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How does PostureFit respond to today’s office work experience? |
Recent Herman Miller research confirms what many of us already know: Today’s technology explosion often puts office workers literally on the edge of their seats-sitting upright and forward-during much of their working day.
When you sit this way for an extended period of time, you tend to slouch and your spine loses its natural alignment. The results of slouching? Fidgeting, fatigue and general discomfort, quite often followed by lower back pain, tight shoulder and neck muscles, and headaches.
Unfortunately, office seating today - including chairs with a lumbar feature - doesn’t provide the lower back, below-the-beltline support necessary to encourage a good posture and maintain spinal alignment.
PostureFit changes all that. It works with the body’s biomechanics to sustain the natural alignment of the spine. By doing so, PostureFit effectively promotes good posture and significantly improves seated comfort.
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How does PostureFit work? |
PostureFit provides custom-fitted support by filling the void that exists between your lower back and the back of your chair. By filling this void, PostureFit supports the natural forward tilt of your pelvis to promote the alignment of your spine. This enables you to sustain a healthier posture and, as a result, to experience a greater degree of long-term comfort while you work.
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Why does PostureFit work? |
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It works because the position of the pelvis determines spinal alignment. Rotating the pelvis forward restores natural spinal alignment - and that’s exactly what PostureFit does.
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Is there any research that looks at how people sit while working? |
The study, Office seating behaviors: an investigation of posture, task, and job type, by William Dowell, Fei Yuan, and Brian Green of Herman Miller, Inc., was conducted to determine if there is a relationship between seated postures, seated tasks, and job types. A field study was conducted with 40 office workers, who were observed within their workstations via videotape for approximately 31 hours. Their postures and tasks were coded using software. The job types were categorized as administrative, technical/professional, customer service, and executive. Behaviours were examined according to frequency of occurrence, duration of occurrence, and percentage of working hours that the behaviour was held.
Using these criteria, the following job-specific behaviours were identified:
Technical/professional workers spent a significantly greater percentage of their time with the mouse in their hand than the other job types.
Customer service workers spent a greater percentage of their time looking at the VDT (video display terminal) and typing on their keyboard than the other job types. They also looked at the VDT more frequently than the other job types.
In terms of postures, customer service workers sit with their arms in a neutral posture for a larger percentage of working hours than the other job types.
Through the analysis of the total data set, it was determined that the office workers studied spent approximately three-quarters of their time sitting upright and/or forward of upright while in a seated posture.
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What are the benefits of a healthier posture? |
Research confirms that slouching and similar seated postures can cause backaches, headaches, fatigue and poor concentration. A healthy posture - when the spine is properly aligned - promotes greater overall comfort, including improved concentration and endurance through long hours of seated task work. PostureFit is designed specifically to support a healthier posture while providing improved lower back comfort.
Why is good posture so important, and what are the drawbacks of poor posture?
Good posture balances your body weight on your skeletal structure, as nature intended. This reduces the workload on your muscles, enhances blood circulation throughout the body and relieves pressure on the diaphragm, which improves your breathing and helps prevent fatigue.
When you slouch, your spine goes out of alignment and your muscles are required to work overtime to make up for the lack of skeletal support - that is, they have to hold up the extra weight that is not supported by your skeleton. In addition to wear and tear on the muscles, this also stresses your body’s other soft tissues, specifically the ligaments and tendons.
Additionally, poor posture places more pressure on your lower back, notably the discs that make up your spinal column. This condition results in the backaches, headaches, and other uncomfortable symptoms that many seated workers experience, and can lead to more serious and chronic lower back problems.
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How does PostureFit provide better lower back support? |
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By filling the void between the lower back and the back of the chair with custom-fitted support, PostureFit addresses the source of many back-problem symptoms - an unaligned spine - rather than the symptoms themselves. PostureFit works with the body’s biomechanics to sustain the healthy forward tilt of the pelvis.
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Why is lower back support so essential? |
Because your lower back must work so hard: It has to carry your upper body weight while also dealing with the pull of gravity, which is significantly greater on your lower body than your upper body.
It’s also a fact that among chronic disorders, lower back pain is the second greatest cause of visits to physicians, the fifth most frequent reason for hospitalisation, and the third most frequent reason for surgery.
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What about lumbar control? |
For years, the lumbar-control concept defined the standard for back support in a work chair, often based on the belief that “more pressure equals better support.” We’ve learned a few things over the years, chief among them that in matters of postural support and seating comfort, quite often “less is more.” PostureFit works with the body’s biomechanics to gently support the area that needs it the most, the lower back below the beltline.
Rather than trying to address the symptoms of poor posture - the bending outward of the lumbar region - PostureFit goes right to the root cause, allowing the pelvis and base of the spine to sustain a forward position.
Simply stated, PostureFit is to lumbar what Aeron’s pellicle is to traditional foam and fabric: a new definition for comfort and support in a work chair.
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How does PostureFit reflect Herman Miller’s design heritage and leadership in ergonomic research? |
Herman Miller has studied the importance of a healthy posture since the 1970s and is responsible for introducing the first ergonomic work chair, Ergon.
Additionally:
Herman Miller created the Ergon chair’s seat pan to support the pelvis
The Equa chair’s criteria included pelvic support and stabilisation
The Aeron chair’s design set new standards for ergonomic comfort
Today, by offering the PostureFit system option on Aeron, we are setting a new standard for healthy comfort in a work chair.
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Why was the Aeron chair selected to feature PostureFit? |
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Aeron and PostureFit are a great match. Both represent advanced thinking in ergonomics. Aeron’s co-designer, Bill Stumpf, along with Jeff Weber of Stumpf/Weber + Associates, took part in designing PostureFit. Like Aeron’s pellicle material, PostureFit provides custom-fitted support. Like Aeron’s Kinemat tilt, it works with the body’s biomechanics to support natural movement. Additionally, Aeron’s distinctive transparent design and shape provide the ideal setting to showcase PostureFit’s unique qualities.
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What are three key words that can be used to describe PostureFit? |
Natural - working with the biomechanics of the body
Healthful - achieving proper spinal alignment
Comfortable - providing unparalleled lower back comfort
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Ordering information |
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PostureFit is available exclusively on all three Aeron chair sizes, and can be retrofitted on previously purchased chairs.
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