Chairs for backpain suffers?

http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Product/0,,a10-c440-p8,00.html

This is my favorit chair, the Aeron chair I made them buy me at work. Everything about the chair is comfortable. Everything they say in the ad is true.

 

Do you have LBP or are you interested in designing chairs?

 

I like those mesh chairs too. The most important is to have an adjustable lumbar support, which many of the mesh chairs have, but few regular chairs do.

 

I got a high-backed Sealy office chair at Staples, with adjustable armrests and tilting back with adjustable lumbar support. Very comfortable.

 

My biggest problem isn't with the chairs, but with the desks. They're all sized for grown men, and not for us petite women. If I adjust the chair so I can comfortably sit with my feet on the floor, the desk is too high for comfortably writing, and the keyboard tray also too high for typing or mousing. If I adjust the chair up so I can comfortably reach the desk, my feet don't really touch the floor and my legs get uncomfortable (and leads to sore backs too). I need someone to chop the legs off my desk! Actually, if they'd just carpet the floor, give me a few pillows, let me lean against the walls, and work off a lap desk, I'd be a happy camper.

 

I once had a keyboard tray that could be adjusted for height, which was great for getting the keyboard where I needed it when I was typing. The problem arose when I pushed it back under the desk to store it away, and realized all the adjustment knobs then stuck out BELOW it, so that I would inevitably bang my knees or snag my pantyhose on the knobs. :grumpy:

Maybe we need to get the engineers here onto this project...an adjustable keyboard tray that is NOT in the way after you put it back under the desk.

 

The seat on my chair is not a mesh...more like a memory foam. It took me a while to get all the adjustments right, now it fits like a glove.
My desk was so out of the 60's, that I got rid of it right away. I use a mid-size confrence table, which is great, sometime I half to lay out a lot of photos and paper work.

 

Oh boy, I wouldn't want back pain that early in my life!

I bought the crappiest chair which ended breaking and I can sit on it for very long. It's just so uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, you should see my bed. I went from a luxurious mattress to a futon (the cheapest I can find) and it's rock solid. It's basically like sleeping on a blanket on a carpet floor. I would definitely not jump onto my bed.

I heard that sleeping on a hard surface is good for the back? Is that even true?

 

There's a difference between a FIRM bed, and a hard, LUMPY futon. A little "give" is needed to make a bed comfortable, but should be firm enough to offer support too.

 

Yes, I have used a kneeling chair. It feels great for the back but not so great on knees, at least old ones like mine. When I was having LBP following a car accident, I alternated during my work day since sitting all day in regular chair was stressful. I spent maybe quarter to third of time in the kneeling chair.

There is another product that I can't recommend highly enough if you get LBP in your car. Modern car seats are a common problem for back sufferers because they are designed for "anti-dive" during a hard stop or front collision. They keep you from sliding off by rotating pelvis and putting your butt below your thigh. It's never a problem until an accident or blown disc gives you LBP.

If you suffer in car seats, check out McCarty's "Sacro-Ease". It's about $150, not cheap but works better than anything else on the market. Some back specialty stores will let you try it out for a day.

 

I used a kneeling chair for a bit to force myself to balance muscles in the abs and lower back. My problem with that was that I had been a distance runner and competitive downhill skier for years and followed that up with many years of working in pulp and paper mills on concrete floors. My knees essentially wore out - had arthroscopic surgery on both and ended up with arthritis. I could stand maybe 30-60 minutes of that chair at a time.