Author Topic: Is a Chair AT ALL ergonomic?  (Read 6957 times)

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Offline Altis

  • Posts: 974
  • Location: Canada
Re: Is a Chair AT ALL ergonomic?
« Reply #50 on: Mon, 29 September 2014, 21:22:42 »
The most comfortable chair I've sat in for extended periods is... (get this).. the captain seats of a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport. Yes, yes, it sounds absurd.. but they were so supportive in just the right way. They were also really uncommon as they were the "premium cloth" upgrade, whereas most people were either regular cloth or leather, which were both just average.
Funny, that seat looks extremely uncomfortable to me (forces the pelvis forward, insufficient lower back support, encourages slouching and makes it pretty much impossible to sit straight.... I hate car seats).. :)

I know what you mean. I'm just sharing what was, to me, a very comfortable seat. It supported my back in all areas, and let me sit with much better posture than most chairs. The lumbar support was good (for the driver, at least). I think part of it was also that the height was just right.

It's very hard to describe, but I would say that it almost gripped my back. Felt nice every time I sat in it. I'm not fond at all of plush/soft seating.... this felt more like I was a block of lego mounted to another block of lego.  :D
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Offline jacobolus

  • Posts: 3661
  • Location: San Francisco, CA
Re: Is a Chair AT ALL ergonomic?
« Reply #51 on: Mon, 29 September 2014, 22:56:28 »
It's very hard to describe, but I would say that it almost gripped my back. Felt nice every time I sat in it. I'm not fond at all of plush/soft seating.... this felt more like I was a block of lego mounted to another block of lego.  :D
Yeah, I’m not trying to tell you what you should/shouldn’t find comfortable... use whatever works for you! :-)

For me though, something that fits like lego is pretty bad, if I need to sit in it for more than 20 minutes at a time, because lack of back/torso movement is one of the big problems with chairs, especially ones that encourage sitting with the pelvis shoved forward and the back curved, and don’t allow you to sit straight in them. This stretches out all the muscles and joints, and without some movement and time to relax/reset, they get really stressed over time.

One kind of interesting thing I heard about a couple years ago: Airports started intentionally moving baggage claims further away from the gate, because it turns out after someone has been sitting for 2–8 hours, their muscles are all strained and very susceptible to injury. If the baggage claim is close to the gate, people will get there quickly and then stop moving (either stand in place or sit down to wait), getting bored and frustrated, and then injuring themselves when they try to lift their heavy luggage. After forcing people to walk for 10 minutes in between, injury rate goes way down, and people arrive at the baggage claim just when the bags are getting there, so they also don’t get as impatient/frustrated.


Offline ADFX_Pixy

  • Posts: 90
  • Location: Arizona, United States
Re: Is a Chair AT ALL ergonomic?
« Reply #52 on: Mon, 29 September 2014, 23:49:48 »
The chair I sit in, a Bayside Furnishings Metrex Mesh chair is very comfortable for me. The all-mesh seat pan and back is comfortable and keeps my butt and back cool. The armrests fold up which is pretty convenient when I'm gaming and want free motion of my arms when using my mouse and keyboard. I haven't run into any problems with the seat sagging but then again I only had it for 2-3 months. In the back portion, the bottom protrudes in a way that it puts enough pressure on my lumbar to make it feel supported yet cushioned. And for $79 at Costco this chair's a steal imo. It's not a gaming chair like a GTOmega or a DXRacer and it's definitely not an ergonomic masterpiece like a Herman-Miller Aeron or Steelcase Leap but it's comfortable enough for me to sit in about 3-4 hours a day doing homework, studying, and a little bit of gaming. But I do agree that chairs are bad for LONG amounts of time when sitting down.

If anything, I wish I had a high-back chair with a headrest like an Ikea Markus because I would like to lean back and recline after a hard days work but also have my upper back, neck, and head supported.
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