Ask Lemmy

I've had lumbar pain from bad chairs in the past, but nothing medically diagnosed (so bear that in mind, your situation might be a lot more serious).

For the past years I've been using a Secret Lab chair, and it's been wonderful. I usually tilt it so it allows me to distribute the weight across my back and not on top of my lumbar, probably not really ergonomic but I haven't experienced any problems with it.

That being said if I needed to get a new chair it wouldn't be a secret lab, as much as I like it and I think it's built like a tank and will last me forever, the lack of a way to limit the tilting is very annoying for my use case.

I used the saddle and the last one. The latter felt better for my back, but strained knees quite some, the former doesn't seem to do much for posture, but the back feels a bit better now.

I have a talent. I'm able to slouch on any chair or equivalent that is presented to me.

If I remember to correct my posture I just put the pillow for my lower back, slide to the edge of my seat or do both.

I've been using a secret labs omega for the last decade and been very happy with it. I got the fabric instead of leather and 👍 no complaints

Herniated L6/L7. No chair has helped me. Only things that have are

• sit/stand desk
• movement (the best position is the next position)
• dead hangs, progressed to pull ups
• deadlift, slow progression, perfect form. Teaches proper lift positioning and bracing to execute successfully.
• same for squats

Not medical advice in any way. These are just the things that have helped me immensely. If you take any lifting advice off the Internet, get a coach.

I know if my back starts to hurt it’s because I’m not doing one or all of them enough.

I've forgotten the name but this thing I found at goodwill has been great for my hips/lower back while working!!

Instead of sitting or standing, without knowing your particular type of pain/injury, I suggest gently moving.

Walking pad/treadmill is an option, but if so go reallly slow so you take smaller steps, as walking "incorrectly" can also strain your lower back.

Perhaps a better fit would be to look for vertical motion than forward or static... standing on pedals similar to on a bike or on a stair machine or even just with one foot on a stepping board and switching whichever leg is on it frequently. Still when peddalinf, stepping or climbing stair steps: go slowly, we're not trying to break a sweat.

But probably the absolute best chioce is to ask a physician or physiotherapist that are knowledgeable about your specific kind of back issues how to sit, move, train and rest.

Good luck!

Exercise balls. After my boss bought a dozen for the workplace, I realized how much less my lower back was hurting. If I make an effort to also move my hip in various ways, it hurts even less. I decided to buy one myself to use when gaming on my PC. Works like a charm. Does my back still hurt? Yes. Has the exercise ball worked better and been more cost-effective than any other option thus far? Yes.

My problem is some kind of hypertension after overdoing cycling about six years ago. At least that's what they think. After having seen several specialists and doctors, they still don't know.

Yoga actually.

15 years ago I got a then expensive to me Herman Miller Aeron, i replaced the back support and the gas seat height strut last year as they'd broken and failed respectively.

I suffer low back pain if I'm not mindful of supporting my lower back.

I liked that I could easily repair the chair (watched a YT video about strut removal)

that and passive stretching each morning, alas my laziness...

Swapped between normal and kneeling chair for a while as budget solution to back pains. Switched to sit/stand lifting desk + normal chair, stand pad (do not cheap out on the stand pad, get a nice thick one) and balance board when I upgraded my desk.

Kneeling chair was great, but shouldn't be used for long periods of time (2+ hours) according to lots of easily corroborated medical advice easily found even on the kneeling chair supplier websites.

Sit/stand desk is the best investment I've ever made, felt the improvements after 3 weeks of casual use. Balance board is awesome bonus but requires a solid hard surface. Had to buy a wooden panel to put over my plastic carpet protector cuz my place has fairly deep carpet.

Anthros. https://www.anthros.com/

I work in IT. Have for a long time now. I often spend half my day or more at a desk working on a computer. As my career developed I found myself less active. I was quite active and fit in my youth so I didn't think much of it until I started having serious back pain. Decades of neglect caught up to me and I found myself in immense pain from... Doing nothing.

After a few scary incidents of thankfully temporary disability I was motivated enough to figure out what was wrong and learn how I could fix it. I came across the typical advice of course. Stretch. Train the body to be stronger and more flexible. Be more active. Sit less. All good and necessary. I still had to sit a lot though. Even with a sit/stand desk I'm going to want to sit down sometimes.

I did a lot of reading and almost as much testing before concluding that Anthros is the best office chair currently available. I now have a few years of experience with one and that experience has only reinforced that opinion.

It's designed by folks who developed expertise on ergonomics working in the wheelchair industry. There's a lot of copy on their website about all that and more info given in interviews / podcasts. Marketing aside the point is that it's not just another funky chair following trends. There are evidence-backed reasons for the design.

The pelvic support is what fully convinced me. Pelvic support is to lumbar support what not-getting-stabbed is to a field tourniquet. Sitting with my legs engaged and my pelvis supported for the first time wrinkled my brain in ways similar to the first time I wore prescription lenses. After maybe fifteen minutes of "active sitting" I felt relief in my back instead of pain.

It is genuinely shocking how much of an impact a chair has made in my recovery from sedentary self-induced injury. From spending hours trying to get comfortable in chairs not designed to meaningfully support human bodies. I thought my problem area was my mid-back and core muscles. It was my whole spine. I still sit like an idiot sometimes but doing so in the Anthros is uncomfortable and that prompts me to either stand for a bit or take a walk. When I'm using the tool properly I am comfortable and pain-free.

Now that I've made myself sound like a paid shill here are some things I don't like about the Anthros chair:

1. It's expensive. I had to save for months to buy one responsibly. $2,000 for a chair is a lot to ask. I am happy with my purchase and I've recommended them to friends who have complained about back pain. Maybe the cost is justified. Maybe not. I'm too ignorant of the particulars to be able to say. Either way: it's expensive to the point I take issue with the cost.
2. The armrests adjust their horizontal placement too easily. There's about two inches of play in their forward/backward position and four "notches" of inward/outward movement at about three degrees per notch. The flexibility here is nice but there's no locking mechanism for these adjustments and I found myself adjusting them accidentally all the time. I'm sure this could be countered with claims about accessibility and/or that this is only an issue when I'm using the tool improperly (sitting poorly). Even if valid points: this still feels like an area that could see improvement. It feels cheap in ways that a $2,000 chair shouldn't. It's the only thing that feels cheap on the chair but I still notice it after years of use. It doesn't bother me as much now that I'm used to it and I've encountered it less as my sitting habits have improved BUT it has remained a complaint since day one.
3. I think it's kind of ugly. This is a bit petty but I just don't care for the look of the thing. It's fine but I feel it's kind of an eyesore. I've had chairs that looked cool and fit my sense of style. The Anthros looks like I stole it from a hospital or something.

That said: if I have my way, until and unless someone develops something better, I will always have an Anthros chair at my desk. If I ever own a business where it makes sense to buy desk chairs for people then I'll only buy Anthros chairs. If I could gift one to everyone I know then I would.

I've done a lot of physical therapy to rehabilitate my back, abdominal core, and pelvis/hips from working at a desk. I'm significantly healthier than I was a few years ago. I attribute some of that progress to the chair. I'm confident I could've made the same progress without it but also confident that progress would've taken longer. Without the chair I'd still have been fighting bad habits I didn't even know I had. I also wouldn't reasonably have been able to change those habits as effectively.

I cannot recommend the Anthros chair strongly enough. Nothing else even comes close.

I always loved to think that I never get these serious back troubles, because having ADHD causes me to move around all the time. Really ever other minute I need to switch positions. I work in IT and in my home office all the time. Currently I am not sure anymore, because I feel some little back pain sometimes.

For you my recommendation is to constantly change chairs. Office chair, gaming chair, large ball with the ring on the floor, then without the ring, knee chair, wobbler etc.

And standing in between. You absolutely should have an electric height adjustable desk, so you can always go high or low without effort.

The last one in your image is terrible. I have one and it just made my knees and lower back hurt worse. HermanMiller is really the only way to go. My wife and I both have the embody. I can sit for an entire day and my back feels the same as it did at the start. There’s a reason people gush about those chairs.

What helped me with back pain the most was learning how to properly sit in a chair.

Basically, you want to sit down on your taint.

What you do is place your feet under the chair, stick your ass out like you're twerking it, and proceed to sit down so that your taint is the point of contact between you and the chair. Make sure your hips are pushed all the way to the back of the chair and your feet can rest comfortably on the floor with your knees at a 90 degree angle.

This will align you spine properly, and prevent your spine from being overly stressed. It also relieves pressure on the hips as well.

Not sure if this will help with your condition, but it should help to relieve any stress points and align everything into a position where your body isn't struggling to keep everything in pace. The longer you sit like this, the more benefits you will see.

In the office, I have a regular office chair, a wobble stool, and a height-adjustable desk riser if I want to stand. Constantly switching between them makes the biggest difference for my back. Sometimes I use one setting all day long, sometimes I switch several times a day, however I feel

SteelCase Leap was my favorite chair ever. I currently have a SteelCase Think. But honestly the thing more impactful than the chair, to me, is an adjustable height desk with an adjustable height monitor stand.

I get where you're going with that saddle, but I urge you to not consider that one. You really don't want your bodyweight on your undercarriage like that; the stirrups on a real saddle are necessary and functional parts of your riding posture for good reason. Plus, see issues people have with repeated bad posture on bicycle seats for the same reason.