Posture Guide for Ergonomic Seating
Ergonomic Seating - improving your posture
Our ergonomic seating ranges, including saddle seats, tri-shaped seating and practitioner chairs follow the principles of ergonomic posture seating. *Ergonomically shaped stools and chairs are designed to give maximum support, comfort and the ideal sitting position. Benefits for the seated practitioner include maintaining an ergonomic sitting position and a healthy spine.
The Principles of Ergonomic Seating
From the many articles documenting research and studies into posture seating the general consensus of ergonomic experts is that in terms of posturally healthy sitting and maintaining a healthy spine we should maintain a moderate level of the natural or inward curvature of the lumbar region of the spine to give a proper sitting posture that incorporates the natural curves of the spine and therefore doesn’t put harmful stress on your back.
The right chair for proper sitting posture will give you maximum spinal support and correct sitting posture. Used together with specially designed supports such as the adjustable torso/arm support the shaped stool becomes an ideal seating solution, addressing both mobility and health issues for the busy health practitioner, or technician. For surgical procedures the foot operated pneumatic height control feature can be added to most models to allow hands free adjustment of the seat height for surgeons.
Practitioner Chairs
Practitioner Chairs can offer the following features which can assist with a healthy sitting position 1. A height adjuster to keep your hips higher than your knees. 2. Armrests which support your arms but take pressure off your neck and shoulders. 3. Lumbar back support that pushes your low back forward slightly, supporting your normal lumbar curve.
Tri-Shaped Seating
Triangle shaped seat pads on chair and stool models are specifically designed to allow unrestricted blood circulation to legs. The shape of the seat can help prevent upper leg impingement during long procedures as it does not impinge on the underside of your thighs when seated. Can be combined with an arm/ torso support (see 2 & 3 above).
Saddle Seats & Medi Saddle Seats
Saddle shaped Stools and Chairs are designed to promote optimal seated posture and give maximum support when seated. On the saddle shaped seat your bodyweight is automatically distributed more evenly, providing a more natural balanced seated posture. The wider stance required by sitting on a saddle shaped seat ensures your thighs are apart and pointing downwards keeping the body balanced and your pelvis rotated forwards and permits the pelvis to be held securely in its natural position. The knees are naturally positioned lower than your hips and your feet rest on the floor on both sides of the body. This allows the lower back and upper body to find a relaxed, natural posture. It is commonly regarded that widening the angle between the trunk and thighs in a seated posture can be beneficial in improving the shape of the spine, making it more like the natural S-shape in a standing posture. n.b. Multi angle pelvic positioning is provided by our tilting saddle stool model.
Benefits of ergonomic seating…
- As the upper body stays more relaxed, muscle tension can be reduced.
- Can help reduce pain in the lower back and help relieve common posture problems such as slouching and rounding of the lower back.
- Can help to alleviate neck and shoulder pain and to decrease pain and fatigue associated with muscular tension.
- Can promote good arm-hand control and help reduce work related upper limb disorders e.g pain/aching in wrists, arms and shoulders associated with regional musculoskeletal disorder (R-MSD), cumulative trauma disorder (CTD) and repetitive stress injury (RSI)
- Improved circulation to the lower extremities, resulting in, among other things, less fatigue.
- Provides for greater mobility – it is easy to move around on the chair, reach for items, and getting on and off the chair is effortless.
Sitting on ergonomic seating…
- Meditelle’s Seating Ranges are comfortable, and provide a wide range of adjustments to help find the most natural, comfortable sitting position.
- An anatomic memory foam layer can be ordered to add extra comfort if seated for long periods of time. This temperature sensitive foam moulds to the user giving pressure-free support without detracting from the benefits of the shaped seat.
- There can be a short transition period to adapt to a totally different way of sitting on a shaped style of seat and we suggest to allow a period of two weeks to allow your body to adjust.
- Users tell us that they tend to find posture and other problems can be helped after only a few weeks of use.
- Special Note: On a saddle style of seat tight skirts are not possible due to the wide stance required.
Your Perfect Tailor Made Posture Seat...
A bespoke manufacturing service with many options and extras is offered to modify any seat to meet your own particular requirements.
You can tailor your ideal seat with additions available to order on your chosen stool or chair including anatomic memory foam padding, varying height configurations, arm rest and torso supports and a pneumatic foot control for hands free height adjustment.
There is also an extensive free colour choice of hydrophobic and anti-microbial vinyl coverings.
You are welcome to telephone and discuss your requirements with one of our advisors who are happy to give guidance or technical advice on specifications and features.
Our Manufacturing Expertise
With over **20 years experience we use our manufacturing expertise to design and produce a comprehensive range of cost effective, quality medical seating ergonomically designed for medical health care professionals.
We have invested heavily in the development, design and production of our own uniquely shaped seat mouldings and make every seat at our factory in Birmingham with a skilled workforce who produce each order from fabrication and upholstery to assembly.
We are well used to working with our medical customers and are able to tailor make, modify and re-design our seating products to meet client’s specific requirements.
There are many excellent research articles about posture seating and links are provided for your further reading:
A C Mandal Balanced Sitting Posture on Forward Sloping Seat & Jeff Tiedman New Concepts in Seating.
*This guide is intended for reference purposes and draws upon our significant experience in developing, manufacturing and using saddle seats and the opinions of our in-house qualified therapist who has been working with saddle seats for more than 20 years. In addition to our internal therapist we have consulted well documented research by various ergonomics consultants which were believed to be reliable at the date of publication (see references below). This information is only advisory and does not presume to be exhaustive or inclusive of all workplace hazards or situations. All information is given in good faith and any errors are excepted. The images used in this article have been commissioned by and are the copyright property of Meditelle Ltd.
** Meditelle Ltd has over 20 years experience of manufacturing specialist medical equipment in the UK.
References
Mandal, A.C. Balanced Sitting Posture on Forward Sloping Seats , http://www.acmandal.com/, 2003
Mandal, A.C. The Seated Man, (homo sedens). Dafnia Publications, Klampenborg, Denmark. 1985.
Jeff Tiedeman, an Ergonomics Consultant. Jeff TiedMan New Concepts in Seating
