The small person’s problem:

Under 165 cm height, if the desk cannot be lowered ( the normal situation), we place a FOOTREST under the desk. At all times we ideally want your feet to rest flat on the floor surface. If you are not tall, you will have shorter legs (see diagram). In order to have your feet on the floor, the common (incorrect fix) is to lower the chair to suit lower leg length. However, now the desk becomes proportonionally too high for you to work on comfortably. This forces you to elevate the upper body, shoulders and neck to get to the keyboard. This action is performed by antigravity muscles which become tired and sore of continuous overwork and eventually leads to discomfort and pain.

Where the desk is fixed height, we compensate by placing a footrest under the desk. Using the footrest reduces the distance from the desk top to where your feet rest, essentially bring the floor up under the desk. This then allows the chair seat to be raised, optomising access to the working desk top. By working at the correct height, with improved chair & foot support antigravity muscles aare not turned on as previously, so now the smaller height person can work in comfort.

The taller person’s problem:

The taller person has longer legs, a higher waistline and may find a standard fixed height 72 cm desk to low for him or her. Height adjustable desks can be one solution, but far simpler is to place 3-5cam blocks of wood or commerical desk risers under the desk legs. This then allows space for those longer legs and longer spinand improves comfort dramatically. The taller person may also require a taller chair, both in tems of seat height and back support.

The slim individual:

The slim individual’s body shape presents a unique, ofen overlooked problem. The width of many chair seats means that the slim body type is ‘at sea’ in their chair, unable to comfortabley use arerests while keyboarding as the chair seat is simply too wide for them. While the slim physique may only be a tiny proportion of the workforce, having access to a anrrow chair is of significant benefit to this body type. A chair set of 460mm width is often suggested, and unfortunately difficult to come by.

The heavy individual:

The heavy or obese individual should not feel squeezed into their chair. A wide hipped person requires a wider chair seat, say 520mm. Any perosn of >100kg will require a special chair as the hydraulic mechanis of standard chairs is usually guaranteed up to 100kg. Long term sitting on a chair for a lighter person may lead to damage and breaking of the hydraulic mechaism, with the chair potentially failing underneath the person.