According to new research your office chair can affect more than your posture, it also might lower your heart rate. Conventional office chairs tend to have a wide backrest at the top to provide support and become narrower towards the seat.  Researchers suspected that the opposite shape, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top may allow users to expand the chest and breather more efficiently.

Studies carried out on both men and women using the new chair design to test this hypothesis actually indicated a change in heart rate. The majority of the test subjects had a lower heart rate while performing a number of different tasks while seated on the chair. Researchers are still unclear as of the reasons why this should happen.

A slower heart rate is beneficial to long term health as the risk of heart disease decreases. Further studies are planned to investigate the effects of different body shape when using the new office chair design.