No matter the brand, no matter the style, there is no chair that is good for you.
Sitting is bad for you. Period.
The more you do of it, the worse it is for you, even if you go run ten miles a day.
Galen Cranz, an Alexander Technique teacher and professor of architecture at Cal-Berkeley, wrote the 1999 gem The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body And Design.
Why do people fidget so much when they sit in a chair for more than a few minutes? Because we’re not designed to sit in chairs. People tend to slump in chairs, pushing the pelvis forward, and “the sitter finds himself sitting on his tailbone.” (pg. 94)
Because there’s no stable posture for sitting in a chair, there’s no possibility of a good chair.
“We can’t sit upright simply because we have grown accustomed to being supported by chairbacks. Because we lean against the backrest, the many layers of muscle that comprise the torso get weakened. It’s a vicious cycle.” (pg. 96)
Looking at photos from a friend’s time teaching English in Upper Volta, Africa, Galen noticed two men with beautiful posture. They were the two men who had grown up in a village without missionary school and its tables and chairs.
Whether we sit well or badly, we put 30% more pressure on the spine sitting compared to standing.
Galen writes: “Sitting in any chair for more than short (ten-minute) interval is likely to begin to have negative effects on your physical self, hence your mental self, and at a minimum reduces your awareness of physical and emotional sensations.” (pg. 127)
