Chiropractor Explains Why Dining Chairs Are So Uncomfortable

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in people working from home. So much that at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, around 71% of employed Americans worked at home. Because of this, many people have developed makeshift home office setups. Many of these setups consist of a dining chair. Although this may seem sufficient enough, they can cause some severe discomfort. But why are dining chairs so uncomfortable? 

Dining chairs aren’t comfortable because they don’t supply adequate lumbar support. Because of this, your body will naturally slump, resulting in your spinal cord become compressed. From your disc pressure increasing, you’ll eventually encounter discomfort in your lower back. 

As you can see, dining chairs are generally uncomfortable because they’re not designed to support your lower back. Typically, if you were to opt-in for something like an office chair, they have more adjustments and supports to ensure you’re able to sit for a prolonged period of time. 

Now you understand this, let’s dive further into the topic. Want to know how dining chairs can affect your health and how to make them more comfortable? Read below: 

Can Dining Chairs Affect Your Health? 

According to Big Think, we spend around 29.75% of our lives sitting down. If you’re someone who finds themselves sitting on a dining chair, I suggest you read the following. Below we talk about if dining chairs can affect your health, and you’ll undoubtedly be surprised by the findings.

Poor Blood Circulation

Sitting in a chair that cannot be adequately adjusted for your personal needs can result in worse or poor blood circulation. The bad blood circulation is normally to your shoulders, back, legs, and neck, depending on the dining chair style. 

Nonetheless, this isn’t just targeted towards dining chairs, but all chairs that don’t supply good seating. A study that the American College of Sports Medicine conducted concluded that people who sit in poor seating for more than 24 hours a week are at 64 per cent greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Knowing this, it’ll certainly make you think twice about the type of seating you’re providing yourself. 

Back, Neck, and Shoulder Pain 

The reason you’re probably reading this post is that you find dining chairs uncomfortable. If that’s the case, I’m sure you’ve experienced back, neck, or shoulder pain while sitting in them. 

Without a doubt, this is the most prominent health risk sitting on a dining chair or any chair with no adjustments can cause. This is because a bad sitting posture can compress the discs in your spine. After a period of time, this can develop into premature degeneration, or even worse, chronic pain. 

This can easily be avoided by using a chair suited for sitting for long periods, for example, an office chair. By doing this, you’re promoting movement and offering adequate adjustments to ensure your seating is healthy and comfortable. 

Lowers Concentration and Increases Fatigue 

Including the above, when you’re sitting in an uncomfortable chair like a dining chair, you can massively lose concentration and become more fatigued. If you’re using your dining chair for work purposes, then this could be a major issue. 

Simply, because you’re uncomfortable, your concentration rapidly decreases as you’ll spend time trying to become comfortable rather than working. 

Fatigue comes from the lack of oxygen and blood flow. Because of this, your muscles, brain, and other vital organs have less energy to work, meaning you’ll become tired a lot quicker. 

Boost Body Fat and Weight Gain 

In accordance with the above, sitting on a dining chair for long periods can enhance body fat and weight gain. After becoming knowledgeable on this above, you’ll quickly discover that sitting on the wrong chair can make you more fatigued and give you aches or pains. 

If you experience the above, you’ll quickly become less mobile. This will result in you wanting to perform less exercise, as you feel like you don’t have the energy for it, or you’re in too much pain. 

As you can see, sitting on a dining chair can cause you a lot more problems than you may realize. Don’t get me wrong, sitting on a dining chair for a short time won’t enhance the above issues. But, if you’re sitting on a dining chair for an extended period, you’ll slowly start developing the above problems over time. 

Is It Possible to Make a Dining Chair More Comfortable? 

If you’re sitting on a dining chair for long periods and want to know how to make it more comfortable, you need to become knowledgeable on the below. Here we discuss how you can make a dining chair safer to sit on and more comfortable. 

Seating Angle 

The most prominent way to make a dining chair more comfortable is actually your seating position. If you suffer from back pain, you’ll be surprised that it’s recommended to sit at a 110-degree angle rather than 100. From sitting at this angle, you’re able to decrease the overall pressure on your spinal discs by around 35%. 

While seating angle is important, your posture is also. When seating, you should try to keep a straight back, rather than it being sloughed or arched. Again, this will reduce the amount of pressure building up on your lower discs. 

Avoid Reaching Too Far 

If you’re working from a dining chair, you’ve probably developed back pain from overreaching or reaching too far from your seating area. From doing this, you’re overstretching your mid-back. This is a prevalent problem for many desk workers, resulting in them receiving pains in their back and shoulders. 

From reaching too far over a period of time, your body will eventually adapt. Although this sounds great, it’ll actually break down your joints and discs. To avoid this, be sure you organize items closer to your dining chair to ensure you’re not overstretching.

Seat cushions

Including the above, a product you can introduce to your dining chair is a seat wedge. Using an orthopedic seat cushion helps improve posture. It’s able to achieve this by pushing your pelvis forward, which encourages your back to sit upright. 

By using an orthopedic seat wedge, you’ll also notice better core stability. This is great, as it ultimately relieves back pain even further. Here are some benefits you’ll receive from a seat wedge: 

• Better pelvic support and comfort 
• Enhanced posture 
• Decrease levels of back pain 
• Less compression on stomach and other vital organs 
• It can make you feel much more comfortable

As you can see, a seat wedge can provide an abundance of different benefits from which you’re able to benefit. It’s a superb and inexpensive way of making your dining chair more comfortable. 

Conclusion 

The most common complaint about dining chairs is that they’re not comfortable. But why are these seats so uncomfortable? Well, a lot of it has to do with the design. For example, when you sit on a high-backed chair, your upper back and neck can feel cramped because there’s less space for them to move around in comparison to sitting at an office desk or table.

This may cause some serious discomfort over time as well as poor posture from having to hunch forward just enough so your head doesn’t hit the top of the chair while still being able to see what you’re working on clearly. And if this isn’t bad enough already, don’t forget how much pressure all of our body weight puts on your legs.

A simple solution may be to add an orthopedic seat wedge.  This should not only make you more comfortable, but it may help your digestion as well.