With the hours that employees spend seated in their office chair in this, the computer age, it is important to remember to practice good ergonomics and keep the correct positioning throughout the day. Ergonomics are the key to a healthy body, back and neck when working long hours in your task chair. When you sit in your office chair, you should adjust it to the proper position first, remembering a simple checklist of setup motions.
You need to first be educated in the proper ergonomic posture in order to get an idea of what position your spine should take. Ergonomic posture information can be found in detailed explanantions in the first 3 articles of this ergonomic series. This will help you to keep the proper postion throughout the day and varying tasks.
Start by checking your elbow placement. They should rest comfortably at or above the working surface. You can get the proper height by varying your keyboard tray height or using seat height adjustment to get the proper placement for your elbows. This is a very important feature in proper ergonomics for those working at a computer, typing or using the mouse for long periods of time. Your wrist needs to stay in a relaxed position and the elbow height to desk height should help this motion become easier.
Next you need to check the backrest involving checking your torso and upperlegs. The desired ergonomic position is not an upright position as many may think. The correct ergonomic position of your seat back is at a slight angle. A true ergonomic task office chair would feature a tilt mechanism with locking positions allowing the user to keep the chair in the perfect posture at all times. If yours does not feature this mechanism, you simply need to remember to sit back and keep your chairs tilt tension control perfect in order to allow reclining motion.
Your feet should always be on the floor. If you have adjusted your seat to accomodate your elbow to desk heights but now your feet are not Flat on the floor, you will need to get a small footrest in order to keep your feet flat. Your upper arms and lower arms should be at 90 degree to 120 degree and you can accomplish this by moving your chair closer or farther away from your workstation, again helping with the wrist positioning.
After you have adjusted your chair and desk, you next need to work on your computer monitor. The top of your monitor should be at or below the normal vision line. Many people make the mistake of placing their monitor up higher or on a platform to save space. However, this is very damaging, not only to your eyes but especially to muscles in your neck. Saving your neck from constantly being put in the wrong postition will save you from many back problems later on.
Also know that when you are performing different tasks, your chair might require adjustment with each job to adequately stay in the ergonomic positioning needed. When you are typing at your computer your body is in a completely different form than when stapling, using the mouse or taking notes. Your chair may need to adjust to these tasks at different workstations and some tweaking of the chair is required.
Proper ergonomics can save your body, back, neck, and arms from damage caused by even the simplest of everyday office tasks. Once you have practiced proper ergonomics for some time and placed your chair in the correct position, your back is sure to notice and thank you.
Ezine Platinum Author: Amy Lieberfarb currently runs two online websites dedicated to Ergonomic Office Chairs and Furniture. Providing information on how to pick the right ergonomic chair and featuring hundreds of different chairs to choose from, the site is very informative.
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Specializing in Office Furniture and Ergonomic Chairs.
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The author also features many other articles with more information on ergonomics and proper positioning as well as purchasing office chairs and furniture online.
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