I’m having a massive issue trying to figure out what to replace my cracked old cheap office chair with.
I’m being barraged by information and Herman Miller recommendations as well as some other ergonomic brands.
If you read the comments on lifehacker you’ll see what I mean. Most chairs have people ranting and raving about them.
I spend 8+ hours in a chair a day, most of the time more.
Ergonomic chairs I’ve tried in the past have proven to be sometimes stiff and uncomfortable for me. Support is cool but I don’t want anything being numb. Therefore I’d rule comfort more important over ergonomics.
I’m almost tempted to just buy another £70 cheap chair rather than deal with the hassle.
As I see a lot of freelancers or small companies here which seem to match my use case of a chair. I thought I’d ask the community.
Meh, I know you’re not looking for this answer, but we (humans) are not designed to sit, and when we do, we can sit on anything.
I prefer mobility and use a laptop except for some bursts where I use an external monitor.
Either way, I don’t care where I place my butt, as long as I make damn sure I take 5-10 mins every 40-60 minutes standing and moving.
And that’s apart from my daily exercise routines (30 mins in the morning, 15 mins in the evening) and more intense exercises like swimming and running I sprinkle across the week that keep the engines warm.
The 5-10 mins butt-thawing breaks also help clear my head, and even discover alternative perspective into the problem at hand.
Anyways, I’m 39 and never had any orthopedic problem, often mistaken for the 25-30 range and frequently complemented for the awesomeness that’s my butt thanks to those hard surfaces I place it on
My Current living arrangements don’t suit a standing desk and even if I did i doubt my legs would put up with it.
I have flat feet so my feet don’t distribute my weight correctly which then has a knock on effect on my legs.
Im curious to how you deal with the neck and shoulder angles required to use a laptop. A coffee table at a starbucks is quite possibly the exact opposite of comfortable for me.
couch with notebook fits me best
with pomodoro to take breaks
I have close to no sense for aesthetics and graphics, so I dont need big 2ndary monitor most of the time
with test driven development I dont need to scroll up and down on site too often and I am satisfied with editor and test result view
Of course from time to time I am forced to work with big monitor and position templates, but most of the time I spent on wiring things up and for that you dont need to see graphics, just compare expected String/Number results
Yeah, I get what you mean. I deliberately keep actively thinking about my posture though. That’s kind of a habit I’ve taken on during my early highschool years when some cute girl told me she did not fancy my slouching Not kidding
I think swimming helps. I’ve actually been living on a sailboat for the past 3 years so swimming is kind of my wake up thing. If you have a pool you can subscribe to, it really does begin showing its benefits within the first couple of weeks since your back becomes inherently stronger.
Also, check this thing called betterback out! A friend of mine began using it last week and he says he feels much more comfortable now working on his computer.
I’m sitting on a sofa cushion. Underneath that cushion is a notebook. On one of the pages in that notebook is a faded scribble, which I can just make out. It’s a url: http://www.focaluprightfurniture.com
Oh yeah, I stuck it under there so I would forget about it and not spend $2k.
This is hands down the most comfy cheap chair i’ve used. I wanted to buy a Herman Miller Mirra 2 but didn’t want to move it soon so I settled on this. (I removed the headrest though)
Before I was having tailbone pain and switched to this and #boom, back to normal!
I’m strapped by my ankles hanging down over my laptop, arms stretched out with mirrors reflecting the laptops output exactly in front of me so I’m not looking up (or down depending on your perspective). Inverted to maximize blood in my brain of course. I’m also in an enriched oxygen room strapped to IV with a steady stream of Provigil. If I need a fuzzy something-is-in-my-stomach feeling I down the Soylent. Every hour the room inverts and I do a full body workout. It’s intense. Good luck finding your chair.
I’ve put in a lot of time reading and researching stuff about this. Aerons and other similar chairs are based on incorrect ideas about human posture.
I highly recommend this book. It throws out a lot of what we think we know about posture, and dispels some myths about how bad sitting is. I won’t get into details about the studies of other cultures and how they sit a lot and have no back problems (again, it’s all about how you sit).
I currently have this chair, which is engineered to be ergonomic based on the ideals mentioned in the above book. It’s also a therapeutic chair (helps lengthen your spine). So far, I actually like it better than my old Aeron chair!
“Mumbo jumbo”… heh. Like I said, I actually find this chair more comfortable than my old Aeron. I know the chair doesn’t look like much, but I like it (and you also have to “use” it correctly). I ran into my chiropractor the other day (who I hadn’t visited in quite some time), and he commented on how good my posture was looking.
But the larger point is, don’t fall for the gimmicks of expensive chairs that think they have a handle on how people are supposed to sit. Simple chairs (if constructed to support our body’s natural resting position) are often the best.
That’s why getting up every 15 minutes is recommended. You don’t have to move around while you’re sitting. Again, other cultures spend plenty of time sitting down and don’t have nearly the myriad of back problems western civilization does.
Oh one more thing… most importantly: don’t ever sit on your wallet! You could potentially cause some serious long-term alignment issues (lateral pelvic tilt). Get a super thin wallet (just enough for some cash and a few cards) and carry it in your front pocket.
Not kidding 
