Before you go out and buy a chair for your office because you like the look of it, you should appreciate that not all chairs are the same. An office chair should be seen as a piece of health and safety apparatus, although that does not mean that it does cannot be good-looking too. I will explain what you should look for in an office chair over the next few paragraphs.

The most important aspect of any chair that you will have to use for a lengthy period of time is the height of the seat itself off the floor. You most comfortable long-term seated posture is with your thighs parallel to the floor and your feet flat on the floor. If you cannot find a chair to suit your size or if the chair will be used by several people, then you will have to get an adaptable one.

The chair should be adjustable while you are sitting on it in order to make sure that you get it correct. The old fashioned technique was to wind the seat up or down on a screw by revolving it round and round. The modern method is to pump it up hydraulically.

There has to be a back to the chair, a stool is no good for long term seating. The back rest should include a lumber support. This lumber support ought to be adjustable too. It must go up and down, but some can be blown up as well. The back rest should also extend to the head, if it does not suit, then there should be an adjustable head rest. Often there is a tilt mechanism, which allows the sitter to adopt different postures for short periods of time.

This is a characteristic of chairs known as recliners. If you go for a recliner, make sure that the base is stable, so that you do not go over. A five-pronged star shaped base is the most common design, but there are others too. The base is usually on five casters to obviate the need to stretch and lean, if you need to get to a near-by filing cabinet.

The seat or the seat pan is important. These are adaptable on some more expensive chairs, but it is better to test these features 'for fit' on those that are not. The leading edge of the chair should be rounded so as not to hinder your circulation. For the same reason, there should be a suitable gap between the leading edge and the back of your knees.

The seat should be at a comfortable incline, one that suits you. Most chairs have seat pans that are parallel to the floor, which suits most people, but a reclining chair remedies this problem automatically, as they recline forwards and backwards. The fabric of the seat should be one that breathes and is comfortable. This is one of the reasons why leather is favoured. It should also be padded and easily cleanable.

While not absolutely necessary, arm rests can be useful for reading or taking a few minutes rest. Good arm rests will be height (and some even width) adaptable. With your arms by your sides, the arm rests should come up to your elbows.

These pointers are given in order to reduce the possibility of strain and injury to those who spend many hours at a time working at a desk.