Collection: Ergonomic Office Chairs

No chair is ergonomic on its own. An ergonomic desk chair is one that can be adjusted to the person sitting in it, so the useful question is which adjustments a chair has, not whether the word is in its name. These are the ones worth checking.

Seat height and seat depth

Seat height lets your feet rest flat with your thighs level. Seat depth adjustment is less common: it slides the seat forward or back so your back reaches the backrest without the seat edge pressing behind your knees. The Adona, Simply, Varsity, Classic Chic, Fortuna, Maestro, Flex and Cosy all have it.

Lumbar support

Built-in lumbar support, as on the PAVIA ergonomic task chairs, shapes the backrest to the curve of the lower back. Adjustable lumbar lets you move that support to where your back actually curves, which matters when a chair is shared or when you are taller or shorter than average. The Adona, Simply, Varsity, Fortuna and our task chair with headrest have adjustable lumbar support.

Arms: height adjustable, 3D or 4D

Arms set too high push your shoulders up; set too low, they leave your forearms unsupported. Height-adjustable arms fix most of that. 3D arms also slide forward and back and pivot, and 4D arms add width adjustment so they can be brought in closer to your body. The Adona and Varsity have 4D arms; the Flex, Fortuna and Maestro have 3D arms.

Synchro tilt and forward tilt

A synchro tilt reclines the back further than the seat, commonly at a 2 to 1 ratio, so the backrest follows you as you lean back while the seat stays close to level. The Cucamanga, Classic Chic, Fortuna, Adona and Simply all use one. A forward tilt does the opposite, angling the seat slightly down for people who lean in toward the screen, and is on the Maestro and our ergonomic mesh back task chair.

Headrests and back height

If you recline to read or take calls, a headrest earns its place. The Cosy, Hercules, Flex and our task chair with headrest all have one, and the Cosy and Flex backs also adjust in height.

Weight capacity

Where a rating is listed, standard chairs here are rated 250 to 300 lb. The Big & Tall Task Chair is rated to 400 lb for eight hours a day, and more are in our big and tall office chairs.

For chairs chosen mainly for all-day computer work, compare our office task chairs. For leather executive seating, see executive office chairs.

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