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On average, Americans spend about 38 hours a week working. Most of these hours are spent sitting and many of us spend ample time outside of work hours sitting as well. But the human body wasn’t designed to live a sedentary lifestyle. Spending so much time seated puts a lot of strain and discomfort on your back, builds tightness in your hips, and contributes to bad posture. If you aren’t careful with the way you sit, you can develop back pain that is not only uncomfortable but unhealthy. Finding the best office chair for back painis key to minimizing discomfort and helping you maintain a healthier lifestyle.
We’ve put together a resource to help you find the best office chair for your needs.
If you’re looking for a quick answer to your office back pain needs, check out two of the best office chairs for back pain.
This chair is designed specifically to match the natural S-shaped curve of your back.
It’s easy to let your shoulders slouch into a rounded curve, but this curve causes unnatural strain on your body. Because this chair offers support for your lumbar spine (the area where your spine curves inward toward your body’s core, in your lower back), it really is the best office chair for lower back pain. You can purchase it through Amazon for $1,595.00.
While this is our overall winner for the best office chair for back pain, the price reflects the quality. Your body and health are important, but a chair at this price point may not be in the budget. We’ve got a few other options for you.
In our opinion, this is a winner for the best office chair for back and neck pain. In addition to its lower back support for the lumbar spine, there is also a headrest. The headrest is narrower than the rest of the chair so it can support your neck.You can purchase it from TOPSKEY for $199.99
While these two top-rated office chairs for back painmay have answered all your backpain questions, fixing back pain is like a lollipop, you just have to keep licking to get to the center, and understand how to fix it.
Your back is the main support system of your body, it’s protective, and enables movement. Without keeping your back healthy, you’d lose most of your physical ability and potentially a lot of your sensory ability as well.
While some may call sitting the disease of the 21th Century, the problem isn’t with sitting itself, but rather with sitting for so long. When you spend prolonged periods of time sitting, the muscles in your body begin to adapt. Your legs, core, and back muscles are never engaged, and so your body will slowly loose its strength. The pressure, that can normally be distributed more evenly through your body when standing or moving, is forced onto your spine for an extended time.
When your muscles aren’t regularly engaged, your body begins to build up stiffness. This will begin to limit the amount of physical activity you can and make daily tasks more difficult to complete.
On a psychological level,sitting decreases the breakdown of fat and insulin effectiveness and increases blood pressure and the potential for blood clots to form in your brain.
Your spine is made up the 4 sections. Each section has different sized discs, and a specific role in providing mobility and support
Cervical Spine – supports your skull and allows your head to rotate
Thoracic Spine – attaches to your rib cage, which protects your internal organs around your abdomen
Lumbar Spine – holds most the weight of your body and aids in hip and leg movement
Sacral Spine – connects the spine to your hip bone, forming the pelvis area
The lumbar spine is known for having the largest discs because it carries most of your body’s weight and provides mobility in your hips and legs. Your lumbar spine is susceptible to injury because it plays such a main role in body movement, and why you need to take care to keep it in good health.
Since the vertebrae protects the portion of your central nervous system which runs down your back, a back injury that causes any disruption to your nervous system can be detrimental to your sensory ability. Your brain uses your spine to conduct signals to the rest of your body. Without a path to travel down, your brain is unable to communicate with the rest of your body.
Your back heath is important, but how can you implement a healthy lifestyle at your desk job? Like we mentioned before our bodies were never designed to live a sedentary lifestyle; our bodies were designed to move. So, here are some great ways to have a healthier lifestyle and decrease your potential for back pain.
Be more active both inside and outside of work. Create a consistent workout schedule, one that fits into your daily routine, even if it’s short. Take breaks during your workday to walk around and keep your blood flowing. Incorporate some stretching or yoga into your day.
Be careful with these workouts. If your body isn’t used to stretching, you can injury yourself. Gradually work your way up to daily stretching and make sure all your movements are slow and gentle.
Purchasing a standing desk is another good option to keep yourself from sitting all day. Alternating between sitting and standing gives your back a break from pressure built up from either position. Check out our resource on standing desks to find the best desk for you.
Bad posture curves your shoulders and puts extra pressure on your lower back. Bad posture is often due to having weak core and back muscles. Do some strength training to build stronger muscles in these areas. This way, your muscles will have the stamina to hold good posture and keep your back correctly aligned for the duration of your workday.
Schedule regular appointments with a chiropractor. Chiropractors manipulate your spine to relieve pent-up stress and pressurefrom sitting at a desk all day. Relieving pent-up pressure can be difficult to do on your own, so going to see a chiropractor might be the best decision for you.
Incorporating these activities into your workday is the best option for relieving back pain, but movement is only half the battle. Regardless of how much you move, if you’re spending any portion of your day sitting down, you need to look into the best office chairs for back pain.
There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing the best desk chair for back pain.
These are the most affordable office chairs for back pain. These chairs are designed to provide proper support, so that your back can easily hold its natural positioning. So, pick a chair that will combat your specific area of pain.
This chair has an adjustable headrest which gives you the most comfortable and much-needed support for your neck.
Duramont Ergonomic Office Chair, $239.99
This chair has adjustable armrests. Keeping your armrests parallel with your desk is important to relieve unnecessary strain on your arms and wrists. This pain can contribute to upper back and shoulder pain.
Alera ALEEL42ME10B Elusion Series Mesh Mid-Back Multifunction Chair, $174.02
This office chair has an adjustable seat you can tilt forward or backward to relieve hip stress. The curved-in shape of the chair’s back also provides support for your lumbar spine.
Mysuntown Office Mesh Chair, Ergonomic Task Chair, $299.99
This chair supports your lower back in its natural positioning, relieving lower back pain. Most back pain can be traced to lack of lumbar spine support, so picking a chair with lower back support can be a gamechanger for back pain.
If you don’t want to splurge on a new office chair, you can always purchase a pillow designed for lumbar support. A back pillow can accomplish the same goal of avoiding back pain while sitting in office chairas a new chair would. XTReme comfortsprovides the best pillow for back pain at work. This cushion provides lower back support and correct spine alignment to eliminate your back pain.
Couple any one of these chairs with some exercises, stretches, and any of our other recommendations, and you’ll be on the road to less discomfort.
An ergonomic office chair is made to promote good posture which helps reduce back pain. Since the average American spends over six and a half hours sitting down, ergonomic office chairs are designed to give the most support to accommodate our sedentary habits.
Ergonomic is defined as fitting the needs of the user with efficiency, productivity, and minimal discomfort. For chair to be labeled as ergonomic, it must include a several factors.
Komen Ergonomic Mesh Office Chair, $299.00
This is the best ergonomic office chair for lower back pain, since it has an s-shaped curve that keeps your back into proper positioning.
Keep your chair close to your desk. The bend at your elbow should be 90°and your arms should have plenty of support. If your arms are angled too high, too low, or stretched too far forward, it will increase strain on your upper back and your shoulders.
Align your monitors with your eyes. Try to keep your monitors directly in front of your face so your neck can stay at a neutral angle and won’t have to strain to look up, down, or sideways for hours at a time.
Sitting for eight hours a day, five days a week doesn’t suddenly skyrocket your chances of spinal damage. However, making sure your spine is well protected and taken care of is still very important. But reducing your back pain doesn’t come with just buying the best chair. For the best results incorporate more exercise, more movement, and a good office chair into your life.
Just because most of your sitting happens at the office doesn’t mean you leave behind your back pain when you leave. More than likely, you’ll need a good chair at home to continue healthy back habits. Recliners are the best chairs for back pain at home. Here are a couple we would recommend.
If you have any more questions, be sure to ask– Larry loves question! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Calais Eledui is Blue Summit Supplies’ Content Writer. She is a full-time student studying writing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Writing is not just a job for her, but a way of life. While writing is a huge part of her life, coffee is huger. Coffee shop hanging, family-time talking, and Sunday afternoon napping are the only ways to get the best out of life.
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