Chairs – they’re so underrated aren’t they? They play such an important role in our lives and yet we don’t often think about them much. It’s just something that’s there to be used. But the truth is that a chair can make all the difference. But what I’m going to focus on here in particular is the office chair.

We use the office chair every day at work, at home in the study, or the home office, especially if you work from home – and I can think of several people on HubPages alone who do – the internet cafe (What? People still use those?), maybe the library – the list goes on.

Office chairs are great because they not only provide comfort, but they also allow for more mobility. You need never get up ever again. And not to mention moving the chair around is a great way to exercise your legs and core – and fun too! They can also rotate a full 360 degrees. You do know how much fun it is to spin around for hours in an office chair, right?

But not all office chairs are the same. They come in a variety of different styles, materials, build quality, and even colours – although the majority of these seems to be different shades of black or blue. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money on a chair and it isn’t right for you.

Here’s a few things to consider:

Do you want to buy a typist’s chair, a midback, or a highback? these are the three main types of office chairs, but they do come in all shapes and sizes.

A typist’s chair usually has the standard five point base with casters, and a small padded seat; usually comes with some basic features like height adjustment, and will have a small backrest.

A midback will not only have a larger backrest that will come up to about the shoulders or the neck at most, but might also have a wider base, and more sophisticated features in addition to height adjustment, like controlling whether the chair is in a fixed position or is free floating so you can recline a bit. You might also be able to control how far forward the chair’s backrest comes.

A highback will have all of the above but the backrest will be higher up and support the head and neck. The backrest may be in one piece or it may have a separate but connected headrest, sort of like one of those old barber’s chairs from the mid 20th century, that can often be found in tattoo parlours nowadays instead.

A typist’s chair doesn’t give the back much support and it can be hell sitting on it for long periods of time. I personally have to use cushions to sit on, and pillows to lend more back support. So unless you’re small, have one of those lumbar support products, or happen to be a masochist who enjoys lower back pain, stiff shoulders, and neck tension, don’t go for one of these. Not recommended in my experience.