Gaming chairs are very much the sports car of the furniture world.
They’re colourful, brash, sleek and stylish and seek to make a statement about your commitment to gaming.
Every streamer, pro gamer and YouTube personality seems to own one and when it comes to creating the idyllic gaming set up, they’ve become an essential bit of kit and an important weapon in any gamer’s arsenal.
But for those who are yet to be converted, their benefits and thrills are not entirely obvious.
A glorified racing car seat aesthetic with obnoxious patterns, it’s easy to pass them off as an over-designed fad, their purpose being nothing more than to look the part and give an element of cool to the usually unimaginative computer chair.
Surely a normal chair, the floor or even your bed can serve as a suitable seat for your gaming?
Well, we’re here to tell you differently, as investing in the right gaming chair can always offer you more than just a fancy piece of furniture.
Here’s why they are definitely worth the price tag…
Posture Improvers
We’re going to get to the point quickly here – gaming chairs far outweigh any other type of ergonomic chair when it comes to promoting your health and wellbeing.
For gamers and office workers, a fairly sedentary existence can wreak havoc on your physical health, especially if you are working or gaming for periods of up to 8 hours.
While basic exercise and activity at other times of day can help counteract this default sitting position, what it can’t save is your slowly suffering posture, which can be all but ravaged by standard chairs and seating.
Most chairs do not provide comfortable backrests, and in many cases don’t even provide backrests with enough sufficient height to support your entire frame.
This means during the course of a day in front of your computer screen, it’s your spine which is having to hold the weight of your arms, torso and shoulders for several hours at a time which almost inevitably leads to slouching.
If this is your normal everyday position for months and years on end, it eventually pays its toll on your body, where your natural posture becomes hunched, arched and unattractive.
A proven posture improver, gaming chairs are one of the few ergonomic pieces of furniture which provide adequate support pillows to the lumbar spine and neck, two areas that suffer from strain during long sessions at a computer desk.
The high padded backrest also means every inch of your spine is supported, ensuring you can always find the perfect position without having to adjust your posture or lean forward unnecessarily. The chair simply takes all your weight, so that your spine doesn’t have to!
It’s for this reason alone that gaming chairs have even become popular choices among office workers, so if you can find one that isn’t too flashy for your colleagues, it may help rid you of some of that post-working day back pain!
Enhanced Comfort Levels
Gaming chairs are designed to make sitting for long periods as comfortable as possible and so they tend to provide far more comforting features than the standard chair.
For a start, the material is often made of PU padded leather to boost cushioning to the back, which makes it easier to sink into your chair.
The posture improving shape and pillow support then make things more comfortable over time, as they target the areas of the body that suffer most from long periods of sitting – the neck and back.
When adopting a straighter, healthier posture, you may also notice improvements in symptoms of discomfort you didn’t even know you were suffering from!
This is because a straighter posture can see positive benefits in your overall health, such as deeper and improved breathing and better circulation.
A lack of discomfort will ensure low levels of distraction from gaming or work, meaning a gaming chair’s comfort is in many ways a kind of productivity enhancer!
Adjustment Factor
What a gaming chair offers over any other kind of chair is its adjustment features, which allow you to set up your work or gaming station to perfectly suit your needs.
As well as standard height, swivel and wheeled mobility features, the standard gaming chair also boasts an entirely reclining backrest and multi-directional armrest adjustment.
Ultimately, this means you can line your seat and armrests up perfectly with your desk height, ensuring no strain or awkward angles from your arms to your keyboard and mouse.
If positioned too high or too low, this again encourages slouching or craning of the neck and so you’ll want to adjust a chair so that you are eye level with the screen, with the armrests in line with the desk.
This will allow you to have minimal head movement and for your arms weight to be fully supported, eradicating any wrist or arm ache issues!
Increased Performance
Okay, we get it, gaming chairs are great for your posture and pretty darn comfortable.
But the truth is, most people who want or have gaming chairs aren’t really after their ergonomic features – they’re an added bonus.
They just want to know if it will actually enhance or improve their gaming ability, because otherwise, what’s the point in splashing all that cash?
The answer is complex, however, and while a gaming chair alone isn’t going to suddenly take you to the higher echelons of the pro-gaming scene, it can undeniably help improve your energy, focus and drive.
For a start, think about your gaming experience currently without a chair.
You sit on your bed, the floor, the sofa, or perhaps just a standard computer chair.
None of these is likely to be ergonomically sound in the long run and you can eventually develop pains and aches in certain areas of the body when you assume an uncomfortable position for too long.
You then likely change your position to compensate for the incoming ache and repeat the process any time you feel some strain. This can become tiring on your muscles and you may eventually begin to play through the discomfort.
Needless to say, how is anyone meant to perform to an optimum level if they are uncomfortable or distracted by aches and pains?
It’s in this sense that a gaming chair can enhance your playing level, as it provides the most immersive experience possible.
By taking all of your weight and allowing you to adjust it’s settings so that you can game with limited movement, you’re able to completely focus on the screen in front of you. The outside world becomes irrelevant and all of your energy becomes devoted to the game.
This of course won’t improve your actual skill level, but it will give you the edge over other gamers through added concentration and focus.
In Conclusion
While they might look too flash and fancy for their own good at the best of times, gaming chairs are not designed for appearances only.
They’re in fact the best ergonomic chair around, helping to improve posture, provide concentrated comfort to areas that need it and increase your focus and drive when it comes to partaking in the task at hand – whether gaming or at work.
So if you’re someone who’s finding it hard to fight the negative effects of a sitting or sedentary lifestyle, a gaming chair could be the long-awaited solution to a healthier and happier gaming lifestyle!
