When shopping for ergonomic furniture, you often focus on finding a chair and desk that can support your back, shoulders, and neck, forgetting that there are other parts of your body that are as important – your legs and feet.
While your upper body does much of the work, from the brain transmitting all your creative juices to your fingertips and onto the keyboard, neglecting your feet could end up in various issues that can hamper your comfort and productivity.
With that, let’s talk about one of the less-discussed but vital components of a full-ergonomic setup, the footrest. A once-staple only in the living room and the salon, but here’s are the top reasons why a simple addition of a footrest is helpful to your overall wellness and working space.
1. Improves Blood Circulation
Sitting for extended periods eventually leads to poor blood circulation. Common symptoms include pain, tingling, coldness, and numbness on the affected part of the body. It can then result in various complications, like fatigue, blood clots, varicose veins, and lack of oxygen reaching the vital organs.
Footrests are known to improve blood circulation. When angled properly, it keeps your body in an upright posture. Thus, preventing your legs and feet from hanging uncomfortably, increasing blood flow, and encouraging better circulation. Through that, the chances of your body suffering circulatory issues also decrease and just help you function optimally.
2. Promotes Proper Posture
Whether you’re standing or sitting, your feet do a lot in maintaining proper posture. By using a footrest, your feet stay healthily ground and titled in a natural position, keeping your back, hips, shoulders, and entire upper body well-supported. With a healthy posture, you have improved mobility, stay more relaxed, and get greater function as you head on your workday.
3. Great for Shorter Physique
If you’re a shorter folk, you’re most likely having trouble reaching the floor while sitting on your home office chair. Sadly, that certain inability will prevent you from resting your feet, cause weight distribution issues, and lead to discomfort. To fix that, you need a footrest to help you keep your feet flat and firm if your chair can’t be adjusted low enough for them to touch the floor. No more ‘feet dangle’ issue and you reap all the benefits of healthy circulation, proper posture, and well-supported legs, feet, and back.
4. Encourages Active Sitting
There’s no doubt that sitting with the proper posture is a lot better than sitting with a bad posture. Yet, it doesn’t end there. Even with good posture, sitting for long hours in a day without any movement and in a static position can harm your body by making your muscles rigid and tense, compressing your spine and bone discs, and lowering your brain function. Not to mention that you also become susceptible to aches, pains, and discomfort. That’s why it is vital to facilitate movement and posture variety while sitting.
Dynamic footrests can help you achieve just that. These devices are built with a wider platform that allows you to sway, swing, and rock your feet as you sit, which keeps your legs and feet moving, and your blood flowing. You may also use these footrest motions for stretching and relaxing every once in a while. You’d be surprised how these movements can immensely make you feel better and benefit your body.
5. Eases back problems
When you get too carried away with your tasks on your laptop or computer, you may tend to lean forward or slide down into your chair. Either way, it puts pressure on your spine, stresses your back, and makes it become strained and painful over time. A footrest can help discourage hunching or slouching, relieve tension from your spine, improve your back health, and reduce your risk of injury.
6. Complements other Ergonomic Furniture and Accessories
Incorrect chair and desk height rigorously affects your health, vision, posture, mood, and productivity. Fortunately, you can quickly solve that by finding the best ergonomic chair and desk that you can quickly adjust based on your needs.
Having an amplifies the benefits and health effects of other ergonomic furniture by ensuring that your feet are firmly touching the ground. Even if you lower or raise your chair or desk height, you can still sit comfortably and in a correct manner. Also, promoting the proper use of other ergonomic accessories, like your keyboard and mouse.
7. Better comfort
Apart from all that benefits, be mindful that footrests are designed specifically for the utmost comfort of your feet. You can find them in different shapes, sizes, bases, materials, and finishes with each brand offering something unique in terms of comfortability.
For instance, the ErgoFoam Adjustable Foot Rest is made of premium comfy velvet, comes in a pet-friendly breathable mesh that keeps your feet cool and dry, and high-quality, firm memory inserts for maximum support.
8. Matches your Workspace
Are you worried about your home office style and decor? Don’t fret, as footrests are also available in different color choices, finishes, and styles to suit your workspace. If you want a classic footrest to match your traditional home office, you can surely find one in a breeze. Should you wish to have something contemporary instead, there are many modern alternatives to choose from that will look great in your office.
Takeaway
Don’t undermine the power of a footrest. Incorporating one under your desk can do wonders in your health and work ergonomics, keeping you functioning in a productive and efficient manner from head to toe. Not to mention that it also helps you stay active and feel more relaxed and comfortable.
Note that you’ll find many types of footrests available in the market. Just be sure to assess your needs, the appropriate size, your home office setup, and your preferred material and style, you’ll definitely have your best foot towards enjoying all the amazing benefits that a footrest offers. We hope these reasons encourage you to invest in one and get that major home office upgrade!