So, you’ve completed your gaming setup with all the best peripherals and PC specs, but you lack a gaming chair to put the finishing touches? Well, finding the perfect gaming chair can be a difficult job.
There are a lot of aspects in a gaming chair that is being discussed right now. One of the most important ones is the armrest ergonomics of gaming chairs. Nowadays, gamers are uniting in asking the question, should a gaming chair have arms or not?
Well, that’s what I’m here to tell you. In this article, I’m going to talk about the significance of armrests in a gaming chair, whether they’re necessary or not, and how they compare to gaming chairs without armrests. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What Purpose Do Gaming Chair Arms Serve?
Armrests have been a part of gaming chairs and office chairs for as long as we can remember. The sole purpose of these components is to provide the person sitting on the chair with a handle to rest their arms on.
Imagine you’ve been working on a project, or you’ve been playing for quite a long time on your PC, and you want to take a breather; you’re going to place your arms on the gaming chair arms for a while.
But the argument that people put forth is that gaming chair arms are unnecessary. This argument has led a lot of people to prefer gaming chairs that come with removable armrests.
If you buy a gaming chair, out of the box, it will feature armrests that you can connect to the gaming chair on your own. So, it would be best for you if you attach them and experience for yourself. However, if you cannot, then you’re in the right place.
Are Gaming Chair Armrests Important?
At this point, if you’re confused about whether to side with the armrest lovers or the armrest haters, you must be asking the question, are gaming chair armrests important; Well, good question.
Well, it actually depends upon your usage. Gaming chairs aren’t just limited to gaming in today’s world. Many people use gaming chairs for their personal workspaces and even office spaces because of how ergonomically correct they are.
In that case, gaming chairs with armrests are very helpful because, in an office environment where you constantly have to sit for 9 hours with a couple of 30-minute breaks, you’re going to want to rest your arms for a while. You can do that by place your arms on the gaming chair armrests and reduce the load from your back.
However, if you’re using a gaming chair for gaming reasons, you don’t have a particular time span that you need to spend in the chair every day. That’s why you can simply choose to use armrests or just not use them depending upon how useful they are to you.
Benefits of Gaming Chair Arms
But if you’re still not entirely sure of the importance of gaming chair arms, then let me take you through a list of benefits gaming chair armrests bring to the table. Let it is.
- Less Strain on Muscles – When you’re performing a task on the computer while your forearms are resting on the arms of a chair, there is less strain on your muscles and you can actually use the computer for a longer time than without resting your arms anywhere. This is a great use of gaming chair arms.
- Reduced Weight on Back – According to ergonomics experts, when your arms are in the air or sitting next to your body, the weight of your arms and hands is on your back. If you place them on armrests, there will be a reduced weight on your back and you’ll be more comfortable.
- Better Posture – When you’re sitting with your arms resting at the same height as your hands which you’re using to type and use the mouse, your body is at a resting position and you’re calmer and comfortable. This allows you to maintain a better posture than usual which is quite important.
- Visual Aesthetics – If you ask any gamer in the gaming community, you’re going to hear that gaming chairs are incomplete without armrests. This is simply because one of the main parts of the visual aesthetics of a gaming chair is its dimension. That dimension is completed with armrests and there’s no denying it.
Disadvantages of Gaming Chair Armrests
Now let’s look at the flip side of the coin. Not everything’s handy dandy about gaming chair arms. That’s why a lot of people have started removing them from their gaming chairs. Here is a list of some of the major disadvantages you might face because of gaming chair armrests:
- Restriction if you’re a larger individual – If you’re a larger individual and you’ve accidentally purchased an average-sized gaming chair, the armrests might hinder your ability to sit in the gaming chair and might even stop you from opening your arms and sitting in a good broad-shouldered posture.
- Large distance from the computer table – The height of the armrests is not adjustable in most gaming chairs. If you want to sit close to the computer table, you’d have to sit in an uncomfortable way because the gaming chair won’t slide under the table because of the height of the arms being more than the height of the table face.
- Less Useful in Gaming – If you’re gaming, you’re most probably sitting closer to the table with your forearms on the computer table itself, so in the time you’re gaming, you wouldn’t necessarily need the gaming chair arms to rest your forearms on.
Gaming Chairs: Armrests vs. No Armrests
Now that we’ve observed the advantages and disadvantages of gaming chair arms, it would only be fair to compare gaming chairs with armrests to gaming chairs with no armrests so that we can truly find out whether armrests are actually needed or not. Let’s compare both of the aforementioned types of gaming chairs.
Muscle and Wrist Comfort
If we take a look at the comfort that our muscles and wrist get when placed on gaming chair armrests, we can safely say that we’ll be comfortable and be able to play for long hours.
However, without armrests, you can simply slide the chair under your table, get to your computer, and place your wrists and forearms right on the table as you use the computer. So, either way, you’re going to be able to comfortably sit and use your computer.
Back Support
Talking about back support, gaming chairs are designed in such a way that some of the weight from your back is transferred to the armrests when you place your arms and elbows on them.
In the case of gaming chairs with no arms, you’re going to end up putting more weight on your back and that can be problematic in the near future. This is where the importance of gaming chair armrests really shines and shows that we need them.
Design Aesthetics
The look of a gaming chair is complete with all the components including the gaming chair arms. The overall look of a gaming chair becomes aesthetic when there are large armrests on it.
On the other hand, if you take off the armrests from your gaming chair, the look isn’t as mesmerizing as it would be with the armrests on. This is another aspect where a gaming chair needs to have armrests on it.
Versatile Need
When we take a look at a gaming chair, it has more than just gaming usage. It can be used for work as well as general computer usage. That’s why in some cases, the armrests might be necessary if not that much for gaming.
So, if you compare armrests with a gaming chair with no armrests, in case of versatile need, you’re going to suffer quite a lot. That’s why we can say that gaming chairs with armrests are better than ones without any armrests.
Support for Individuals of All Sizes
Finally, let’s talk about the size capacity of gaming chairs. If you have an average-sized gaming chair with a short width and a large set of handles, larger individuals might not be able to comfortably sit in them.
But if you end up taking the armrests off, you’ll make more space and larger individuals will be able to sit in the chairs much more easily. So, in reality, it truly depends upon what you’re looking for whether you need armrests on your gaming chair or not.
Conclusion
It is true that gaming chair arms are definitely an important part of gaming chairs. However, depending upon your particular usage requirement, you can remove them according to your need. But attaching them back on for ergonomic purposes would be a good decision in the long run. I hope you learned a lot from this article and that you’re going to use this knowledge to make your gaming chair experience more comfortable and ergonomic. Have a great day ahead!