How To Adjust Your Office Chair | 6 Easy Steps

Author Bio: 

James Cannon is a office chair enthusiast. After buying a beautiful fuax leather $200 executive office chair with no adjustment, a couple months he suffered horrendous lower back pain. He educated himself on chair ergonomics and immediately sold the chair for $50 on Craigslist. He now creates articles and guides to help people choose the right office chair and adjust it properly so they don't have to go through the same experience.

We all know that sitting for extended periods of time isn’t good for the body. We have been told over and over again to get up, move around and stretch throughout the day. BUT… if you’re like most desk-bound workers, you probably haven’t taken the time to adjust your chair correctly, which is just as harmful.

Chair calibration is easy and takes just 5 minutes. The benefits are monumental and can make a big improvement in overall body soreness, joint pain and circulation issues. Sound good, but you’re not sure where to start? Take a deep breath, I will help guide you through the process step by step.

Is your chair ready to be retired?

First things first, is your chair even worthy of you? It is best to start by evaluating your chair. Is it over 2 years old? If so, you probably need a new chair – the BEST NEW OFFICE CHAIR.

Does it allow you to adjust it? If not, you probably need anew chair

Are you generally comfortable in it? If not, you probably need a new chair.

Not all chairs are made equal. Before I educated myself, I bought a stylish, sleek $200 faux leather chair.  Long story short… I felt like a boss, but it exacerbated some minor lower back pain I had. After I realized it was giving me absolutely no support, I replaced it with a fully adjustable ergonomic chair. Life is good. My new chair is like a slice of heaven.

No amount of adjustment can make up for a poor quality chair. It is not worth the pain or discomfort. Make an investment in your health and get a new one. If your chair is of good quality, take the time to customize it to your body shape so you can work in comfort.

The 6 Easy Steps

1. Is your chair the correct height?

• Sit as close to your desk as possible.
• Sit up tall with a straight spine.
• Your UPPER arms should be parallel with your spine.
• Rest your hands on your desk.
• TEST: Are your elbows are at a 90-degree angle? If not, your chair needs adjustment.
• FIX: Adjust the seat height up or down until you reach the 90-degree angle.

2. Lower leg height

Your torso is now positioned correctly for your desk. You may be too tall or too short for your desk. If you feel like your legs are dangling you may be too short. Let’s check:

• TEST: Slide your fingers under your thigh at the very edge of your chair, right before the back of your knees. The orange arrow shows where.
• Is there a lot of space? If so, then you are too tall for your workspace.
• Is it hard to push your fingers under and your feet feel like they are not firmly planted on the ground. If so, then you are too short for your workspace.
• FIX: If you are too tall – raise the desk height or work surface.
• FIX: If you are too short – get an adjustable footrest or lower the desk height.

3. Where’s your butt positioned?

• Push your rump up against the back of chair.Push it. Oooh baybeh, baybeh.
• TEST: See if you can push yourself far enough for your back to rest against the backrest. If you can’t reach back far enough, your calves  will hit the bottom pad of the chair. See the orange arrow. Your back should hit the backrest before your calfs hit the chair. There should be a slight gap where the orange arrow is.
• FIX: Adjust the backrest forward. If you can’t adjust it, you can get a separate lumbar support cushion, but a better option is to purchase a more adjustable chair so you can better tailor it to your optimal seated position.

4. Spinal support, anyone?

• Push that rump against the back of the chair, again.
• TEST: You should feel cushioning that forces your lower back to arch slightly.
• If you don’t, you are in trouble. You have a chair that is giving you no spinal support and is going to force you into a slouching posture. I had a beautiful $200 chair that had this issue.
• FIX: A quick fix is to purchase a lumbar support cushion. The better option is to purchase a higher quality chair to will give you true lumbar support.

5. What are you looking at?

• Close your eyes.
• Relax and let your head face forward.
• Keep your spine neutral and comfortable.
• TEST: Open your eyes and note where your screen is.
• FIX: If you have to look down to see your screen you need to raise it up to prevent strain on the upper back. You don’t want to force your spine into a hunchback posture. We have all seen that guy who’s neck sticks forward like a turtle. DON’T be that guy or gal.

6. Are your arms and shoulders off kilter?

• TEST: Check and see if your shoulders slouch while you work. Are they slouchy like an oversized hipster sweater?
• FIX: Adjust your armrests up and down until they feel comfortable. The armrests help take the strain off of the upper spine and shoulders. It also helps you from slouching forward in your chair. DON’T skip this step. If you sit for a long period of time, this is critical.

Stay Active…

Being seated in a chair is not a normal position for humans to be in for 8+ hours a day. Our bodies are meant to be active, rather than perpetually stationary. A good quality office chair that is calibrated just for YOU is very important in mitigating the negative effects of this kind of work lifestyle.

What is arguably more important than the chair you’re rocking is getting up and moving. Leave the desk every hour for a few minutes. Stretch, hit up the water cooler, go for a walk, just get those muscles moving.

An extra 15 minutes of work is not worth the damage to your health. I have been there and suffered from knee, back, shoulder and elbow pain. All of it was preventable and stemmed from improper posture and bad body mechanics.

I hope this guide helped you set up your chair. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. And if it helped you, this article can likely help out someone else you know, share it with a friend.

Other great articles on the web:

Galido Desk Ergonomics

Best Office Chairs under $100

Best Office Chairs under $200

Mail me for Guest Posts in dilipstechnoblog.com (dilipgeoffrey@gmail.com)

10 Gadgets Every Foodie Must Have Before His Next Meal

Many of us Singaporeans and Malaysians are self-declared foodies, with our lists of culinary prizewinners — and blacklists of overhyped restaurants. But even more of us appreciate a delicious home-cooked meal over eating out. Here are 10 nifty gadgets to have at home, for us to impress and be impressed.

1. Mind your eggs

Egg Minder is here to monitor the freshness of your weekend haul of eggs. LED lights next to each egg indicate which eggs are the oldest, and which ones are reaching their expiration dates. Users can also set Egg Minder to send alerts when it detects a low egg count in the tray, so that they can plan for their next egg-citing trip to the market for fresh eggs.

2. Cappuccino, tea or kopi

This is one for the atas foodies out there who prefer frothy cappuccinos to the kopi downstairs. The Inissia Nespresso machine, launched in May last year, is the solution to your daily caffeine woes.

It has been touted as one of the best Nespresso coffee machines to date, in terms of both coffee quality and efficiency. Its compact size is an added bonus for those whose counter spaces are reserved for only the best.

3. Iphonography

Quality food has to be shared through quality photos. Get those wide angled shots and fisheye effects with the Izzi Slim case — it comes with 3 rotatable attachment ports for a variety of lens.

This is somewhat on the higher end of smartphone camera accessories, and has even been tried and tested by popular YouTube fashionista Jenn Im. That said, it’s definitely worth the money if you’re not into splurging on a DSLR.

Its only drawback? The Izzi Slim is only compatible with the iPhone 5/5S.

Other iOS and Android users might want to check out Sony’s QX series, which give you functionalities closer to those of semi-pro cameras.

4. Presentation is everything

This amazing appliance on Kickstarter is not out yet, but would make presentation for your home-cooked meals a lot easier. Foodini takes an image of your desired layout, and ‘prints’ it out on the plate using the ingredients you put in. Multiple layers of printing can churn out complex designs of pastries, chips and even tangyuan (glutinous rice balls).

5. Hint of wagyu beef

Invite your dinner guests to a home-cooked meal, and serve them with the Aromafork. These aromatic forks come with 21 interchangeable diffusers, which stimulate the olfactory senses for more interesting overtones with every bite.

There are no guarantees, however, that that burnt steak which just came out of the oven will taste like wagyu beef from a Michelin starred restaurant.

6. Caught your attention

Before Google Glass makes its comeback, take a look at K-glass. This pair of smart glasses rides on the trend of wearable technology, improving on the type of visual cues the device can detect.

Although the K-glass is still in its prototyping phase, smart glasses like it would enable foodies to check out the menu of a newly found restaurant at the mere sight of its signboard.

I would really love having a holographic ‘red carpet’ leading me to the nearest ice cream café of my choice. Imagine the ease of food hunts in the future!

7. Food for the sole

Solowheel and Airwheel are breezy options for the foodie who loves wandering around in alleyways for its hidden gems. These compact and eco-friendly unicycles have been making their rounds in Singapore in recent months, and have gained traction amongst young adults as well as older foreigners.

Powered by a rechargeable battery, it is more than enough to let you scour through alleys and head back home without having aching feet.

Alternatively, if you would like to sit, how about the Honda UNI-CUB β as seen in OK Go’s “I won’t let you down” music video?

8. The fitness tracker

We have seen exercise bands that monitor your calorie burn, as well as the frequency and duration of your movement. Fitbit Charge is one such tracker that easily integrates an exercise regime into your search for good food.

The dashboard of the Fitbit Charge collects and presents daily diet and exercise records in cards, which keep users motivated. It even lets users keep a food log, by using a barcode scanner and calorie estimator.

If you are someone who always has room for dessert, a fitness tracker is a must-have to keep away that muffin top.

9. Wash away the grease from the screen

Ever had those Jamie Oliver moments in the kitchen, only to end up with greasy fingerprints all over your smartphone as you scrolled through recipes and how-to videos?  Xperia® Tablet Z: Kitchen Edition, or any similar waterproof smart device, is the gift for your foodie friend or family member.

The Xperia kitchen tablet comes preloaded with food apps and recipes, and the best part is they won’t get flushed away under the running tap.

10. Be a cocktail hero

The best parties with your best friends have good food — and good drinks. Delight everyone with mixers that not only taste like the real deal, but let you look like a professional while making them.

B4RM4N works by syncing with your iOS and Android phone, letting you know how much of each ingredient to pour in. Select from a list of recipes and pour until the line of LED lights reach the top of the shaker. LED colours change with each ingredient mixed in, and show up simultaneously on your phone.

The investment as a foodie is substantial, but it is our burden to bear to satisfy great appetites and sensitive taste buds.

Sproutling Baby Monitor

This is a wearable device that will be helpful for new parents everywhere. The baby monitor is worn on the infant’s ankle and is capable of monitoring the infant’s well-being and environment at all times. Push notifications notifies the parents if their baby is asleep or awake as well as the baby’s changes in heart rate or skin temperature. It even tells the parents if the baby has rolled over!

Google Glass

The Google Glass is a revolutionary new product that is basically a wearable computer. It projects a transparent screen in front of the user’s field of vision. A touchpad at the side of the Google Glass allows users to control the device while the camera on the Google Glass is capable of recording 720p HD videos. It has an added advantage of looking really cool.

Athos

The futuristic-looking gym clothes are lined with sensors that are able to analyze your workout and let you know exactly what muscles you have used throughout your entire workout. Priced at roughly $400, it’s a reasonable sum for what The Verge calls, “a much less expensive version of a personal trainer.”

Surprising Differences Between Vaginal Birth Or C-Section.. Which is better?

Giving birth is really an unbelievable and cherished moment in a woman's life and with it comes both pleasure and anxiety. An expecting lady starts researching about the labour, labour pains, delivery methods and what not! A woman can deliver her baby by either the Vaginal method commonly known as the normal delivery or by the C-Section delivery i.e Cesarean delivery. Both of them have their own pros and cons. While in most cases vaginal delivery is the most natural and uncomplicated way to deliver a baby, more and more women are opting for Cesarean Sections. Let us have a look at both the procedures.

This is how the microbiology comes to action. 

The microorganisms derived from the vaginal pathway leads to the production of specific cytokines, which promotes the normal development of a child's immune system. From physiological point of view, post op recovery time is shorter than that of C-section, and the mother can hold and breastfeed the baby soon after the delivery. And from the psychological point of view the mother feels empowered and overwhelmed knowing that she has participated actively in her child's birth. 

Two most common methods of normal delivery are by using forceps or vacuum extraction. The decision is made by the Doctor depending upon the case. The only cons of this process is that sometimes the child may get harmed due to the application of forceps or vacuum, but cases like these are rare if the process is performed by a skilled surgeon.

In most of the cases, Surgeons suggest C-section only when one or the other kind of risk is involved in child birth. Although nowadays females opt for this voluntarily as it is comparatively pain free and less time taking. Definitely the labor time and the pain can be avoided by this method but it increases the chances of infections and increased time in recovery.

This is the whole C-section procedure in nut shell.

Both the methods are very different from each other, and both of them have their own share of pros and cons the bottom line of the story is to ensure the safety and health of the baby. Every case and every patient is different, so the ultimate aim of the surgeon is to ensure a safe delivery of the child while keeping the best interest of mother in mind.