Kevin McGuire

I’ve been using the following chair for a number of years now. It seemed good on paper and I ordered it up from the states but without the opportunity to try it first. I knew that was taking a chance. You really need to try a chair for a few days, preferably a week, to see if its for you.

The old chair, being a full back, provided ironically too much support in the shoulders and encouraged them to roll forward. This then causes forward head carriage. The combination has been causing lots mid, upper back, and neck problems.

I found one that seemed right, brought it home for the weekened and after a few (ahem) hours of playing World of Warcraft and waking the next morning without back problems I can declare it a winner! I’ve noticed already a change in what the chiropractor needs to do, so that’s a good external measure.

(not a very useful view of it)

A lesson learned is the difference between comfort and ergonomics. If you look at the picture of the old full back chair, you’ll notice that the top curves forward. The new one doesn’t go as high, and the top sort of curves back a bit to allow the should blades to sit further back, more upright really. That lines the neck up too. The old one seems more comfortable when you first sit in it because but what you need to do is watch what your body is doing after an hour (or week, or year).

From speaking with the salesman, it seems that full back chairs are really better for reading documents, talking on the phone etc., with midback being superior for working on a computer.

The old one was great for quite some time. I wonder also if we just accomodate and need to change  up our seating once in a while.

This entry was posted Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 8:43 am and is filed under Ergonomics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.