Today, sedentary lifestyles are endemic. Americans spend the majority of their days sitting. Health issues like obesity, diabetes and back pain are on the rise. Gaming chairs fill a need in this era by supporting good posture while sitting. This article explains how gaming chair benefits let you sit longer and work smarter.
Human bodies work best when active. Even so, the average American worker sits for 13 hours a day. This time includes working, commuting, eating, and relaxing on the couch at home.
In recent years there has been growing evidence of health risks caused by too much sitting. These include obesity, diabetes, depression, and cardiovascular disease. Most of these issues are set off by poor posture.
Gaming chairs counteract these concerns by protecting the body during long periods of sitting. Three things happen once you start using a gaming chair:
- Improved posture: a high tapered backrest and support cushions keeps the spine in alignment.
- Better circulation: gaming chairs ensure the feet lie flat on the floor. This helps with optimal blood flow.
- Reduced chronic pain: gaming chairs provide support so the body doesn’t have to. Overworked muscles can relax as the chair does all the work.
Getting benefits from a gaming chair is easy. All you need to do is sit down and start computing. As you sink into the thick padding, the gaming chair absorbs the weight of your body. With your eyes at perfect screen height, you will feel a surge of consistent energy as you lose yourself in work.
Take breaks every 30 minutes and then come back for short, intense bursts of work. Your energy and productivity levels will soar.
Key benefits
Gamers, office workers, and computer professionals sit for long periods. But most people take workstation ergonomics for granted. That’s why cheap office chairs are standard issue. The problem is that cheap chairs force the body to work harder while sitting. As muscles tire, this leads to declining posture and worse.
The key benefit of gaming chairs is that they support healthy posture while sitting. That support spares the muscles from having to hold the body up against gravity.
When you sit, the chair absorbs the weight of your back, upper body, arms and legs. The energy saved from exerting muscles then becomes available to focus on work.
Below is a summary of the health, wellness and productivity benefits that gaming chairs provide.
More comfortable
Gaming chairs are much more comfortable than office chairs. That’s because they have better padding and more adjustment options. The padding supports long computing sessions by cushioning the back and shoulders. The adjustments help users to operate their PC with ease, comfort and precision.
All chairs start with a rigid steel frame. Cold cure foam padding – the premier choice in the furniture industry – layers over the steel. Compared to cheap office chair padding, cold cure foam has superior compression resistance. When you sit, it compresses enough to conform to the shape of your body. When you stand up, the foam pops back into its original shape.
But padding is not enough, especially for gamers. For instance, most multiplayer games demand fast, precise mouse movements over long periods.
Using a regular chair, users must conform their body to fit their workstation. This can place undue stress on the spine and upper body. Using a gaming chair, you can adjust the backrest, armrests, chair height, and more.
In sum, gaming chairs give you superior padding and more support options. These features cushion your body and minimize muscle strain. As a result, they provide a more comfortable seat capable of supporting your body for many hours at a time.
Effective back support
Gaming chairs support the body so the muscles don’t have to. As a result, people are able to sit longer while focusing on work, instead of muscle strain and discomfort.
All gaming chairs feature high backs, neck support pillows, and lumbar (lower back) support. These components work together to support optimal posture. Over time, the body adjusts to sitting upright until muscle memory kicks in and the habit sticks.
Good posture makes you stand tall, with an air of powerful confidence. But there are more benefits to gain from healthy posture than looking good. You will also feel good. Here are some of the benefits that computer users can expect from having good posture:
- Reduced lower back pain
- Less headaches
- Reduced tension in neck and shoulders
- Increased lung capacity
- Improved circulation
- Improved core strength
- Increased energy levels
More energy
Increased energy is a key gaming chair benefit that doesn’t get enough press. Because gaming chairs support good posture, the muscles don’t have to. That means you get plush comfort, plus healthy sitting support. The result is a wellness boost that can supercharge productivity.
Sitting with improper posture drains energy. Once poor posture becomes a habit, many people accept it as normal to feel tired all the time.
The energy drain happens because slouching places severe strain on the back, neck and shoulders. Notice how many people sit up straight in the morning, but start wilting as the hours pass. As their muscles tire, the shoulders sag and the head leans too far forward. This forces muscles in the neck and back to work four times harder to compensate.
What’s worse, slouching compresses the ribs, making deep breathing impossible. This depletes oxygen levels, builds up lactic acid, and causes fatigue. It also slows down blood flow to your legs.
When you sit for long periods, blood flow slows through the legs. Sluggish blood flow increases the risk of blood clots or Deep Vein Thrombosis. At best this can cause pain or swelling. At worse, the clot can break free, travel up the bloodstream, and lodge in the lungs (pulmonary embolism).
All of these maladies disappear once you get used to sitting in a gaming chair. The seat absorbs the weight of your body while the backrest supports the spine, neck, and shoulders.
This spares the muscles from doing the work. Sitting with an aligned spine also facilitates deeper breathing, pumping up to 30% more oxygen into the body.
Improved concentration
The ergonomic scientists at Herman Miller did a study on the effects of comfort in the workplace. Their findings showed that uncomfortable people tend to get distracted easier. But when provided with ergonomic furniture, their ability to focus improved.
The American Posture Institue conducted a similar study among students. They found several indications that poor posture affects cognitive performance. For example, distracted students tend to slouch low into their chairs. In contrast, engaged students sit up straight, with their eyes focused forward.
There’s a lot of other research out there that points to the same conclusion. Your posture impacts both your mood and brain function. A slouched posture is a defeated pose. A straight back with open shoulders is a power pose.
In fact, science proves that power postures alter your hormones. Doing these will boost testosterone while decreasing cortisol (the stress hormone).
The appeal of gaming chairs in this context is that they provide comfortable posture support. With good posture, computer users can be more alert, energetic, and able to concentrate.
Poor posture effects on computer users
86% of American workers sit all day for a living. Low back pain is the leading cause of disability in the country. With back problems comes an avalanche of other health issues.
For example, 40% of American adults are obese. Two thirds suffer from chronic fatigue.
This section explains why poor sitting habits are at the root of so many long-term health issues.
How poor posture starts
Your spine and upper body muscles hold your body up against gravity. With good sitting posture, the spine stays straight, with an indented curve at the small of the back. This puts the least amount of strain on the muscles.
Hunched over a desk or staring down at a smartphone all day forces the spine to sag. This tilts the pelvis and forces the stomach to stick out, making you look shorter and fatter.
When slouching becomes a habit, the body adapts. Slouching becomes comfortable – sitting up straight requires more effort. This carries over to your standing posture. Everything falls out of alignment, forcing the muscles to compensate. Under consistent strain, the muscles knot up, and chronic pain sets in.
Many people don’t notice the change because it happens so gradually. They accept what’s happening as normal and soldier on.
How poor posture affects health
Recently, this study of desk worker habits resulted in a life-sized dummy named Emma. Emma shows how poor office sitting habits can change the body over 20 years of sloppy sitting. She has a hunched back, rotund stomach, swollen joints and varicose veins.
She serves as a call for radical changes in the way we work. Excessive sitting ruins posture and increases the risk of heart disease, obesity, and early death.
Do you suffer from obesity, lethargy, poor posture or chronic pain? Poor posture might be at the root of the issue. If so, a gaming chair is the perfect solution.
Benefits for the masses
Thus far we’ve established that gaming chairs support good posture. That in itself isn’t such a big deal, given that many other products support good posture as well.
The difference is that back braces, ergonomic kneeling chairs, and neck jacks are for general use. Gaming chairs are for especially for computer use.
All aspects of a gaming chair support healthy sitting at a computer workstation. You can adjust a gaming chair to align with your desk, support your body, manage your mouse and more. Thick padding ensures comfort for several hours at a time. The backrest and armrests support your weight and take the pressure off the muscles.
So the key benefit is comfort and posture support for long periods of computing. This has big ramifications for different groups of users.
For men
Slouching drains energy, reduces flexibility, and overworks the muscles. In this condition, men tend to lose muscle and accumulate fat in a slow haze of lethargy.
Weak, fat, slouching men come last in society. Desk workers who suffer passivity and lack of drive should look to posture as a means to turn things around. Replace your office chair with a gaming chair and learn how to use it. Let the chair do the work of supporting your body.
A few weeks of sitting will give the muscles time to adapt. Once your posture rounds into form, energy levels will rise. Flexibility will return.
This caps off with a confidence boost. In the animal kingdom, an open, upright stance shows dominance and authority. Among humans, it is a power pose that conveys confidence.
That makes you seem powerful to others, but it also makes you feel powerful. Within minutes of assuming a power pose, testosterone increases and stress hormones decrease.
Men who sit all day will benefit by doing so in a gaming chair. With the plush padding and consistent comfort comes excellent posture support. Learning to sit comfortably with good posture provides a noticeable energy boost. It also helps make men feel more confident, assertive, and willing to take risks.
For women
Slouching restricts the expansion of the ribcage. This decreases lung capacity and forces shortness of breath. Shortness of breath usually happens when people feel anxiety.
Short, shallow breathing stimulates a primitive part of the lower brain stem. Conscious breathing stimulates the cerebral cortex and more evolved areas of the brain.
As a gaming chair holds your body in good posture, it’s easy to practice conscious breathing. Doing so fills the body with up to 30% more oxygen. It also lowers blood pressure and reduces stress.
Fixing your breathing by sitting straighter also has a cosmetic benefit. Slouching makes the hips to curve backward, forcing the neck to sag and the belly to stick out. In contrast, good posture makes women stand tall and look vibrant.
Are you happy spending your days slouching and panic breathing with a beer belly? If not, the solution is obvious. Buy a gaming chair right away, get your posture sorted, and reap the rewards.
For kids
As with adults, standing up straight helps kids appear more confident. It also helps them avoid muscle strain and back aches.
More important are the long-term benefits. Kids love video games. While playing they sit for long periods. Gaming chairs are a natural fit.
Gaming chairs teach kids to sit with good posture while they play video games. This helps to develop stronger back and shoulder muscles. Over time, good posture becomes their default position while sitting, standing or walking.
Forging strong posture habits during peak growing years can help young people blossom. With strong posture comes the confidence and energy they’ll need to succeed.
If your kid slouches, don’t sweat it. Buy their favorite video game and a cheap gaming chair. Your kid will love you for the gift, use the chair all the time and forge strong posture without even knowing it.
For professionals
Computing professionals include pro gamers, programmers, writers, accountants etc. When slouching full-time in a cheap chair, they may suffer from lethargy and low output. If the spiral continues, job security may become an issue.
Research shows that posture affects mood. Sitting straight improves confidence and energy levels. Slouching sags the shoulders and closes the body. By changing your posture to reflect a positive state of mind, you can actually make it happen.
While you can’t immediately improve posture, a gaming chair can bring gradual improvement. All you need to do is sit in the chair and let it hold your body up against gravity. After a few weeks, your muscles will adapt and the benefits of good posture are yours to enjoy.
This is how gaming chair can benefit professionals in the modern era. A good gaming chair will promote healthy sitting and good posture. Good posture relaxes muscles, elevates mood and improves concentration. The net result is higher output, better work relations, and more confidence.
Case study: DXracer benefits
After several years of desk work, this writer suffered chronic tightness in my hamstrings and back. That pulled my body inwards into an ugly slouch. After learning about gaming chairs, I bought a DX Racer Formula Series. After a week of struggling to get used to sitting upright, magic happened. Check out this Youtube report:
Conclusion
Today people sit more hours each day than ever before. Part of the reason is that computers and smartphones dominate our attention. Another reason is that our landscapes have changed.
Look around your city. Public spaces, schools, and worksites restrict human movement and keep people indoors. Crime, dense traffic, pollution, and a lack of walking spaces all make it hard to get out and moving.
At the coffee shop, during the commute to work, and while watching TV. In all those cases, people spend their time sitting.
Holding your body up all day while sitting in a cheap chair will sap your energy and stress your muscles. As the muscles weaken, the spine sags, poor posture sets in and a downward spiral begins.
Gaming chairs are the solution to this modern problem. They offer benefits for all sectors of society. Kids can forge good posture habits while they play games. Men can train their bodies into power poses. Women can improve their figures. Professionals gain more confidence and focus.
If you spend long periods sitting in a cheap chair it’s likely your posture is imperfect. That means your health is off-kilter, which affects your energy levels and mood.
When ready to turn things around, come back to this site. Browse our shopping guides. Read our reviews. Get yourself a cheap gaming chair or an expensive one. Learn how to use it and then enjoy the amazing benefits.
