Have you taken the time to study your new gaming chair with all its functions and actually adjusted it to your needs? A good gaming chair or office chair can only fulfill its purpose if it is used correctly. Prior to use, individual height adjustment of chair and desk must be done, to allow a healthy sitting posture in an ergonomic work environment.
- Most important for a correct posture is the right chair size. This Chair Size Guide can help you narrow down the search.
Ho to properly adjust the chair:
A gaming chair or office chair needs to be adjusted to the individual occupant’s bodily dimensions. For best ergonomic sitting work your way up.
- Adjust the seat height, feet are flat on the ground while your knees form a 90 degrees angle
- Adjust the backrest and the lumbar support
- Seat depth and tilt need to be adjusted
- Set the armrest height, your arms rest relaxed without lifting your shoulders
- Correctly adjust the desk height – upper arms and forearms are at a right angle (90 degrees) and forearms and hands are in line with the desk surface
How to sit in a Gaming Chair
To sit correctly and comfortably in your gaming chair, the chair must be perfectly adjusted in its entirety to the occupant first, and in the next step the workplace, i.e. the desk, screen, and other peripherals are adjusted to the user’s sitting habits.
The right seat height
The height of the chair depends on the length of the lower leg. While the feet are flat on the ground, the upper and lower legs should form an angle larger than 90 degrees in the knee. Depending on comfort, the angle may be even larger so that your thigh forms a sloping line to the knee, the knees are lower than your hips.
Important is that you always have good contact with both feet to the floor. Your upper body and your thighs should also be at an angle of no less than 90 degrees when your back leans against the backrest. When chairs are set too low or too high, unnecessary muscle tension, strain in the back, instability, and back pain is the consequence.
Seat tilt adjustment
Good chairs need to have a seat tilt adjustment which allows the seat pan to be slightly tilted forward. This will bring your pelvis slightly forward, promoting a healthy sitting posture your spine favors.
Seat depth
The correct seat depth, the length of the seat from the front edge to the backrest, is determined by the length of your thighs. Between the seat edge and the calf should be a gap of about two to four-finger wide, while your pelvis and back have contact with the backrest. It is important to avoid the edge of the chair pressing into the back of your calves as this could restrict blood circulation in the legs.
Adjust the backrest and back tilt
Next, adjust the lumbar support so the lumbar cushion feels comfortable in the curve of your lower back. It may need some time to get used to the slight pressure in your lumbar area.
Adjust the back tilt so you sit in an upright posture. A slight pressure from the backrest supporting the natural curve of your backbone should put your head above your pelvis.
Armrests
Armrests are very helpful as they relieve the shoulder, neck, and upper back from the weight of the arms. Correctly adjusted in height, the armrest will have the forearms rest relaxed, while the shoulders are neither pulled up nor fall down. The angle between the upper and lower arm should be 90 degrees. The armrests and the desktop should line up.
Good chairs have armrests that can also be adjusted sideways. If this is the case, they are meant to be adjusted according to the width of the shoulder girdle of the chair occupant. When properly adjusted both arms should be in a natural position while resting on the armrest without being pushed outward or pushed against the torso.
Desk Height And Screen Positioning
Desk Height – So that everything is perfect, the desk height must be adjusted so that the upper and lower arms form a right angle, while the forearms lie horizontally on the table.
Screen Height – To minimize the strain on the shoulder and neck areas, the screen must be aligned so that the eyes are approximately level with the upper third of the screen
The backrest supports the spine
When you sit in a gaming chair or any chair for that matter, you want to keep the spine in a natural position similar to when standing upright. To achieve this while sitting, the contact between the back and the backrest is very important.
The backrest should not only be comfortable but also offer ergonomic support. This is achieved by designing the backrest to follow the natural curve of the spine. A good chair also has special lumbar support in the lower area of the backrest. This may be an adjustable pillow or protrusion in the backrest that supports the lower spine, an area where back problems are common. This lumbar support can initially feel unusual or even uncomfortable when you are still new to sitting in a good ergonomic chair. But after a few days of sitting in your new chair, you will get used to it and notice the benefits of sitting in a better posture.
Top gaming chairs not only have an adjustment option to regulate the protrusion of the lumbar support, but you can also adjust the height of it.
A height and tilt adjustable head and neck support can offer additional support and relieves the shoulder and neck area. The head and neck support may be of little use in an upright working position. However, this changes the moment you lean back in your chair. When you lean back, whether you just relax a little from work or look at your monitor for a while, then your head too can rest comfortably and that allows muscles and tendons to relax.
Synchronous Tilt Mechanics vs. Asynchronous Tilt mechanics – advantages and disadvantages
Among the types of tilt mechanisms, there are two popular types of it to adjust the angle of inclination between the seat and backrest.
Synchronous tilt mechanism
The synchronous mechanism couples the inclination of the backrest with the inclination of the seat. When the chair occupant leans back, the inclination of the seat pan changes at the same time.
Asynchronous tilt mechanism
In the asynchronous tilt mechanism, however, the inclination angle of the backrest and seat are adjusted separately. Depending on the activity, the sitting posture can be customized by the chair occupant.
Ergonomic sitting at the desk
Get the best chair you can afford, don’t buy the cheapest. After the chair is set and properly adjusted, the desk, as well as the monitor, needs to be adjusted too.
- The height of the gaming desk should line with the top of the armrests, so arms may rest partly on the table, partly on the armrests. Modern quality desks are always height adjustable.
- Adjust your computer monitor so its height is in line with your visual axis and its distance to your eyes is that of your arm’s length.
- The keyboard and mouse should be placed about one hand wide from the edge of the desk.
But remember, even having the most ergonomic workplace or gaming set up, it is important to take regular breaks, to get up and move and stretch to avoid health problems related to extended sitting.
Why Chair Size Matters When Sitting
Adopting a healthy posture when sitting in your gaming chair and sitting dynamically is essential to well-being and maintaining productivity. But all of this only works if you have a chair that is the right size for your height and body weight.
- When the chair is too small, the backrest may be too low so that the spine is not given enough support. If the seat depth is too short, you would be forced into an unhealthy sitting posture.
- And if the chair is too big, you will literally sink into it, and never mind how good or expensive the chair is, its ergonomic features would be of no benefit.
Standard chairs are often designed for average body sizes. But since many people are either short or much taller than the average person, you have to really pay more attention to choosing the right size than only looking at the chair price.
Fortunately, most manufacturers also have chairs for extra small people or chairs for tall and heavy people. So when buying a chair, always make sure that the body size corresponds to the recommended chair specifications and then test the chair for a while.
If you then notice that you simply cannot get comfortable in your new chair, it may not be the right one and you need to find a better model.
