Malmstolen is an ergonomic work chair designed to provide optimal support, relief and relaxation in the majority of sitting positions. In addition, the chair is very adaptable for those who like varying between these different positions. You achieve the very best relief when you sit and lean slightly backwards. The upper body is then relieved in the best way possible, as the weight of the body is supported by the chair. Furthermore, the angle of your hips opens by more than 90 degrees which provides an excellent opportunity for the blood to circulate. The chair follows the body and provides the platform to move naturally, that is to say with movements that arise as part of your work Ð not because the body is loaded and is inconvenienced.
What is a good sitting position?
Over the years this topic has been thoroughly discussed as regards what is a good or bad sitting position. This has included everything from the importance of sitting at a 90¡ angle in the hip and knee joints, or sitting like you do on a horse, known as "riding position", with a more or less forward inclined seat, to adopting a backward leaning position, and several variations on these themes.
A perfect office chair
A good sitting posture is a combination of balance, relieving and relaxing sitting postures and a sitting position that allows for natural, activity-related movements. It is therefore vital to choose a work chair that provides very good comfort, has a relieving capacity and a flexibility of movement, and that as far as possible reduces tensions and thereby load-related movements. If this can also be combined with the variation between sitting and standing, and in moving in a way that is different, this is of course an excellent attribute. We will be discussing the pros and cons of the different designs of work chairs below.
Theory and practice
The desire to get the upper body/back to adopt the same profile as when standing is common to most theories about how people should sit. We have come a bit along the way if we can have this balanced body profile irrespective of whether we are sitting in a forward or backward leaning position. In any case we must assume that nature is correct after thousands of years of evolution and the adaptation of the human body to suit its physical surroundings. Human beings are a part of the biological surroundings and our bodily functions have been adapted over the course of evolution to reflect a mobile, physically active live, so it is also important that the body can be offered movement. The more we have to sit, the more important these factors become. Sitting for more than 20 minutes is usually the point when things start happening in the body if your sitting posture is incorrect. These processes can lay the foundation for other and far worse musculoskeletal disorders, which may take many years to materialise.
What is possible?
How we can sit is also affected by the function, settings and placement of other peripheral equipment (desk, lighting, computer etc.). Here there is a lot to do to increase flexibility when sitting. Small changes to a more basic seated workplace can also drastically improve the conditions for a more relieved and relaxed sitting posture and as a result a more natural activity-related movement variation. Read more at: Adaptation of the workplace.
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