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Painless Chairs?
Tarrek asks: "Eight or more hours of sitting and slouching with my feet propped up in an uncomfortable, half broken computer chair every single day for years has begun to take it's toll on my back, and I'm still quite young. I was wondering if the slashdot community might have any ideas with regards to a new chair, or just types and designs of chairs, that might be a little kinder to my back, as well as being comfortable enough to sit properly in for an extended period of time?" This is a revisit to a question from two years ago. That was then, what does the picture look like, now?
... http://www.microsphere.com
they look good and are comfortable and ergonomic...
I had the same problem: sore back and neck for too much time in front of my PC.
Then a friend of mine showed me her chair: a Stokke Multi. I then went to a shop and bought a Stokke Variable.
They may look strange, without back nor armrests, but I find them both really comfortable. The Variable, in particular, lets you oscillate forward and backward, finding the best position for you back.
dakkar - mobilis in mobile
Like the last guy, I'm extra tall. 6'5" but with most of my height in my back. I drive my MGA looking over top of the windscreen. When I tried the Herman Miller it wasn't a good fit for. The large model belongs in the kind of Big & Tall shop, where you find one pair of jeans in every style with a 36" inseam, but every waste size all the way up to 60" for every pair of slacks in the store. I felt like a toothpick sitting in the size C chair and I'm 230lbs right now. Also I didn't like the metal hoop behind my shouldblades since it prevented me from stretching my arms behind my neck.
Instead I bought myself an expensive Leap chair from Steelcase. Every adjustment under the sun, and pretty well made. Only it doesn't work for me. There is a pivot in the back rest to cause the lumbar support to track your posture. For me the pivot is too low in the back. I have to completely disable the recline feature because the pivot is increasing stress rather than support. Another small complaint is the the seat padding isn't thick enough for someone with my body mass without extra padding of my own. I can sometimes feel the screw heads inside the plastic seat tray.
I have a nonbranded chair here at half the price I use more often. It functions on a completely different concept. This has a clamshell pivot under the seat pan, which means the pivot for the seat tray is just behind your knees. Instead of having the usual lumbar curve, it has a cylindrical shape that folds behind my ribs and gives me extra rib support. There is a bit of extra padding behind the lumbar, but not as pronounced as many chairs. It also has the ability to reach a positive seat inclination (where you are tipped forward toward your work area). This chair is comfortable when I'm power hacking in the foward position, and comfortable when I'm in deep though and deep recline.
The secret, however, is not to use just one chair. I find it helps a lot to switch between the two chairs on alternate days, or sometimes during the day. This way I don't get all the stress on one place all the time.
I think variety is the key here. I don't think I'm ever going to find that one perfect chair which I can sit in all day long and not have back pain.
Another comment I want to make is be very careful about mouse and keyboard placement. I once went to a back clinic that made me wear a giant X on my back made from two strips of masking tape. It's a useful exercise because the tape reminds you when your posture is off kilter. It tears out your back hairs! I discovered that my back problem (on that iteration) was entirely caused by my mouse usage. My keyboard posture was exceptional, but I twisted my torso slightly to the right to use the mouse and I was doing a mouse intensive project at the time.
Since then I created a platform over my numeric keypad where my mouse sits (on a giant FuncSurface mouse pad) and I've never had mouse related back pain since. During that episode I spent more time with my back on the floor and my legs in my chair than the other way around. That tiny twist was really bad for me.
The top of your monitor should be at eye level or just below. Don't put it up so high you are looking straight at the center.
My last remaining ergonomic problem with my desk is that I'm running two systems so I have another keyboard on the desk above the main keyboard tray, and another mouse at this level as well. It's harder on my hands to type on the top keyboard, and harder on my back to use the top mouse. Soon I'm going to get a KVM so I can exclusively use the better arrangement. Actually, it is probably not bad for my back to use the high keyboard occasionally. I think variety is a good thing. But the high mouse has no redeeming qualities. Sometimes I drag it down to the main mouse surface, but I really don't like having both mice in the same place. It's hard enough already to grab the right input device.
A final comment here: it isn't always your chair/desk either. You can be causing your problems with a bad bed, and then suffering during the day because you are already inflamed.
I recently purchased a Latex rubber mattress and this has improved my pain at night immensely. A good latex mattress will only compress a few percent over twenty years. Spring mattresses have never worked for me. I get a futon just right, two weeks later it gets a dent and I have to start over.
Some people claim that armrests cause more problems than they solve because people get lazy about their posture when they have armrests. Sometimes what kills you is half an inch. I have to be very careful because I've never owned a chair yet where the armrests come all the way up to my arms, including chairs that claim to be designed for the very tall.
In addition to the advice to get out of your chair more often, let me add a reference to an invaluable book to help with back pain.
It's also at Amazon.
I've slouched in computer chairs for years and still do. But a reckless and stupid decision to do some back bending repetitive work a few years ago left my back quite sore - as in takes 5x as long to tie your shoe laces, can not walk faster than 1 mph sore.
The stretching exercises recommended in that book helped immensely and I still do them to this day. And I haven't had any back trouble since.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The last time I got a chair at work, they threw the office depot catalog at me and said find one that isn't too expensive. Well, in the catalog they have ratings for how long you can confortably sit in a given chair. The chairs can range from 1-2hrs to 8+hrs, and the cheapest chairs in the 8+ category are all over $200. (I had to argue that I spend 90% of my time at my desk to do my job to get the chair.)
If you go in the store the don't seem to have the ratings on the chairs themselves, but they have a catalog at the front of the store you can look at.
I don't really mind double posts on
the humanscale freedom chair is fantastic
W.A.S.T.E.
solution - no chair at all
why make th assumption that you need a chair? - many cultures do not and happily sit on th floor
this may be difficult to do at work due to 'cultural normalising pressure' but it is perfectly possible to set up your computer at home this way
use a very low coffee table for th keyboard and a higher one for th monitor
then learn to sit properly on th floor - two best ways are the lotus position and legs folded in a collapsed kneeling position as you see japanese ppl often doing
both of these positions give great benefit to th body - equivalent to holding an asana in yoga - th full lotus position is difficult (usually impossible) for most ppl to do at first but you can train yr body to do it by first sitting in half lotus or something easier again
simply by sitting like this yr back will be strengthened all th time you are using a computer rather than th reverse