Choosing the Right Ergonomic Chair: A Comprehensive Guide

I am an ergonomist with 15 years of experience and the founder of Gravitonus and Tip Device. My ergonomics specialization is in assistive workplace ergonomics and personalized ergonomic workstations. Many people believe that you should choose a chair only after sitting in it. This belief isn’t entirely accurate.

To choose the right chair, you need to know what you want. If you can’t articulate your needs, then yes, try chairs in person. Sit for at least 30 minutes. Ideally working in real conditions for a couple of hours.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to selecting a chair and working style online.

We’re not just choosing a chair; we’re choosing how we work, whether sitting (where this guide will help you pick a chair) or standing (if so, you can stop reading halfway).

Our Goals:

1. Prioritize: Productivity / Health / Comfort
2. Choose Your Seating Style
3. “It Takes Two” Lifehack
4. Assemble the Features You Need
5. Case Studies

It’s crucial to remember that a comfortable chair isn’t necessarily a chair for productive work or healthy sitting. The tricky part is that if you buy a comfortable chair, you’ll be satisfied because it’s comfortable. But what you really wanted was a chair for maximum productivity, and that’s often forgotten once comfort takes over. The key is to find the right balance, and that balance is different for everyone.

Prioritize Your Needs

First, determine your primary goal:

• Maximum productivity with some health compromises
• Health-focused with some productivity and comfort compromises
• Balance between health and productivity
• Maximum comfort with productivity and health compromises

If comfort is too high, health or productivity will suffer. If productivity is too high, health will suffer. The ideal balance always involves compromise.

If productivity, comfort, and health are not your key criteria, this guide isn’t for you. Design, price, trendiness, and durability are not primary considerations here.

Choosing Your Seating Style

There aren’t many seating styles, and each involves trade-offs. No seating style is simultaneously maximally productive, healthy, and comfortable. Comfort and health often oppose each other in seating choices. Let’s find the seating style that suits you and your ideal chair’s goals.

Classic Seating

Quite impossible posture IMO. Neutral posture based on ergonomic science. Picture from sfmic.com

Productivity: 2/5
Health: 3/5
Comfort: 2/5

This is the traditional neutral ergonomic seating position: arms on armrests, straight back, head tilted no more than 5 degrees, legs at a 93-degree angle, feet on the floor of feet holder. Typically, these are office chairs known as “Operator’s chairs.”

How to Identify:
Most office chairs fall into this category, making them hard to distinguish from niche options. If a chair isn’t proactive, 24/7, or high-performance, it’s likely a classic office chair.

Who It’s For:
This position suits people with a flat back lordosis due to the native position. However, these users need to extend their lumbar spine, so this seating is suitable only if the chair has significant lumbar support.

Who It’s Not For:
For everyone else, this seating is unsuitable. It’s neither comfortable nor productive and offers minimal health benefits compared to more productive seating styles with similar health impacts.

Pros:
Classic office chairs often have various adjustments, including recline and lumbar support. You can lounge in these chairs for added comfort and possibly productivity.

Cons:
In this posture, it’s nearly impossible to sit without constantly adjusting. You’ll find yourself wanting to shift around, take your foot off the footrest, slightly turn in the chair, or rest your head on the headrest. Essentially, it’s an idealized posture rather than a practical one.

Dynamic Seating

Aeris Swopper Dynamic seating

Productivity: 3/5
Health: 4/5
Comfort: 2/5

Dynamic seating is a modern ergonomic trend. Instead of fixing users in one position, it encourages movement even while sitting. This is achieved through dynamic seats (proactive seating) or flexible backrests.

How to Identify:
Look for keywords like pro-active, flex, dynamic, balance. Typically, these chairs have round or saddle-shaped, movable seats and flexible backrests.

Pros:
Movement promotes blood circulation, preventing hypodynamia, which hampers productivity and health. Proactive seating engages core muscles, improving posture and overall well-being.

Cons:
Proactive seating can feel uncomfortable, as you might feel like sliding off. This design engages back muscles but can be irritating, affecting productivity. This is subjective; many enjoy the proactive seating effect.

Performance Seating

Okamura Cruise Performance seating setup

Productivity: 5/5
Health: 3/5
Comfort: 4/5

My favorite category. These chairs prioritize productivity, offering moderate health benefits and high comfort. They vary by manufacturer and model but share key features:

• Wide range of adjustments, especially for semi-reclined work
• Detailed anthropometric design
• High tactile quality, attention to detail, and overall UX

How to Identify:
Look for keywords like 24/7, High Performance, Ergonomic workstation chair. These are usually mesh chairs with lumbar support, significant recline angles, and low armrests.

Pros:

• Allows 6–12 hour work marathons with minimal health impact
• High comfort levels, including climate and tactile comfort
• Excellent UX with well-thought-out adjustments and workspace organization

Cons:

• Hypodynamia still occurs but more slowly
• Non-energetic pose: good for productivity but not physical health. Regular breaks are essential but often neglected with these chairs.

Attention Points:
Ideal performance chairs are fully mesh with reclining capabilities. They offer adaptive backrests and wide headrests.

More Vertical Seating and Saddle Chairs

Salli twin Saddle Chair

Productivity: 4/5
Health: 5/5
Comfort: 3/5

These include saddle chairs or high dynamic chairs, focusing on health and productivity. They ensure a near-vertical pose, reducing hypodynamia and providing adequate support. This semi-standing position balances sitting and standing work.

How to Identify:
Look for keywords like adaptive, half-standing, saddle chair, high seating. These chairs are taller, with a steep front edge and optional backrest.

Attention Points:
Saddle chairs come with or without a central cutout. The cutout relieves prostate pressure in men, enhancing comfort but requiring longer adaptation due to increased pressure on the sit bones. Adjustable saddle tilt is crucial for setting the verticality of your position.

Pros:

• High health benefits with minimal hypodynamia
• Good blood circulation, no excessive pressure on feet, knees, and sacrum
• Potential productivity boost after adaptation

Cons:

• Initial discomfort during the 1–3 week adaptation period
• Usually lack armrests and often backrests. Hands should rest on a higher table
• Engages back muscles, causing initial soreness

Chest-Supported Seating

Wooridul iPole 7

Productivity: 2/5
Health: 4/5
Comfort: 3/5

A rare but effective seating style featuring a chest support. Users lean forward onto the chest rest, relieving back muscles and extending the thoracic spine. Ideal for alternating with other seating styles to boost energy.

How to Identify:
Look for keywords like chest, front. These chairs have a chest rest or a backrest that converts to a chest support.

Pros:

• Great as a secondary seating option
• Relieves lumbar spine pressure
• Redistributes muscle load, changes neck angle, and offers a work break without leaving the desk
• No adaptation needed

Cons:

• Not suitable as a primary seating option due to low productivity and moderate comfort
• Can impede blood flow behind the knees with prolonged use

Kneeling Chairs

Productivity: 3/5
Health: 4/5
Comfort: 3/5

A popular alternative seating style where about 30% of body weight rests on the shins, and the rest on the sacrum and soft tissues. The angled seat helps combat hypodynamia. Comfortable and productive, though not without drawbacks.

How to Identify:
It looks like a kneeling chair.

Pros:

• Reduces sacrum pressure, engages back muscles, forms a natural lumbar curve and correct spinal position
• Quick adaptation (a few days)
• Good productivity and comfort levels

Cons:

• Incorrect use or adjustment can cause knee pain
• Incorrect size or adjustment can compress behind the knees, causing discomfort and potential hypodynamia
• Not suitable for people with leg or vascular issues

Standing Work

Productivity: 3/5
Health: 4/5
Comfort: 3/5

My favorite work posture. Social media and health trends have popularized it. Standing work is beneficial in short bursts of 20–30 minutes a few times a day. It offers many benefits without the drawbacks of long-term standing.

How to Identify:
No chair, sore heels.

Pros:

• Natural standing posture with proper spinal alignment, no hypodynamia, dynamic and healthy
• Can be productive after adaptation, which might be lengthy

Cons:

• Hard on heels, sacrum, and knees. Ergonomic mats or orthopedic shoes help with sacrum but not knees
• Initially, you’ll want to lean on the desk, bending knees, both of which are unhealthy
• Long adaptation period (4–8 weeks) with various aches until the desk height is perfectly adjusted
• Not all jobs are compatible with standing. Best for jobs with frequent calls, sales, or low to medium concentration tasks
• Due to long adaptation and joint stress, this posture isn’t comfortable

Attention Points:
An adjustable desk is essential. A fixed-height desk won’t suffice as most users eventually alternate between sitting and standing. And rightly so. Adapting to this work style isn’t for everyone, but it’s almost free to try.

“It Takes Two” Lifehack

Now that you’ve identified the seating style that best suits your needs, here’s some good news: the ideal balance exists, and it’s called the second chair.

The “It Takes Two” principle (my term) allows you to choose a primary seating style that best meets your needs and a secondary style that complements or balances your work process.

Best combinations:

1. Classic, performance, or dynamic + vertical or chest-supported, or kneeling chair, or standing
2. Vertical + chest-supported or kneeling chair, or standing
3. Chest-supported + kneeling chair, or standing
4. Kneeling chair + standing

Most styles can be combined. However, classic, dynamic, and performance styles are quite similar, so combining them is less effective.

The idea is to allow users to work part of the time in the healthiest position and the rest in the most productive or comfortable one, depending on their goals. This way, the “It Takes Two” principle provides an ideal balance between health, productivity, and comfort.

Assembling the Features You Need

Choosing the right chair isn’t just about the seating style; the technology and features also significantly impact health, comfort, and productivity. Once you’ve determined the seating style that suits you, it’s time to decide on the key features and their impact on our three main criteria.

General Functionality

Armrests
Armrests are essential for classic seating and performance seating. They aren’t as crucial for other styles unless you’re a dentist or neurosurgeon using a saddle chair.

Many people consider the maximum height of armrests important, but this is a mistake. High armrests are only necessary if you’re building a classic ergonomic position where the armrests extend the desktop. This isn’t comfortable for everyone and can be harmful, as you might pinch your arm between the desk and the armrest.

More important is the ability to lower the armrests, allowing you to recline in the chair and relax your arms along your body during breaks. Lowered armrests also make it easier to work at a deep desk, placing both elbows on the desk and reclining the chair.

It’s also good if the armrests can pivot. Extension and depth are optional features.

Lumbar Support / Backrest
Lumbar support, an ergonomic pillow, or a full backrest (depending on the seating style) are always needed if the option is available. The exception is kneeling chairs, where this feature is pointless and hinders sitting and standing.

The main requirement is that lumbar support should be adjustable and adaptive, meaning it should compress under body weight. If not, it negatively affects comfort and thus productivity. You can identify adaptive lumbar support by its attachment method and appearance.

Transformation Mechanism
The transformation mechanism itself doesn’t directly impact productivity, health, or comfort. However, a quality mechanism can help transform the chair from a fully seated position to, say, a semi-reclined position with maximum anthropometric adaptation, significantly influencing all three aspects.

For example, the reclining mechanism in most classic gaming chairs is not only useless but harmful. It doesn’t consider the pivot points of the backrest relative to the seat, causing the backrest to move up and back significantly, taking the headrest, lumbar, and side supports with it.

A plus is if the mechanism is attached to the seat with a forward offset. This way, when reclining, the seat lowers the front edge instead of raising the upper edge, increasing the height from the floor to the knees, which can cause leg suspension and knee compression (hello, hypodynamia).

Headrest
A headrest is only necessary if you choose performance seating and work semi-reclined. The wider the headrest, the better. This allows you to rest your head to the side during breaks and move around in the chair comfortably.

It’s good if the headrest is mesh, so it doesn’t need to be adjustable. Mesh headrests are designed to be comfortable for all heights.

If a wide headrest isn’t available, choose an adjustable one in two planes.

If your seating style isn’t performance seating, a headrest isn’t needed.

5-star Base
The base should be as low-profile as possible. The material isn’t particularly important, but it should be low-profile; otherwise, you can’t rest your feet on it.

Casters, Gas Lift, and Others
These parts don’t directly impact the key criteria but can be helpful or harmful in terms of comfort. A quality gas lift has an anti-shock system that stops the chair smoothly in the lowest position (TUV 4-class), and quiet polypropylene casters of larger diameter move more silently than small plastic ones.

Important Note on Casters
Large diameter casters can be too smooth on parquet, making the chair move too easily, which can be annoying. Therefore, rubber casters are essential for quality and comfort, while large diameters and cool bearings are optional. Don’t buy custom casters with double bearings; you’ll roll away from the desk unintentionally.

Materials

1. Eco-Leather: Suitable only for more vertical seating types (saddle chairs, for example). Avoid this material in all other cases, regardless of claimed characteristics. High-quality, breathable, comfortable eco-leather costs as much as natural leather and is rarely used in chairs (usually by European manufacturers).
2. Genuine Leather: A good, breathable material with excellent operational and tactile properties. Not the best choice for home use, as it’s still not very breathable.
3. Textile: Any eco-friendly fabric on a chair is good due to its ability to dissipate air and moisture. Avoid polyester and pseudo-mesh (3D fabric), as these materials heat up quickly, are very slippery, and unpleasant to the touch.
4. Nylon Mesh, 3D Mesh, Reinforced Mesh: Mesh chairs without soft fillers are ideal for both home and office use. The ideal chair should have a mesh backrest, mesh seat, and wide mesh headrest.

Padding

• Hard Padding (e.g., integral polyurethane foam) or Hard Surface (plywood): Poor choice as they do not provide proper load distribution, leading to hypodynamia and circulation issues.
• Molded Memory Foam Polyurethane: Provides even load distribution but hinders heat and moisture dissipation, negatively affecting productivity and comfort.
• High-Density Molded Polyurethane Foam: Optimal choice as it considers average user anthropometry, provides good heat and moisture dissipation, and is very durable.
• Sheet (flat) Polyurethane Foam and Any Material Not Molded to User Anthropometry: Poor choice and reflects the manufacturer’s lack of understanding of ergonomics and healthy seating (avoid these manufacturers). The exception is kneeling chairs where flat material is acceptable, but it should be thick enough to prevent the shin from pressing the cushion to the base.

Tactility, Appearance, and UX

Not the most critical characteristic but very important in any purchase. If you buy a high-quality, well-thought-out product, you’ll want to use it, and the adaptation period will be much easier, even if you choose a seating style with a long adaptation period.

Tactility is also important during long work sessions. For example, eco-leather will always squeak unpleasantly when it contacts human skin, and an improperly designed mesh chair can rub the skin of your legs uncomfortably.

Major manufacturers and modern designer chairs pay special attention to UX, especially in interaction with chair adjustment mechanisms. It’s important that the mechanism and control elements under the chair are as far back as possible; otherwise, you’ll hit them with your legs when you tuck them in.

Some manufacturers pay special attention to acoustic comfort. Read reviews and pay attention to what other buyers say about noisy, loose armrests, noisy casters, and strange clicks. These may seem minor but can be very annoying during an 8–10 hour work session.

Things You Should Never Do

1. For Performance Seating, Never Buy Classic Gaming Chairs with Car Seat Reclining Mechanisms: These mechanisms are not only useless but harmful. They don’t consider the pivot points of the backrest relative to the seat, causing the backrest to move up and back significantly, taking the headrest, lumbar, and side supports with it. Additionally, this design doesn’t allow for seat depth adjustment. With the center of gravity shifted towards the backrest, the tilt mechanism is placed in the center or towards the back, which is fundamentally wrong. When tilting, the front edge of the seat will rise significantly, and your legs won’t reach the floor.
2. Never Buy Chairs with Integral Polyurethane Foam: This material is very hard and resilient.
3. Never Buy Chairs with Thin Seats Unless It’s a Mesh Chair, Saddle Chair, or Kneeling Chair: High-density polyurethane foam will quickly compress, making sitting very uncomfortable.

Popular Misconceptions

Fidgeting is Harmful

Not harmful, but not beneficial either. If you want to fidget, it means you’re experiencing hypodynamia, and your body is trying to fight it. If you can’t stand up and walk away, change your posture. Any posture is good if it’s not static.

Slouching is Bad

Slouching is okay, but not for long. Any posture is good. Slouching helps rest the muscles that constantly hold the body upright. They don’t need much time to rest. A few minutes of rest and back to work.

You Must Maintain Perfect Posture

You don’t. Sometimes you need to let your neck rest. If your main goal is spine health, work according to the “It Takes Two” principle, combining, say, standing work or a saddle chair (as the main option) with performance seating. This way, your neck muscles won’t hate you for constant strain.

A $50 Chair is No Different from a $500 Chair

There are differences, particularly in areas unnoticed by the average buyer during purchase. Padding quality (polyurethane foam), mesh quality (mesh without reinforced threads will quickly compress and not support your back), tactile and acoustic comfort. You can buy a good ergonomic mat for standing work to relieve sacrum and heel stress for cheap. Complex ergonomic chairs should be in the mid to high price range.

Gaming Chairs are the Best! Cheap, Great Looking, and Fully Adjustable

No, not fully adjustable and definitely not the best. Seat depth is not adjustable in 90% of models, backrest height isn’t adjustable (hello, fabric pillow), lumbar support isn’t adjustable in prominence/depth, armrests aren’t BMI-adaptable in width, and are centrally located, so when reclining, they move up and forward, making them unusable. And the mechanism? I wrote about it earlier. In short, classic gaming chairs are unbalanced, non-technological Frankenstein with everything attached that could be found. And RGB.

Case Studies

Here are examples of 2–3 chairs for each seating style with different budgets. Balanced work is not cheap, like professional golf or fishing.

Classic Seating

Profim LightUp or similar

An excellent chair for classic “correct” seating. It has seat depth adjustment and an optional headrest.
$250+

Dynamic Seating

Aeris Swopper

A fantastic dynamic balance chair. Your back muscles will be shocked, but it’s worth it. It comes with or without a backrest, but with a backrest, it’s quite unusual.
$350+

Topstar Sitness Profi 600 (Germany)

Affordable and effective. The seat on a special hinge makes the support unstable, keeping the back muscles constantly active with micro-movements. Proactive seating at its finest.
$300+

Performance Seating

Herman Miller Aeron (US)
No, I won’t write about the Aeron from HM (it’s excellent, as is the entire HM performance line) or the Markus from Ikea (it’s also good with a wide headrest). Let’s give other chairs some spotlight here.

Haworth Fern (US)

An underrated superhero. Adaptive backrest, excellent reclining mechanism perfectly fitting anthropometry, almost perfect… If not for the poorly adjustable, narrow headrest.
$700+

Goodtone Yucan (China)

A very good affordable chair. Created clearly under the influence of Haworth Fern but with some unique features. Same headrest issue.
$200–300

Okamura CP (Japan)

An older model from the legendary Japanese ergonomic furniture brand, but perfect for performance. Super-wide headrest, proper reclining mechanism, mesh seat like the Aeron. It has everything you need and nothing you don’t. The lumbar support used to be soft silicone, now replaced with soft plastic, making it stiffer. IMO, it was better. This chair suits users with short and medium height (my 5’9” frame fits perfectly).
$500+

Comfort Seating Ergohuman (China)

A functional chair from a well-known Chinese manufacturer. Excellent adaptive lumbar support, all necessary adjustments. It’s heavy, wide, and tall, even in the lowest position, so it’s better suited for taller people. Mesh headrest but narrow and too far back. It seems designed only for resting and doesn’t work even in a semi-reclined position (you’ll have to look at the ceiling).
$400+

More Vertical Seating

Gravitonus EZDuo Back (US)

My creation. Good saddle chair in the mid-price range. The angle is adjustable, allowing you to choose how vertical your posture will be and adjust the pressure on the sit bones. The downside is the material — eco-leather (available in leather, but more expensive). We haven’t yet managed to make a mesh saddle chair, unfortunately. However, in a saddle chair, the material is less important as the contact area is significantly smaller than in classic seating, thus less affecting thermoregulation.
$400+

Aeris Swopper Muvman

An excellent chair for more vertical work with a dynamic effect. Very casual way of working. Easy to sit, easy to get up, easy to work.
$450+

Chest-Supported Seating

Wooridul iPole 7 (South Korea)

• Developed in a spinal hospital in South Korea. Quite a comfortable chair. Excellent option for “It Takes Two” in the second position.
  $400+

Gravitonus TinyDuo Front

Another chair from Gravitonus. Excellent chest support plus saddle chair. The forward tilt mechanism allows adjusting the chest load. The saddle shape simplifies sitting and getting up.
$450+

Kneeling Chairs

Varier Multi Balans (Norway)

A well-thought-out kneeling chair from the father of all kneeling chairs. Ideal ergonomics, tactility, and design.
$700

Standing Work

You only need your feet and possibly an ergonomic mat for extra comfort.
$0+

In Conclusion

Remember that choosing the right working method and chair is a process, not a one-time task. It took me at least 3 years to settle on my chosen chairs (I adhere to the “It Takes Two” principle). Monitor your feelings and create your metrics.

You need to give the chosen method/chair a chance to show itself over a long period. 2–4 weeks is the test-drive period. Therefore, buy from places that offer a guaranteed 30-day money-back policy. However, if you can’t get used to the method or chair after 1–1.5 months of active work, it’s probably not for you.

Stay productive and healthy!