Armrests vs. No Armrests: Which Office Chair Is Best? - A Quick Buyer's Guide

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Do you need to pay for armrests when you buy an ergonomic office chair? This is a common question in times of working from home (WFH), and when the budget for office furniture is limited.
In this video, I will explain that the goal of armrests is to relieve the upper trapezius muscle (upper traps), which can cause neck pain and headaches, as well as upper back pain between the shoulder blades (due to round shoulders, in particular).
However, armrests have numerous drawbacks. In particular, they limit the mobility of the elbows and can overload the wrists, which is a cause of wrist tendinitis, tennis elbow, epicondylitis or carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).
To understand the debate, one needs to go back to the role of the latissimus dorsi. If you use this muscle well enough, it can bear the weight of your arms and also relieve the upper trapezius. But you need to have a correct posture for it to be active!
To feel well, you need to master your posture and have the best ergonomics! Discover the most pragmatic and applicable advice in my ebook THE POSTURE MANUAL
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Pain in the back, shoulder, arms or any other musculoskeletal pain should not govern your life.
A lot of the pain you feel is caused or aggravated by wrong posture, poor ergonomics and a lack of specific exercises for your muscles and joints. Giving you the tools to resolve these issues is the reason why I created this self care channel.
If you need more, check out these two innovative offers that will truly empower you in the subtle art of posture correction:
- you can get THE POSTURE MANUAL, my best-selling book with 15 readers-only posture correction videos - only if you buy it from my website: oliviergirard.ch/en/boutique/...
- to enjoy a personal coach and a lifetime membership to my private Facebook group, consider joining THE POSTURE ACADEMY: oliviergirard.ch/en/posture-a...
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Medical Disclaimer
All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.
Full disclaimer:
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2 фев 2021

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Комментарии : 83

@GreenTeaCoding 11 месяцев назад

It is amazing how you compressed all this information into 8 minutes. This is exactly what I was looking for.

@OlivierGirard 11 месяцев назад

thanks for the compliment :)!!!

@rutgermuller 3 года назад

Thank you, very useful for ergonomics, and interesting to see how the design of the office chairs "evolved".

@pedrocosta8658 10 месяцев назад

I tried this countless times, but the problem with this posture is that my shoulders start hurting like a LOT after about 10 minutes of this. Any tips ?

@khoi5591 Год назад

Very helpful, thanks again Olivier!

@beny9997 2 года назад

I'm a gamer and i noticed the same thing, that with armrests your mobility is very limited, basically you are limited to using only your wrists. What i do is i sit as close to the desk as possible and rest my arms on a desk, that way I'm still sitting straight and i can use my arms.

@rosedcurt2865 10 месяцев назад

Can confirm, this is the way

@lironavineri 3 года назад

Great stuff! Will try this

@cyberc0l0mbiana 3 года назад

Thank you for this!! Learned so much in just 8 minutes! Makes complete sense. Armrests = static tasks only 💯

@OlivierGirard 3 года назад

8 min to save your neck... isn’t this a crazy ROI 😂? Thanks for the feedback, Debbie🙏🏻!!

@sukanyasarkar3650 2 года назад

Fantastic video. Thank you for the information.

@TheSittingSocietyDoc 3 года назад

“Internal armrest”. I love it! 😊

@maremaid15 2 года назад

Thank you so much for this exquisite explanation. I am looking for answers because I am in so much pain and have to buy chairs and keyboards and mice and I don’t know where to turn. You’ve given me so much information. Thank you.

@OlivierGirard 2 года назад

you're very welcome :) There is more in my answer to your other comment ;)

@Evilc00kies 3 месяца назад

Very good video and explanation, thank you!

@jamesongoring3829 3 года назад

This is great. I shall be recommending your videos, exactly the advice needed - informed by good analytical research rather than the inherited knowladge!

@OlivierGirard 3 года назад

Thank you! Nice that you appreciate the philosophy of my approach 😊

@goldenchainjohn5918 6 месяцев назад

Hello :) i am now 25 years old, live in Austria and work with the computer for 11 years now (school + work). At school we got always told that we should never support our arms (neither on the desk or on the armrest). I think i was the only one from class who really listened to this advise and since that time i had extreme shoulder pain (i was very sporty and cannot train for years) . Then i watched your video regarding shoulder pain and it helped me a lot. Thanks for that!!! I really talked a lot about sitting posture with my colleagues at work, family members and friends and really no one had such problems as i with sitting at the computer. Before i saw your videos i got the advise to rest my arms on an armrest (caused extrem pain in both hands and elbows) and also on the desk (caused also extrem pain in both hands and elbows). I was really exhausted, because no one in my company, no one from my friends and no one from my family had problems while sitting at the computer. Nearly everyone of these people are resting their arms on the desk. So can you please tell me why 99 % of the poeple had no pain when resting there arms but a few people including me experienced such horror pain. Thank your for your reply! 😀 FYI: I just want to add that i am not pain free now but i hope your posture tipps without resting the arms on anything will help me. Why is it wrong to rest the arms on the desk if 99 % of the people who rest their arms on the desk wil never experience such pain. Maybe something is wrong with my body or i don't know.

@olegsuprun7590 3 месяца назад

I work in a large IT company i can tell you for sure 99% people have a BAD posture at the computer, slouching, leaning forward, forward head posture you name it (they will never tell you about their regular problems with muscle tensions, headaches, migranes and so on thats are associated with sitting bad all day). Ive been struggling to find a good sitting position for a while. And i watched nearly all of Olver's videos , it helps , but what i found is a good posture is mostly your habbits and muscle tone. Also stretching helps a lot, if you introduce excercising and stretching to your daily routing it will help. Also try to find a chair that helps maintaining a good posture, i ve bought a couple very expensive chair over the years, and even though they are very high quality but most of the chairs have a problem that manufactures make them reclined (the back and the part where you sit.) in the neutral position. So its basically impossible to sit straight in those chairs. So an affordable chair that helps maintaining a good posture (less tilt on the back support and horizontal sitting part) should help, Also try to see if you are moving enough through the day, you should be standing every 30 minutes and doing light stretches to relieve the tension in the muscles

@marvean2519 Год назад

Instant sub, thanks for all the info!

@OlivierGirard Год назад

My pleasure, Marvin!

@nilsnilsson7998 2 года назад

Great video, thanks!

@OlivierGirard 2 года назад

My pleasure, Nils!!

@Sol-De-Invierno Год назад

Your channel is great.

@OlivierGirard Год назад

Many thanks, my friend :)

@kilsnacks 2 года назад

I just removed my armrests from my leap chair because of this video and thinking about how often I lean my whole body on them. will see if my neck pain improves.

@StarcraftSwarm 2 года назад

Would you please share your experience? I feel like my neck pain is also cause by leaning on armrests. It also really limits my range of motion when gaming which is making me play worse. I can't believe it took me so long to notice this. I firmly believe armrests are bad for health and good posture.

@kilsnacks 2 года назад

@@StarcraftSwarm so I would say yes it definitely helps my posture as now I physically can’t lean sideways at all or else I’d fall off the chair lol. But what I notice is I occasionally lean on my desk now but even so it’s a much much less extent then when I leaned on my arm rests. Also make sure your monitor is at a good height that’s something I’m tackling now because I feel if you have to look down at all you will start leaning forward over time.

@OlivierGirard 2 года назад

Indeed! Regarding leaning on the desk: we all do when it’s time to take a break 😅

@wesleywesley3012 Год назад

I am so glad you brought up arm rests. I always take my armrests off because if I don't, I can't push my chair under my desk. I've never understood why chair manufacturers don't make armrests so they don't go above the height of your legs when you want to really push your chair all the way in.

@OlivierGirard Год назад

Some chairs have armrests that go quite low... but when you want to push your chair all the way in, you might want to reconsider the distance to your desk: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-a7qhAgXgQT0.html

@jamiedyer7782 Год назад

This is my experience, if you can build your desk to the correct height your arms can sit on the desk with the armrests pushed up to the desk, with the armrests being the exact same height as the desk, this is the best way to fully support your arm at the same height all the way along. Unfortunately if you don't have a deep desk or a monitor arm you can't get comfortably close enough to your desk but far enough away from your monitor for your eyes. There are some issues you need to consider when building this setup though, if your desk is sat on legs which are the same length, and your floor is out of level, but not where your chair sits, the chair and desk won't be quite level with each other, next you have to consider the age of your desk chair and if the chair itself sits level and parallel between the base and the seat, this can throw the levels out as well, but in my opinion it is the best setup. Lastly you've really got to get the desk height spot on, too high and the desk and/or chair arms will actually push your shoulders up through your neck and eventually cause issues and you'll need a chiropractor and physio to sort yourself out, too low and you lose the support element keeping your arms from pulling your shoulders down. I'm pretty certain at this point I would be happier with a chair with no arms than not being able to achieve the right setup. I'm a carpenter and noticed that the arm rest in my van was destroying my left shoulder because I was leaning on it while the van was rocking round corners, however I don't feel any issues just letting my arms rest on my legs

@breakout5205 Год назад

I agree with you that friction limits movement if your forearm is on the armrest. What I have is that my armrest is vertically lower than my desk, I have my elbow touching the armrest and my wrist on the desk, which has a bullnose edge. There is no contact between my forearm and anything. This means I use the armrest for my left hand / keyboard but do not use it at all for my right hand / mouse, as I also need to use the mouse without friction impairing me, for my right hand / mouse up to half of my forearm is in contact with my desk and the rest hangs off the edge of the desk.

@OlivierGirard Год назад

I'm not too sure that I visualize it well... but a key factor is to avoid pressure points, esp. under the carpal tunnel & the elbow...

@VENKAT2070 Месяц назад

Nice video. Im very comfortable without arm rests

@wisemanfoolishman5422 3 года назад

Maybe a shallow, rotatable cup that you could rest your elbow in would be a better alternative to the armrest. It should solve the friction problem. The only issue would be potentially pinching the nerves in the elbow.

@OlivierGirard 3 года назад

Very good analysis! Solving the issue has been tried with this system: www.ergorest.fi/en/products. In practice, the problem is that people need to "aim" (i.e. place their forearm on the cushion before they can use it), and every extra step in the process is an obstacle to acceptance. It's just human nature... Hence, we use them with people who have real health issues (e.g., cannot hold their arm anymore) but for Mr. / Mrs Everybody it's too cumbersome to use.

@commenter2336 3 месяца назад

I've been looking around for info on this topic and this was everything I wanted clear and condensed now I'm going go see if you have a video suggesting what chair to buy. (hint hint if you don't...)

@OlivierGirard 3 месяца назад

I think I have what you need: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HFQ1LZmpfUM.htmlfeature=shared

@georgepierre3594 Год назад

I used a costco chari with no arm rest for 12 years, and i have pretty bad forward head pressure, using armrests kinda fixed it, but using my arm to help fix my posture. But make sure the armrest has velour padding on or is soft enough, to hard armrest, can cause nerve problem.

@OlivierGirard Год назад

have you seen my video on forward head posture, Thomas: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9a5wkLnd54I.html ?

@user-dk1bv9ck1p 4 месяца назад

very nice

@uberud16 2 года назад

Thank you! It made think at a point tho. How about an armrest, that would have lets say some kind of a turning plate on top? Capable of rotating around a vertical axis behind ur elbow. So that it would allow horizontal movement of the lover arm, while still giving the support. I dont mean the settings of the position on the armrest, but once you set it up, it would have a plate on top, that would rotate freely under ur arm. what do you think?

@OlivierGirard 2 года назад

I think it’s worth inventing it, Tibor! The height adjustment needs to be super fine and the movement in the horizontal plane friction-less, but definitely it would be an improvement for the vast majority of people who don’t want to invest energy in posture therapy 👍🏼! Check out the Ergorest, though: they aim at this purpose somehow, but placing the forearms on them is a first necessary step that makes many people dislike them.

@marwasa7344 Год назад

can I rest my hands and elbows on the desk??? thanks

@microcolonel Год назад

One of the screws holding my Embody's left armrest failed, and I removed it; I then removed the other armrest. The effect seems nice so far, since I can get closer in to the desk, lower it more. The lumbar support on the Embody is set up in a way that actually somewhat works better without armrests. I like being able to rest an arm on my leg instead, works fine. Guess I'll find out in a bit how comfortable it has been.

@OlivierGirard Год назад

Just make sure that you don't lean on your forearms. The desk should bear the weight of the forearms only, not the weight of the torso. The test is: can you freely glide your arms on the desk? If not, you probably rest (part of) your torso on the arms as well, i.e. you overload the neck ;)

@microcolonel Год назад

@@OlivierGirard good tips. That has not been an issue for me.

@N1TRO Год назад

@@OlivierGirard very useful advice there

@GabrielLeni 11 месяцев назад

Olivier, is there are any office chair you can suggest under 100 pounds? Thank you!

@pubhubglobal 3 года назад

Great stuff!

@OlivierGirard 3 года назад

Thanks a lot, Rodrigo!

@LostStylus 2 года назад

Talking about armrests without showing their interaction with the table and using a keyboard is really weird

@radament. Год назад

removed completely my ikea markus armrests , they are horrendous and if you are gaming you tend to put your elbow on them but it can cause epicondilitis in that position. also those armrests are too high and can't fit under the desk. i think the new ikea chair is with a sort of adjustable armrests so i think the received feedback.

@kingsaxon 10 месяцев назад

Hi olivier what do you think of the rh logic 400? Seems to be popular here in the Uk

@OlivierGirard 10 месяцев назад

Hey! To cut a long story short... Flokk is a great brand, as many others. So we are having a discussion about serious chairs. However, I disagree with the underlying philosophy that movement = health, as explained here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ndwmo333hxA.html. Hence, if I would buy such a chair, I would use it mainly with a blocked tilt mechanism. In that case, it would make me perfectly happy :)

@iranjackheelson 2 года назад

But what about for users that don't need mobility 90% of the times -- isn't relying on lat to be in a static position just as taxing on the muscles and joints also, thus armrests would be more preferred? Or are you saying even in static positions using your lats is ideal?

@OlivierGirard 2 года назад

Yep, great point dear. It depends what we call static tasks. If static is watching screens without any input (e.g., security jobs), definitely get armrests. If static is not going away from your chair but moving your arms to type and mouse, have a chair with armrests but don't use them unless you take a break. Makes sense?

@LivinProoof 2 года назад

Those armrests don't look soft or padded at all! Regardless, nice video, I recently bought a gaming chair, it's really comfortable, but I HATE the armrests I feel like they eventually wear down my funny bones and then I start fiddling with my elbows constantly to find a comfortable spot for them. Long story short, I unscrewed the armrests, they're now in storage.

@OlivierGirard Год назад

Honestly, I'm not always in favor of armrests... how do you feel since they're gone :)?

@sam5605 Год назад

What chair do you recommend sir? Particularly what chair are you using in this video.. It looks like it had great lumbar support

@OlivierGirard Год назад

Hey! Here is a video on how to choose a chair: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HFQ1LZmpfUM.html. Mine is a Kinnarps Plus 8, but it's barely distributed outside Europe.

@sam5605 Год назад

@@OlivierGirard yes i wanted the +8 but it seems to be not available in Asia. What would next best alternative? Leap v2?

@OlivierGirard Год назад

@@sam5605 If steelcase gesture is available, try it...

@sam5605 Год назад

@@OlivierGirardok thank you!

@terrablader Год назад

how about Egro Rest they move around and are adjustable

@OlivierGirard Год назад

Great question! They move around in a horizontal plane indeed. Usually, the movement is quite fluid, except maybe if you try and go straight backward or forward, depending on the angle of the levers with respect to each other. I just recommended them to a client of mine who is a researcher in a biotech lab and who has to use a pipette repetitively to inject liquid into small tubes. For that, ErgoRest is great. It is less great when people take their forearm on and off: they usually complain that it moves around and is never where they expect it to be. Hence, I recommend it for prolonged tasks, but if your hand goes on it and away from it too often, it won't be practical.

@iiifilthyy1181 3 года назад

The mouse I use is the MX ergo, so it has a thumb ball and therefore I don’t need to move my arms around. But I’ve been unable to figure out the right height for my arm rests, it drives me crazy.. if I’m not having neck pain it’s back pain or something else. I fix one problem, another one arises :( My set up is as adjustable as possible, my desk is an electric sit stand desk to adjust the height, chair is herman Miller mirra 2, monitor is super adjustable in all directions and I can’t get my settings just right for me between my items :(

@OlivierGirard 3 года назад

I have a deal to offer: I have a playlist on which I offer free workplace assessments if you send me photos or videos. If you do a video of what you try and comment what you feel, I will make an interactive video answer like if we had a chat, and guide you as well as I can. Everybody could learn a lot thanks to you sharing your experience...