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A poor desk posture is unfortunately quite common, and this is not just about the ergonomics of office workers, but also about a correct posture for everyone working in a home office.
Anyone looking to buy a new office chair will find countless offers and variations of options. But what should you pay special attention to in order to ensure ergonomic sitting?
On the one hand, there are not only various adjustment options or every imaginable variation of armrests, headrests, fabrics, castors, and so on, but also completely different cushions.
In this article, I will specifically explain the properties of unupholstered and upholstered office chairs and what is important for good ergonomics of a seat and back cushion.
What types of upholstery are there for office swivel chairs?
With office chairs, you can find a wide variety of upholstery types, which can be globally divided into five different categories:
- Hard upholstery (hard core only)
- Textile-covered upholstery (without soft additional material)
- Mesh upholstery
- Cut foam upholstery
- Molded foam upholstery
Hard upholstery (hard core only)
This type of chair is mainly known from kitchens or cafeterias. The "cushions" consist only of plastic, wood, metal, or another hard material. In the case of office chairs, these are usually shell chairs, which can hardly be adjusted because the seat and back shell are often made of one piece.
Advantages:
- Easy to maintain, can be cleaned easily
- Durable, as the material used is hard and resistant
- Already available at a very reasonable price
Disadvantages:
- Hard sitting feel, often after just a short time
- Blood circulation is restricted
- Often unergonomic shapes that do not promote a healthy posture and good ergonomics
Textile-covered upholstery (without soft additional material)
Here, a fabric, synthetic leather, leather, or another textile material is additionally processed over the hard core. This gives the office chairs a nicer appearance, more design, and makes them higher quality. However, the concept remains very similar to hard-upholstered office chairs, and the risk of poor desk posture and insufficient ergonomics for office workers is high.
Advantages:
- Nicer design
- Easy to maintain, as they are mostly synthetic materials that can be easily cleaned
- Usually durable, as there is hardly any vulnerable material on the chair
Disadvantages:
- The hard sitting feel remains
- Blood circulation is affected
- The shapes here are usually not very ergonomically designed; instead, the chairs are more design- or fashion-oriented
Mesh upholstery
This type of upholstery gives the office chair a modern look and makes it particularly breathable. Mesh upholstery can sometimes be manufactured cheaply and is therefore widely used. They are available in all variations, from completely simple mesh coverings to design-oriented mesh-upholstered office chairs in the upper price range. The appearance of mesh upholstery is modern and somewhat futuristic. Since it soon became clear that mesh upholstery does not provide optimal support, some mesh chairs offer options such as an integrated lumbar support to prevent poor desk posture.
Advantages:
- Breathable upholstery, which can be particularly advantageous in a warm environment
- Certain variants can be manufactured cheaply
- Attractive design
- Additional support functions can be built into the mesh back, which promotes good ergonomics
Disadvantages:
- Due to the breathability, you can quickly catch a cold and sometimes feel cold on the chair
- Every mesh has a high level of flexibility and must therefore be stretched tightly, which ultimately feels hard
- If there is too little mesh tension (very often with cheap chairs), sagging occurs, which promotes an unhealthy posture
- Edges and frames are easily felt through the thin mesh
- Blood circulation on a mesh is not optimal
- Dust quickly accumulates in the mesh
- Integrated lumbar supports in mesh backs are also hard and easily felt
Cut foam upholstery
Most office chairs have cushions made of cut foam, which are soft and durable. These foams are cut from a block of foam. There are different qualities, which can be distinguished by density and compression hardness. The higher the density, the higher the strength, which ultimately means less wear. The compression hardness shows what percentage a foam can be compressed, i.e., pressed in. The higher the compression hardness, the better the quality of the foam.
Cut foam is easy to process, offers good comfort, and is therefore often used to manufacture office swivel chairs. The selection of different foam qualities is large, varying in price, and accordingly has a significant influence on the ergonomics and sitting comfort of an ergonomically upholstered office chair.
Advantages:
- Even with just a few cm of foam thickness, a higher level of sitting comfort is noticeable
- Cut foam is easy to process and can be used in many ways
- Depending on the compression hardness, such cushions offer good comfort
- Foams are breathable
- The elasticity of foams has a positive effect
Disadvantages:
- Cut foam is already available in minimal quality, which, however, limits durability and comfort
- If the compression hardness is too low, the foam has little effect and you still feel the hard surface underneath
- Cut foam loses its compression hardness over time, which negatively affects comfort and ergonomics
- Cut foam can decompose with intensive use and become powdery
Molded foam upholstery
Molded foam is a high-quality product and possesses many unique quality characteristics, which can increase the ergonomics and comfort of an office chair many times over.
Molded foam is manufactured by pouring the initially liquid material into a corresponding mold and then foaming or baking it. This creates an outer skin that increases dimensional stability. This process generates a very uniform cell structure, allowing a higher density to be achieved, which ultimately results in durability.
With molded foams, the liquid material can be mixed in such a way that an optimal property of softness and simultaneous strength can be achieved for every thickness.
Another decisive advantage of molded foam is the possibility of individual shaping. This allows perfect anatomical shapes to be produced for maximum ergonomics in office chairs.
Another unique property of molded foam is the possibility that so-called inserts can be built in before baking. For example, a supporting structure made of a solid material, so that great stability and effectively the desired shape can be achieved. This ultimately has a positive effect on the ergonomics for office workers who use such a chair.
Advantages:
- Individual shaping is guaranteed, and even complex ergonomic shapes can be represented with it
- The uniform cell structure increases durability
- Higher density brings better quality
- The outer skin improves dimensional stability
- Good breathability thanks to the possible circulation of air in the molded foam
- Better support than other foams and consistent quality over years
- High resilience
- Adaptability to the body
- Greater pressure relief thanks to good point elasticity, which in turn is better for blood circulation
- So-called inserts can be placed in the molded foam, e.g., a supporting core made of wood or another hard material
- Hygienic, as the material is not sensitive to mites or mold formation
Disadvantages:
- Manufacturing is costly and requires individual tools (molds)
- Since molded foam usually results in a thicker end product, this can cause greater heat retention or affect the design
Concluding Thoughts
To ensure sufficient blood circulation and good ergonomics, hard and thin upholstery materials should be avoided in office chairs.
It is crucial that an ergonomic office chair offers anatomically optimal support and has no hard spots, so that a poor desk posture does not arise for the sitting person in the first place. Such a requirement is not really possible with hard and thin materials. Although these are usually chairs that are sometimes really pleasing to the eye, perhaps even with a special design, they almost completely ignore the health aspect.
It is no coincidence that in cars, airplanes, or trains, where you sometimes sit for many hours, you do not find hard shell or mesh upholstery. Because it is precisely here that functioning blood circulation and ergonomic support over a long period of time are crucial, and this can only be achieved satisfactorily with foams.
To ensure health and comfort in the long term, you will find the solution much more in an ergonomically upholstered office chair than on a hard seat.
If you are interested in further tips for well-being in the office, you will find many more suggestions in my book "Wellness in the Office".
