The role of the ergonomic chair is well-established within a workplace setting but because of the prevalence of working from home, it has also started becoming incorporated into leisure time as well. Ergonomic chairs are a vital part of any modern workplace as the health benefits they can bring are not to be easily dismissed. Most employers now consider that the health and wellbeing of their employees is a major priority so they are happy to facilitate the use of modern, well-designed ergonomic chairs for those who work for them.
Ergonomic Chairs for Leisure
Now that many people work from home, there are more home offices set up around a powerful desktop computer which can be used for both work and gaming purposes. A high-quality ergonomic office chair can more than rival the latest popular and specialised gaming chairs in terms of comfort and also in terms of how well they protect the spine and alleviate back pain.
Computer Gaming
PC computer gaming is an incredibly popular pastime with the US market being worth over 42.9 Billion dollars in 2022, according to the Statista website which cites a study by J.Clements from May 2023 titled “Online PC gaming market value worldwide 2011-2027”. This represents more money than the popular online streaming service Netflix made in total in 2022 by around 11.3 Billion dollars.
The PC computer gaming industry is often underestimated as consoles seem to have more buzz around them but the fact remains that the PC gaming market was around twice the size of the console gaming market as of 2022, with no sign of this gap closing. There are many reasons for the enduring popularity of PC gaming and one of them is that no extra hardware is needed in order to play the games and upgrades tend to be needed less often than with consoles.
A PC will tend to outlast a console generation and they are much easier to upgrade by swapping out a graphics card or adding more RAM as needed, rather than having to buy a whole new machine.
If the person in the household who is playing computer games is the same one who has been working all day, this makes it even more important that they have a comfortable chair which supports their spine at all of the correct points from the lower (lumbar) all the way up to the neck area. Being supported in this way prevents numerous problems relating to the spine including curvature and minimises things like joint and muscle pain that can occur when you are not adequately supported.
Streaming TV Services
People will often stay at their PC to watch streaming TV services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu and Paramount. This is made easier by the fact that all of their web interfaces are easy to navigate in a web browser and that you can wear headphones to create your own personal bubble. This means that if you are in the same room as family members who are watching the TV, but you would prefer to watch something different, this is now possible with a minimum of fuss.
Being able to sit in a comfortable chair while you do this is a game changer and makes it far more likely that people will choose this option over watching something they don’t even like on TV. They may watch a streaming service like those mentioned above or even one of their favourite internet personalities streaming live on Twitch, Instagram or Tiktok. There are so many ways to engage with online content and while not all of them involve sitting at the computer, it can make for a better and richer experience to do so, with a less cluttered graphical user interface (GUI).
Video Calls with Friends
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have all gotten far more used to having video calls with friends. Some people still keep in contact with their friends groups this way and have regular calls to catch up over a socially-distanced glass of wine or bottle of beer. It can be a great way to exchange news and just keep in the loop with each other, especially if not all members of the group live close to each other. This is made immeasurably easier by comfortable ergonomic chairs as sitting for hours on a video call may have hurt your back in an inferior chair.
It is great to be able to sit in comfort and support and shoot the breeze with good friends, and this is at least one good thing that the lockdowns and the pandemic have given us. Before the pandemic, people were much less aware of how easy it is to hop onto a Zoom call and they would have been more reluctant to do it, whereas now it is simply second nature.
