair, while what you really need is a smaller task chair or an ergonomic chair. Do you spend a lot of time in the chair doing computer tasks or paperwork? If so, you might want to get a decent computer chair, which might be a task chair or ergonomic chair. If you’re the boss, and don’t really spend a lot of time on the computer, and prefer a comfortable chair that makes a statement, a leather office chair might be the choice for you. There are many different sorts of chairs- modern chairs with lots of chrome, rigid chairs, swivel chairs, big and tall (for those a bit more ample than the average), and the list can go on and on.

One very important point- many of those terms above are interchangable and have no real specific meaning.  Let’s face it… a swivel chair goes ’round and round and round (how many of those are out there!).  So one chair can be a lot different to a lot of different people!
In other words, you need to define what you need in an office chair long before you decide to purchase it.

That being said, how do you choose a chair from all the different internet companies out there offering office chairs?

I really recommend looking at their sites. Do they give you information you need to make an informed decision, or do they simply throw a chair at you and tell you everyone else is buying it? Do they give you a good variety of chairs, or just a handful done over and over again in different colors? Are they authoritative, knowing their product and caring what they give you or just out to make a sale.

You see, there are many different considerations to buying office chairs online, far more than could possibly fit here, so I will try to make sense of the process in future blogs.

Or visit me at sitbetter.com and I’ll help you out!