This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/dYGEUayqCOs
Brad: Anybody who has worked at a desk for any period of time has experienced neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, et cetera.
Mike: And making some changes to your chair or your desk and computer screen can make all the difference.
Brad: That's right. We're going to show you all you need to know.
Mike: So the first thing we're going to do is look at the chair you're using and how to adjust it. First, we'll look at how you can do a standard chair, and then we'll show you if you happen to have a computer chair, some adjustments you can make, or if you don't have one, what to look for if you're about to purchase one.
Brad: That's right. Now some people already have one of these, but they're not aware of the adjustments that are available. So we're going to actually show the Flexispot C7 Mesh FT model, which we like very much. As a matter of fact, I'm taking this one home with me because I like it so much.
Mike: So the first thing you want to check is the height of your chair. Now if you're stuck in a standard chair like me, you want to make sure your feet can touch the ground comfortably and you roughly have a 90-degree bend in your hip and a 90-degree bend in your knees.
Mike: This is actually an okay chair for me. However, the other chairs I've been in are sometimes too tall or too short. If they're too short, oftentimes your knees may be way too high, where your knees are higher than your hips.
Mike: This is going to get uncomfortable, especially on your back. Now if I happen to be in a taller chair or my feet are dangling and cannot touch the ground, simply placing a pad underneath your feet can help fix that issue.
Mike: If you are in a chair that is too short, stick a pad or pillow underneath your buttock and it'll make you taller.
Brad: That's right. You could use two pillows or two pads depending on what you need, but you definitely want to get the chair or the seat pan at the right height. Step number one. All right, now if you have a professional-grade chair, it's very nice because I have the levers, which are easy to get to so you can make the adjustment. My feet are hanging and dangling, I am too high. Simply grab the lever and drop it down.
Brad: There we go. My feet are flat on the ground, a 90-degree bend in my knee, and my hips are in the right position. So that works very nicely. To get it back up, you simply stand up and it'll go back up and down. Works wonderful.
Brad: Let's go to the second most important thing with computer chairs. Now the next thing that's really important. It's going to make a big difference on your shoulders, as well as neck and headaches is the proper height of your armrest. The weight of your arm should be supported by the armrest. So the height needs to be adjustable. Right now, this is way too high. My arms are resting but my shoulders are going up towards my ear.
Brad: These are easily adjustable. Simply push a button, up and down. I'm going to get it to the right level. That feels much better. I can rest my arms here. And the nice thing about this chair is not only can you go up and down, but you can rotate in or out. I like to go in a little bit, and they can go forward and back to fit your body ergonomics. It's a great combination. If you have a chair like this, what can they do, Mike?
Mike: So you can't lower this obviously if they're too high. However, you can put a cushion underneath you to raise your buttocks up. If the armrests are too low like this one would be for my work desk here, you could see how low it is, in comparison to the table. So what you can do is fold up a pillow like this and then I have some armrests. Obviously, you need some pillows, you're going to lose a little bit of the seat room. But if you have a standard chair, this is what you can do to get the optimal position for your arms.
Brad: That's right. And Bob actually did something with his. He took a cushion, cut it up with a knife, and taped it onto the armrest of his existing chair before he got a chair like this. So there are options.
Mike: He's extremely tall too, so that's why he had to do that.
Brad: That's right. Now, lumbar support, the area right above your belt line can be really critical in getting some good support there. This chair has a really nice, as you can see, lumbar support that's separate from the backrest. That's very nice. With this lever, you can actually adjust it in or out. Once you get it to the right position, you pull it up and it locks it in position to whatever you want, and then you'll have that support there.
Brad: I really appreciate this. Then another nice thing about it is you might want to change it every hour or so to have more support or less support. Just changing your body position can make things more comfortable. Mike, what about a chair like that? What options are there?
Mike: So obviously I don't have a built-in lumbar support in this chair, so what you can do is either take a rolled-up towel, this is a medium-sized one. You can use a large one or a small one depending on your body size and what's comfortable. I'm just going to place this in my lower back right here. Lean against the chair and I have some lumbar support.
Mike: Another option is to take a pillow of sorts. I just have a throw pillow here. I can put this in my lower back region and there we go. Now if you have a computer chair with lumbar support that you don't like and you try a throw pillow in, which I have done, really doesn't work because it's too much. So you need to get a good optimal computer chair.
Brad: That's right. But there's one more option that we have from Rick Olderman and that's actually using a pillow from your bed. Put it in vertical in a chair like this and it's amazing what that little bit of support can do with comfort in the back and sitting.
Brad: All right, those are three very important adjustments, and those you can make on any chair just like we had. Now, the rest of these adjustments are going to come with a professional computer chair like this one. The first thing we're going to address is the seat pan. And first of all, you'll want to adjust the tilt of the seat pan. Watch how this goes backward and forward.
Brad: Now if you have stenosis, you might want to go backward, otherwise, you may want to go forward. It's an individual preference. Get it adjusted where it feels good on your back, and lock it in. There's a nice lever here. Easy to reach. That's set. Now the next thing is the seat pan moving forward and backward. There's simply another lever here. I'm going to push it and let's get a better view of this if I want to go forward or back.
Brad: You're going to do that in accordance with how it fits on your desk. So find the right position. So, a lot of times with these, you're only going to make one adjustment with it and it's set for you. Another person on the chair may adjust it for them. All right, let's go to the next options. All right, another really nice feature with a good chair like this is the ability to adjust the backrest. So it can go back like this in a variable range or you can actually simply go back and lock it and keep it there.
Brad: So when you're working, you want to take a little mini break. You can simply lean back, stretch out those arms and shoulders, and relax that lumbar support, really feels good there. Take your little mini break and then back to work again. All right, there's another nice little feature here. There's a little adjustment that you actually crank and what it does, is it adjusts how far you go back with it.
Brad: It's one of those little things, that can make a difference. I'm not overly thrilled about it, but it's nice to have. All right, now the headrest is nice and adjustable because if you've got someone like Bob, six and a half foot tall, or someone five foot four, you're going to need to adjust this up and down. It's very easy and you can go forward and back with it, all with resistance. It works very nicely and there it is. I'm set to go.
Brad: Now this last feature is very nice. It can set this chair apart from other chairs. It actually has a built-in and adjustable legrest. Pull it out to the distance that fits you, bring it out, lock it in place, and there you go. If you want to take that little mini break, you can go here and simply recline back. I'm going to lock this into place, and I can relax, and take a snooze. You know, as long as the boss isn't watching. You get your five-minute break, keep it on your timer, and then it simply goes back into place.
Brad: A push of a button locks it in and you're ready to go again. Nice feature. That really is fun to do actually. So what else do we have to look at? A big important thing is the height of the screen can make all the difference in the world for headaches, neck pain, and shoulder pain. We'll show you how to get rid of that very quickly.
Mike: Now when it comes to your screen height, as Brad is demonstrating here, this is not a good posture because his screen is too low. In order to see it, he has to bend forward. He's putting a lot of strain on his shoulders and neck, and discomfort there.
Mike: So in order to get to a more optimal level, we want to lift the monitor up. This is an adjustable monitor, which is really nice. So you can pick the option that's good for you. Obviously, your desk height is going to play a role in it as well. But if you do not have an adjustable monitor, what you can do, say you just have a laptop, is get some type of foam pad. Or if you have a pile of books, you can stack them to make your computer screen be taller. Typically, you want to be able to look straight ahead. So his vision line is at the monitor, so he can just look up and down versus tilting his head up and down. Saving strain on your neck.
Brad: This can make a big difference. I always say parallel across. This is about as low. I almost want to put the pad underneath it to get it a little bit higher because that's going to bring it from this position to here. Tremendous differences in ergonomics and back and neck strain. Always make sure your screen is at the right height. It's very critical.
Mike: So again, this chair is the Flexispot C7 Mesh FT. Also, if you want to check out more videos on the best setup for a desk, check out "I Get Pain Working At My Computer!"
Brad: That's right. We did not mention the mesh, which is nice for a cool place to sit. It's nice and comfortable. This chair is coming to my house. I can guarantee you that.
Mike: Yeah, it was already there.
Brad: Yeah, I know. It's just coming back.
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