Are Gaming Chairs Good for Your Back?

If you are looking to furnish your home office then you may have faced a difficult decision over what chair to choose. With the sheer number of ergonomic chairs on the market your choice will be tough already, but if you are a gamer then your decision may be even more difficult.

Gamers are pushed to consider ‘gamer chairs’ by influencers and online publications alike, praising them for their comfort, flashy design, and supposed benefits for your posture.

Gaming chairs come in many shapes and sizes, but the majority of the chairs on the market features bucket racing seats like those that you might find in a racing car.

But are gaming chairs worth it or are they just a fad? Do gaming chairs help your posture or do they actually cause more problems than they solve? We have gathered some information on the topic that can help you out.

Types of gaming chair

The vast majority of popular gaming chair brands make chairs using bucket seats. These seats feature rounded backs with ‘wings’ that span out of either side and enclose around the upper body of the person sitting down. They are designed to keep the body locked in place while in a fast-moving vehicle.

Also, while there are some chairs that utilise mesh, most of the gaming chairs that you’ll find online are a thick, cushioned leather.

Then you also have other types of gaming chair such as recliners, rockers, or even bean bag chairs. As we are going to compare gaming chairs to office chairs today, we are going to stick with chairs that feature the typical bucket seat design.

Do gaming chairs help your back?

Let’s take a look at how the typical gaming chair design affects your posture and find out are racing chairs good for your back.

Probably the best feature about gaming chairs is their height. They often come with very tall backs and include a neck support cushion too. This provides support to your upper back, shoulders, and neck that is better than a low-back office chair would provide.

Also, a lot of gaming chairs come with an adjustable lumbar support cushion that you can move up and down.

However, this is mostly where the features end for gaming chairs and good posture.

Are gaming chairs bad for your back?

So, are gamer chairs good for your back? While they might look cool, bucket style gaming chairs are, in fact, actually bad for your posture.

The wings that wrap around the users’ body restricts shoulder movement and forces you into a slouched position in order to sit with your back against the backrest. Sitting in this position for extended periods can be extremely damaging to your spinal health.

And if you are thinking ‘at least they come with neck supports’, you should know that gamer chair neck supports are almost never as good as the neck supports that come with office chairs. The same applies to the lumbar supports that come with game chairs, many of them not being made with ergonomic insights at the forefront of their design.

For comparison, see some of our ergonomic chair accessories to see what quality chair accessories we have that will actually aid your posture.

Gaming chair vs office chair conclusion

We hope that the information provided has helped make your mind up when deciding on an ergonomic chair for your home office.

If you are disappointed that you will miss out on the ostentatious design of gaming chairs, then fear not! At 66ergonomics, we stock a number of office chairs that come in beautiful, eye-catching colours and designs so that you can sit in style and comfort.