How to Sit Comfortably in an Office Chair

The majority of Americans are required to sit for 40 hours or more every week. Prolonged sitting in a static position, with incorrect posture, can cause long term and short term effects. Not everyone has the luxury of having an ergonomic office chair. But there are ways to sit comfortably and properly. These good sitting posture habits can help prevent some of the negative effects of a prolonged sitting position.

person showing how not to Sit Comfortably in an Office Chair — Photo by Cottonbro Studio via Pexels

How To Sit Comfortably In An Office Chair

How to adjust an office chair

Everyone has different variables when it comes to ergonomic sitting posture. Some of them include arm’s length, torso height, leg length, height of desk, height of your chair, etc. There’s no one way to describe how to sit properly in an office chair. It’s up to each of us to take our own variables into consideration when finding a comfortable sitting position. But with that said, here are 3 main rules I follow to adjust an office chair. These can apply to anyone.

My feet are flat on the floor

I never want an office chair too high so that you can’t rest your feet flat on the floor. You may have to sit at a very high desk, which causes you to raise your chair so much that your feet don’t touch the floor. In this case, a footrest would work just as well. Just make sure your feet are flat on the footrest.

If you like this article, click here to check out my book titled, "45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture."

I used to sit with my chair too low. I would contract my hamstrings all day, which would pull my feet underneath my body. Also, I would rest my toes on the ground, but my heels would be up in the air. This caused one of the top 3 worst injuries I had from poor sitting posture. Being in that poor sitting position for long periods of time caused terrible muscle confusion throughout my legs. It also caused joint dysfunction in my ankles, which led to having 3 ankle surgeries.

illustration on how to Sit Comfortably in an Office Chair — Notice how the user on the left has his feet pulled under his body. This takes unnecessary hamstring activation and overuse to do this. The user on the right has his hamstrings relaxed, because his feet are flat on the floor. Photo by Inegvin via Megapixl

My elbows are slightly above desk level

woman with back pain Sit Comfortably in an Office Chair — Notice how the user is working from a laptop without an extended monitor. This often causes forward slouching, which causes back pain and many other injuries. Photo by Kaspiic via Megapixl

If our elbows are below the desk level, this causes us to constantly contract our biceps to lift our hands onto the keyboard and mouse. The repetitive strain of using our biceps all day long caused elbow and shoulder tendonitis back when I had poor sitting posture. Biceps are connected to the shoulder area by 2 tendons. These tendons are more likely to get inflamed before the bicep muscles start to hurt. Everyone in a sitting position with shoulder pain thinks they are doing something wrong with their shoulders. Oftentimes, it’s caused by overuse of the bicep muscles. This was another one of my top 3 injuries from bad sitting posture.

The only proper way to comfortably get your elbows above the desk level is to raise your chair. You don’t want to hunch your shoulders up to your neck so that your elbows are higher. It is best to raise your chair. This avoids overuse injuries in the shoulders and upper back.

My eye level is even with the top of the screen

illustration to Sit Comfortably in an Office Chair — Notice how the user’s eye level is even with the top of the screen. His elbows are slightly above the keyboard and mouse. His feet are feet are flat on the floor. Photo by Logo3in1 via Megapixl

I used to work from a laptop. Looking down at my monitor caused me to slouch forward in my office chair. Working in this sitting position for long periods of time caused some spinal disc degeneration. In this article, I’ve mentioned 2 of the top 3 injuries I suffered from poor sitting posture. Having my eye level uneven with the top of the screen caused the last of my top 3 injuries.

In order to prevent further spinal disc degeneration, I simply purchased an extended monitor. This made it easy to keep the top of the screen eye level. It also made for a comfortable viewing experience.

Maintain a comfortable distance between the office chair and the desk

This is important to me for a couple reasons. I’m lucky to have good eyesight and I don’t need to wear bifocals. I’d like to keep it that way. But for a while there, I was going down that road. I had a small monitor that was way too far away. The other important reason is that I don’t want to overextend my shoulders and upper back in order to reach the keyboard and mouse. This would cause terrible dysfunction in my shoulders, as well as throughout the rest of my upper body. Having my keyboard and mouse within easy reach is very important to me.

Ensure proper arm support

Arm’s length can mean a lot of different things. If the armrests of an office chair don’t support our arms comfortably, we shouldn’t use them. I learned this the hard way from experience. The armrests were way too far out from the sides of my body. It would cause me to extend my elbows both laterally and down. This caused a lot of tension throughout my neck, chest, and traps. I wrote an article specifically about this topic. It’s titled “Why Office Chair Armrests Don’t Work For Me.” It can found at sittingposture.com/armrests.

If the armrests on an office chair are too wide and too low (which is usually the case), I try to support my wrists on the desk. Then, I try to keep my elbows naturally close to my rib cage. This will allow me to support my arms with minimal muscle activation from my shoulders.

Maintain the right lumbar support

To sit properly, notice the natural curves in the spine are still intact. This user doesn’t need an extra cushion for lumbar support. Photo by Eraxion via Megapixl

Some people can easily maintain the natural curve of their lumbar spine without extra support. Some people would benefit greatly from an additional lumbar support cushion. I’ve fallen into both of these categories at some point. The most important thing to do is to increase your understanding of the natural curves in the spine. Then, increasing our body awareness to know if our spine is in that correct sitting position or not.

Stretch daily

As I’ve gotten older into my mid-forties, stretching has become super important to me. Nothing super painful. Just a mild stretch, focusing on my deep and slow breath, increasing my blood flow. The actual sitting position of working at a computer isn’t the enemy here. Even with great posture, repetitive strain injuries can happen when in the same sitting posture for long periods of time. Repetitive strain and overuse injuries are the enemy here. Strengthening and stretching my muscles are very important to counteract those injuries and improve the health of my muscles when it comes to longevity.

Thanks for your interest in sitting posture. If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps that will improve your blood flow and your ability to sit properly. That’s something to be proud of.

If this article was helpful, check out my book titled “45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.” It’s available in both digital and paperback versions.

>>> Click here to pick up your copy

This book explains how to improve your posture through different variables of health and wellness. These include sitting posture, standing posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing. Poor posture is not just how we sit at a computer. The health habits we practice, 24 hours a day, are directly related to how good (or bad) our computer posture is.

Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.

Take care,

Todd Bowen

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