Occupational health is a huge field that has really taken off. There are entire physician practices that are dedicated to providing medical help for occupational health causes. Many folks think that there are “safe” occupations where there is little danger of being injured. Well there are safer occupations where injury is less likely, but no industry no matter how mundane it may seem is without risks.

Simple activities such as sitting at a desk all day at an office, years ago no one really thought would cause anyone any problems did indeed cause folks all sorts of issues, although those issues were largely not reported they still very much existed.

It was largely thought that if a person worked in an office environment that they would be safe from any types of injuries. In absence of something falling on them in the office, not much thought was given to potential physical maladies that could actually stem from the environment that they worked in.

Long periods of sitting in a conventional office chair also poses certain risks to your back, circulatory system and joints. There are ways to avoid this potential risk of injury, by alleviating the stress on the body of sitting in certain positions.

When sitting in a conventional chair for an extended period of time the body is forced into an upright unnatural position. This causes an unusual amount of stress and strain on the discs in the spine. An ergonomic kneeling chair allows the body to sit in a natural position using the natural curve of the body.

It actually goes beyond taking the pressure off your back, it opens up the diaphragm and improves circulation. An ergonomic kneeling chair at first seems a bit unusual to use, but once the user gets used to sitting this way in a more natural balanced posture they experience more productivity and are generally more comfortable.

Potential Physical Maladies Stemming From Office Work

There are a host of physical maladies that can stem from working in an office environment. The best known and most talked about is carpel tunnel syndrome. The other common problems are back injuries from sitting long periods at a desk and eye strain from staring at a computer screen. There are many ergonomic devices that are made to help relieve the stress and strain of these activities.

Once the medical communities identified these problems associated with work place injuries from the most mundane activities, ergonomics were born. Ergonomics is the idea of designing work place equipment to fit the worker. In other words instead of fitting the worker into an unnatural position for long periods of time the equipment was made to fit the worker.

Along with all the other ergonomic equipment, the ergonomic kneeling chair can not only prevent office injuries but can make the office a better place to work.

These types of kneeling chairs are considered ergonomic because they allow the body to be seated in a state of natural posture. Sitting in a conventional office chair for hours is really rather rough on the back, the discs in the spine are compressed for long hours and are not given the opportunity to stretch they way they should.

With the use of the knee chair the spine is given the opportunity to stretch and the discs are given the opportunity to be relieved of pressure. The body is also given the opportunity to find its center in a seated position.

What Is Ergonomics?

To fully understand the function and the benefits of an ergonomic kneeling chair a few moments need to be spent understanding what ergonomics means.  Ergonomics is the practice of designing equipment to fit the users needs. More so ergonomics is a philosophy that equipment should be designed to fit the user not that the user should have to adjust their bodies into unnatural positions to use equipment.

Ergonomics and the idea of ergonomics became popular in the 1980′s although it had been around since the 1970′s, it really took off in the early 1990′s as the shift from blue collar work to white collar work took hold.

As more and more people began working in offices and there were more and more injuries associated with working in an office the idea and the movement grew. It just made good business sense to provide employees with tools that would keep them safe and productive and at the same time reduce risk and thus the kneeling office chair was born.

Functional Seating

One of the primary tenets of ergonomics is to build to suit the body. Traditional office seating regardless how grand or padded, is just not built with the human body in mind. Oh sure the padding provides some comfort but the chairs are not built for productivity and long term sitting.

The Kneeling posture chair was created to provide functional seating that easily provided support in a natural fashion. The user is required by the nature of the kneeling chairs to lean forward, which is typically what a person at a desk is required to do to work effectively, by providing support for the knees the leaning forward takes the pressure off the spine and the weight of the body is more evenly distributed within the natural line of the body.

Kneeling chairs come in unlimited types and styles, of course the primary style lines remain in tact but there are quite a few versions that are available, from the stool model to the high backed models.

Kneeling chairs are the perfect solution for folks that have to sit for long periods of time.

The kneeling office chair first hit the office scene in the 1970′s, it was designed by a doctor for use in office settings. The doctor that designed the chair specialized in back injuries and surgeries, and was encouraged to design the chair when he noticed a shift in his patients occupations. He had historically seen blue collar workers come through his practice complaining of back injuries that they had sustained as a result of their employment. His practice began filling up quickly with white collar workers that could not quite explain what was happening with their backs but were in obvious discomfort. After a bit of investigation he came to realize that prolonged sitting in traditional office chairs hunched over the desk was causing the pain in the back and neck. The pain was due to the constant compression of the discs in the spine and neck from sitting in an unnatural state.

The kneeling chairs were developed to alleviate the stress on the back and to improve the posture of the user.

Core Strengthening

One of the primary goals of good posture is core muscle strengthening. The kneeling posture chair meets and exceeds the goal of good posture by strengthening the core muscles with very little effort. The simple design of the knee chair requires that the user depends on their own body movements to remain balanced. Even though it looks odd, this is not an uncomfortable way to sit or an unnatural way to sit.

The kneeling posture chair allows the user to sit in a manner that is most natural to them. There is no pressure on the lower back, there is no rigidity in the seat, the chair simply allows the user to go with their own natural alignment, and to depend on their core muscles to keep them in the proper seated position that is most natural for their bodies.

Using ones own muscles to remain upright improves not only core strengthening but also improves balance.

Stress Relief

Stress relief is one of the biggest factors in using a kneeling posture chair. The stress that a traditional office chair puts on the lower back and shoulders is equivalent to lifting fifty pound sand bags over and over again through out the day. The muscles suffer, the discs in the back and neck suffer and there is some indication that the traditional office chair plays a roll in carpel tunnel syndrome.

Taking the stress off the lower back and shoulders improves circulation and lifts the mood of the user. The kneeling posture chair also reduces fatigue. All these benefits combined will increase productivity and reduce sick leave time. The larger benefits of course are a reduction in health care costs.

No one really gives much thought to how sitting for long periods of time can cause havoc on the body. Most folks would agree if you have a job that requires long periods of sitting to complete your tasks that you have it pretty easy.

Believe it or not the belief that sitting for long periods of time does not cause damage to the body is a myth. The body is not meant to sit upright for long periods, as a matter of fact it can cause a host of damages to the body. Sitting upright for long periods hunched over a keyboard is bad for the body. It is also bad for the back and the circulatory system.

Even with the most padded largest executive type office chair there are bound to be some aches and pains associated with prolonged sitting.

How Do They Work?

The ergonomic kneeling chairs provide the user with a way to improve posture and sit in a naturally aligned position.  The angles of these chairs are scientifically validated to assist the user with improving posture and relieving the stress and the strain associated with traditional office chairs.

There is a conventional seating area and there is a knee rest area. The user is naturally apt to lean forward when typing or talking on the phone, shifting in the traditional office chair forward and back trying to get comfortable, but in the kneeling chairs the user can move forward and remain in that position simply by using the knee rest. The user is encouraged by the nature of the design of the kneeling office chair to use their own line of balance which lies somewhere between the ear and the shoulder for the optimum seating arrangement.

Benefits of Using an Kneeling Office Chair

The benefits of using a kneeling office chair surpasses just relieving the strain on the back and shoulders that one would expect from using this type of seating. It also can be directly linked to improving circulation.

The fact that the hips are not bearing the brunt of the weight opens up the circulation. In addition to the circulatory improvement there is significant improvement in posture and concentration is also improved.

Concentration increases as the circulation is improved. Of course all of these factors increase productivity. A comfortable worker is a happy worker and a happy worker is a more productive worker. The formula is quite simple.

Even the youngest of office workers will benefit from having a knee chair. The sooner the user starts using the kneeling office chair the better off they will be throughout their career. Using the kneeling office chair will offset the potential for irreversible back problems throughout life.

Your knees are not touching the ground.  Most people imagine the knees are bearing the weight of the body when using a knee chair but that is not the truth.  The shins are actually reducing the weight of the upper thighs and rear, you are still in a sitting position, not a kneeling position.  In a kneeling position, most of the weight is on the knees while the feet are balancing from tipping backwards.

The best kneeling office chair allows the body an angle that is open by lowering the lower body angle. This keeps the alignment of the spine and the sitter is positioned correctly to perform their duties.

When you lean forward your body is at a 90 degree angle or more.  Most people think the knees bear all the weight and if you have bad knees you can’t use a knee chair but that is incorrect.  This had led to many variations of the original design that offer a horizontal seat with an additional knee pad.  Actually this defeats the purpose of the kneeling chairs.

Because in a proper knee chair the shins bear some weight and not the knees, the shin rest are meant to stop from falling off the chair. The rear holds the majority of your weight.  For another option that will stop from you falling is called a saddle chair.  These are similar to saddle that horseback riders use.

The most important feature of any type of chair is comfort and freedom of motion.  Humans are meant to move about and not stay in one position.  If you understand this idea you will be focusing on the proper functions and features of the kneeling posture chair.

To get the most benefit of the knee chair the bent knees need to be relieved periodically.  This can be accomplished by doing simple leg exercises such as alternating flexing and extending each leg.

The first knee chair was invented by Peter Opsvik and were designed on a rocker base which would naturally extend one leg to rock the chair.  This encourage movement while you are sitting and open angle sitting.  This is becoming more popular by manufacturers and ergonomic practitioners have developed ergonomic kneeling chairs to offer the most comfort and least amount of stress on the body.

Today you can buy a knee chair from many manufacturers that have available many options that are completely adjustable and offer high density padding for comfort and durability.