There are a number of adjustments the armrests of your ergonomic office chair may have.
The most basic of these is the height adjustment, but in addition to this it may be that the width between them can be adjusted. Finally, in more sophisticated chairs the armrests have the ability to rotate or pivot inwards or outwards.
In terms of the height adjustment in an ideal world these should be adjusted so that they are flush with your desk. The height adjustment can also be used to reduce the height so that they can roll under the desk. Whilst ergonomically speaking this is unlikely to be the preferred arrangement, it can nevertheless be useful if you are working in a compact space. It is also useful if you want to roll your chair away completely under your desk once you have finished working so you can maximise the remaining space in the room.
The width adjustment is very useful because in simple terms the breadth of our shoulders are all different to some extent. For the majority of us, we fall within a fairly common range of should width so we are probably going to be ok with a standard chair setting, but for those with particularly narrow or broad shoulders the ability to make this width adjustment is an absolute must.
The final adjustment to concern yourself with is the ability to pivot or rotate the armrests inwards or outwards. This is going to be especially important if you are carrying out a computing activity. In simple terms your arms start at the width of your shoulders and angle in towards your keyboard. So to maximise the support for your arms you should adjust your armrests so that they follow the angle of your forearm towards the natural position on the keyboard.
You should be looking for an ergonomic office chair with at least 3D armrests, that is armrests that adjust in 3 directions.
Please see our experts selection of the 5 best ergonomic office chairs in the UK.
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