Ergo Advantage Summit Chair

Today I’m looking at the Ergo Advantage Summit chair. At first glance its a relatively plain chair with all your standard features, which includes 360 degree swivel, ratchet back height adjustability, tilt tension control, infinite tilt position lock, pneumatic seat height adjustment, seat pivot from 0 to 6 degrees forward, and a mechanism which allows the seat and back to move as one single unit. Molded high resilient visco-elastic foam is used on every seat and back for your ergonomic comfort.

This chair essentially provides you with all the bells and whistles of a brand name chair, without the added cost of buying a brand name chair. It’s going to offset your pocket book by $225, though in all reality you’re making an investment when you purchase a chair for your office. You’ll be taking into account the amount of time you spend at you desk each day, and you have to consider the comfort, estimated life span, health benefit/risk, and cost of any chair you purchase. The Summit offers the functions you need, the ergonomics you want, and the price you demand. Molded high resilient visco-elastic foam is used on every seat and back for your ergonomic comfort. Available arm options feature Ura-Soft® arm pads which offer ratchet height adjustment and locking pivot. A side activated seat slider is available which grants the user easier access to the seat depth adjustment. The Waterfall seat front promotes circulation and good health. Lifetime warranty on all structural and mechanical components. Foam is warranted against wear and tear deterioration for three years.

All in all the Ergo Advantage Summit chair is a very good buy for the price of $225. If you spend more than an hour at your computer desk each day, you need to be thinking about ergonomics and how to promote healthy and safe posture and computing practices. One of the foundations to achieving this is a quality chair that will support your body.

Remember! You should be stretching and taking a moderate (5-10 min) break for every hour or so that you sit at your workstation. Let your eyes rest, do some jumping jacks or walk around the office, stretch your body. A decent office chair, such as the Ergo Advantage Summit chair is a good start to being healthy and safe at your workstation, but you also have to dicipline yourself and remember to take breaks!

Every ergonomist I’ve EVER spoken with begins their recommendations by stating that frequent breaks are absolutely necessary throughout your work day. Who here does not enjoy stretching? Why wouldn’t you want to take five minutes every hour or so to get up and stretch out your body, rest your eyes or soak up a little sun? Below are a few key points that help highlight best practices for taking breaks:

Micro-breaks
Very few people can type continuously for long periods of time. Most of us normal folks type in bursts of 10-30 words, and then take a moment to gather our thoughts for the next burst. The slight breaks you take between these bursts can be step one in ensuring that your body gets a slight rest. During a micro-break (which is typically 15 seconds to 1 minute) you can briefly relax your hands and wrists, stretch out your arms, and/or get up and move around. The micro-break is not necessarily meant to get you away from your work, as a normal break would hopefully do, however it does provide those areas of your body that are doing most of the strenuous work a slight bit of relief for a short duration.

Eye breaks
How many people know the feeling of literally being sucked into your computer screen when you’re hard at work? And how do you typically feel after long durations of that? Looking at the computer screen for extended periods of time causes changes in how your eyes work. Your eyes blink less often, which exposes more air to the surface of your eyes. During your micro-breaks, its a great relief to your eyes if you take a moment to look away from the computer screen. Try to focus on something that’s more than 20 feet away, and dont forget to blink rapidly a few time to moisten your eyes. Let the muscles in your eyes relax and calm down from focusing so intently on the computer. If you can manage to work this into a micro-break, you’re refreshing the lubricant on your eyes, and flushing the dust from the surface of your eyes.

Rest breaks
Here’s the big one we’ve all been dreading. You’re on a deadline, eleven hours into your day, and your boss wants this project completed and on his desk when he arrives tomorrow morning at 7:00a. Who has time for a break?!?!

Standard recommendations from any ergonomist will resemble a 5 to 10 minute break every 30-60 minutes. During this break get your butt out of the chair, move around, get a cup of coffee or water, stretch out your body, and try to let your mind rest for a moment. Shifting gears is definitely an obstacle while you’re on a deadline or just zoned into your work, but taking a rest break every hour or so is going to pay off in the long run and you’ll feel much less fatigued as the day progresses.

Exercise
There’s that word that 90% of Americans hate. I won’t spend too much time here, knowing that your doctor probably told you last time you saw him or her that you need to exercise, and probably gave you a huge lecture on it. For those that don’t have equipment or a gym membership there are many gentle exercise techniques and stretches that you can do to help alleviate muscle fatigue. Check out Basic Stretches at WebMD for more specific info and instructions. It’s best to try to work some for of exercise or stretching in every 1-2 hours.

If you’re unsure as to how you can gather credible information, please call our fully trained customer service teams for a free ergonomic consultation. Our goal is simply to ensure that you have the proper information available before making a decision on whether you or your employer needs to invest in ergonomic products. Contact information for Ergo Chair Depot can be found on our website: Ergo Chair Depot

The Goldtouch Go! Travel Keyboard is a recent additional to the ergonomic products market, and has definite promise to providing the professional world with a well designed, ergonomic keyboarding solution. At a mere 1.5lbs, the Go! Travel Keyboard allows road warriors and mobile professionals to safely work wherever their job takes them, while enjoying all the benefits of the standard Goldtouch keyboard when away from their office workstations. With keys approximately the size of those found on  most notebooks, the Go! Travel Keyboard can accommodate large fingers, and offers similiar key feel and travel distance as found on the standard Goldtouch keyboard. Other mini or compact keyboards have shortened key travel distance (2mm) that is too short or hard, and can cause significant pain from bottoming out. The compact design of the Go! Travel Keyboard makes better use of limited space environments, and allows for external mice to be placed even closer to the keyboard for reduced shoulder pain and increased comfort. Adding to the historical durability and ruggedness ofthe standard Goldtouch keyboards, the Go! Travel Keyboard comes with two protective covers that support the Go! during use while reducing exposure to impacts tha could lead to key cap loss when traveling.

Goldtouch Go! Travel Keyboard

Features include:

• Adjustability: 0°-30° adjustment for ulnar deviation (wrist splay) in the horizontal plan, combined with 0°-30° adjustment for wrist pronation (vertical tenting)
• Soft key touch, low activation force and full key travel distance provides keying comfort and reduces risk from bottoming out when keying.
• Compact size allows for use in limited space environments, and reduces shoulder abduction when reaching for mice and other peripherals.
• Ease of use and intuitive design allow new users to adjust the keyboard to a comfortable typing position without additional accessories or attachments.
• Compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista

I had the unique opportunity to keep tabs on the whole manufacturing and testing process that went into designing and building this ergonomic keyboard, and I for one absolutely love having one in my back pocket for those times when I’m away from my workstation. So, the long and the short of it would end in a question of whether you prefer to type on your laptop, or whether you would prefer to have the flexibility and comfort of an ergonomic keyboard wherever you go?

We’re going to start with a very common one; Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

If you’ve ever felt wrist pain there are many different possible causes, and due to the varying amount of potential problems it can make for a difficult diagnosis. If you find yourself at the doctor’s office waiting to have someone look at your wrist and tell you why it hurts, you should expect to be asked several questions. Its always best, with any medical issue, to provide your medical team with as much information regarding your circumstances as possible!

Has your wrist been under abnormal stress or injured recently?
During a wrist pain differential diagnosis, its highly likely that the first assumption made by a medical professional will be that you injured or stressed your wrist in some fashion. Did you slip and fall, or pick something up that was too heavy? Maybe you caught your arm in a door or perhaps everyone’s nightmare came true and that damn elevator door finally caught someone’s arm! Having this information will help the doctor make an immediate diagnosis, and help him delivery details and resolution to you much quicker.

Is this a job related injury?
Not only does this impact you wallet, but it impacts the way that the medical attention and paperwork needs to be handled. If you injured yourself on the job, always be sure to notify your supervisor and insure that the proper paperwork and documentation is in order! If you have to miss work due to a work related injury, you deserve to be compensated for the time-loss, though you should always take initiative to be absolutely sure that the documentation is correctly executed. Be prepared to discuss with your doctor how this impacts your work, and whether there are any workarounds to keep you working while you heal.

Is there any past history of wrist injury? Breaks, sprains, fractures?
This is also something that the doctor will want to know upfront. Its going to help him understand your history and circumstances around the current visit. Be sure you think back to your childhood. Injuries in children tend to heal quicker than adults, however those injuries are capable or resurfacing later on in life.

Is your wrist causing pain or discomfort in other areas of your body?
Your doctor is going to need to ensure that you’re injury is not causing stress in other parts of your body. In many cases, the human body has to compensate for injured areas by slightly disabling or overloading other parts of the body. This can cause stress in those areas and lead to continued injuries. This falls slightly more under the preventative maintenance category, but it’s also one of those areas that will pay off in the long run!

Long story short; make sure you have thought through any doctor visit! It can only improve your chances for a quick recovery, and help avoid potential injuries in the future.

If you’re not sure how to get the information you need; Call our trained customer service teams for a free ergonomic consultation. We’re here to help, and have your health and safety in mind. You can find contact information for Ergo Chair Depot on our website: Ergo Chair Depot

First off, if you’ve ever actually shopped for an office chair you understand what a nightmare if can turn into. Office chairs are a dime a dozen, and you can pay anywhere from $75.00 to $2,000.00 plus! The different accessories, functionality, sizes, colors, shapes, etc are so vast that even office chair gurus tend to get lost at times. Rest assured though, there’s a chair out there that’s made JUST FOR YOU, or at least you’ll feel that way!

Next, let me say that if you buy a $75.00 chair from Freddy Meyer’s, you deserve to grow old and get back problems. What happens when you buy cheap parts for your car? If they work correctly, you don’t get nearly the performance or lifetime out of them that you would if you had spent a little more on the higher quality products. The same goes for your office chair. You do not need to spent $2,000, unless you’re playing Pimp My Ergo Chair or have some medical necessity. So, we’re going to focus on some info and products that will put you in the $300-$900 range.

As I move through the following info, the below picture should help illustrate some of the details and highlight some of the best practices for a seated workstation:

Seat Height
A basic function that you should not go without is adjustable seat height. No chair you purchase is going to come out of the box built to fit your height, so this should be one of those non-negotiable points. An average built person will sit in a chair that ranges from 16″ to 21″ from the floor to the bottom of their thighs (which we’ll refer to as seat height). Your feet should be planted flat on the floor, and if someone were to look at you from a profile view they should see your knees at a 90 degree angle.

Seat Pan Width and Depth
A seat slider is another common functionality that you will want to look for when purchasing a chair. This will allow the depth of the chair enough flexibility to fit a wide range of average built people. When you sit in a chair, your back should be against the back of the chair and you should have 2″ to 4″ of space between the front edge of the seat and the back of your knees. This is typically two of three fingers worth of space.

The width of a seat pan is usually going to be in the range of 16″ to 20″ wide, and will not be adjustable. We’ll focus on how to address that when we look at armrests lower in this article.

Backrest
Adjustable height backrests are always a bonus, but you’ll definitely want to look for adjustable lumbar (addressed below) when looking at backrests. You’re also going to want to look for a backrest that tilts forward and back, and preferably one that will lock when necessary. An average size backrest will range from 12″ to 19″ wide, and the height will range from chair to chair.

Lumbar Support
The Lumbar and lower back support in chairs is extremely important, and if possible you want to try this feature of a chair before purchasing. This is one of those areas where pain can set in immediately after use begins, and if the lumbar is not adjusted correctly you can see continued problems. The lumbar spine has an inward curve, and sitting for long periods without support for this curve tends to promote poor posture. This strains the structures in the lower spine and will eventually cause pain and discomfort. This is one of those key items that you want to be sure your office chair has.

Armrests
If you’re going o purchase a chair with armrests, be sure that you can either adjust them out of the way or remove them when you’re actually working for long periods. An ergonomic chair manufacturer out of Nevada named Via Inc. has a unique arm kit for many of their chairs called the swing arm. Basically, you push a release button and the arms will rotate down and completely out of the way while you work. It’s a great feature, which allows you to avoid the installation and de-installation of arms when you need or don’t need them. (Shameless plug incoming! Check out Via Seating and their swing arm chairs for sale online. My favorite is definitely the Via Voss, which I sit in at work.)

Headrest
This is not one of those make it or break it things, but a proper headrest can actually promote healthy posture. The problem is that most headrests don’t have the flexibility necessary to provide the average person comfort and safety in their chair. If you look at a headrest, look for one that has its own vertical and horizontal functionality separate from the back of the chair. Typically you’ll want a headrest that sits in the curve of your next and the base of your skull. This will support proper posture and enable your body to relax while you’re seated correctly to work.

Materials
Here’s where some of the move specific info is nice to know. That $75.00 chair you were thinking of buying… It’s made from materials that are going to give you 10,000 rubs. Rubs are basically the amount of times you get in or out of the chair. When you start looking at higher priced chairs, you can ask about how many rubs the chair is rated for. Higher end chairs will rate up in the 75k double-rub range, which is an amazing lifetime for chair fabric.

You also need to take into account the foam that’s used. For those of you with sustainability in mind, ask about how the foam is manufactured and what it’s manufactured using. My opinion, if you’re not uber-green, is to look for something with a molded foam as opposed to a cut foam. The cut foam is going to wear down quicker, and you’ll begin to feel the plywood base to your seat a lot sooner than that molded foam.

The mechanisms, casters, frames, etc are pretty much all made in China and painted or slightly customized to each manufacturer. Basically, all those parts are the same, and you aren’t going to see a whole lot of diversity there. The moral of the story on all of the materials is you’ll get exactly what you pay for.

Side note: for all you idiots who think your Herman Miller Aeron chair is the best thing since sliced bread, you deserve the increased rubs your slacks and jeans take from the mesh fabric. Look at that stuff under a microscope, and you’ll see miniature barbs that shred your clothing each time you sit down and get up. Instead of going on my anti-Aeron rant here, I’ll make a completely separate post about it. I’ll try not to go on for too long, but I really hate those chairs from an ergonomic perspective… Beautiful design, but what a hunk of shit.

My last piece of solid advice here is to find a local office furniture dealership. These folks are going to have a wealth of information on chair manufacturers and specific models, and if in this economy they don’t want to help you find a chair that they might potentially make a few bucks off, contact me through ErgoChairDepot. I’ll work with you on whatever you need. We have access to hundreds of manufacturers, and if I can’t find a chair that will work for you I’ll probably consider going to work at McDonald’s.

Here in Seattle, I work with a local dealership, Apex Facility Resources in selling both new and pre-owned office furniture. They also work with a nation wide networking group called OFRA, and have a website dedicated to the sale of used products. UsedOfficeFurnitureSeattle

Our website at Ergo Chair Depot was recently added to our business, and we plan to continue increasing our product lines to offer the highest quality ergonomic products on the market. We’ll provide product reviews, video walk-throughs, brochures, and general educated opinions on our products.

Stay tuned! We’ll be in action soon!

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