I need a new chair. It’s officially official. And I need your help!
It’s been years since I bought a new chair, hence the desperately needing to buy one, and I’m a bit lost when it comes to choosing one. That’s, hopefully, where you guys come in.
I’ve always had bad posture. I try to keep a mind’s eye on it, I really really do, but I inevitably seem to revert to scrunched up shoulders and one or both of my legs scrunched up on the seat, which naturally curves my lower back and causes it to ache at the end of the day.
Now, the good news is that, so far, that pain never seems to last very long. The shoulder tense-ness is an entirely different story, which also has a big chapter on “stress” and “where I hold it” in it, but the back stays pretty tame. Still, I’m not stupid or naive, I know that if I continue to sit and work in poor posture positions, I *will* develop back problems, and I *will* become a hunch-backed old man. Not really what I want.
The only time in my life when I didn’t naturally revert to poor posture was when I was doing P90x. True story. It’s because of weak lower back muscles. I realize that. And a return to the daily workout is absolutely coming very very soon. But, that also doesn’t change the fact that I’m sitting in a really shitty chair. Like, it’s completely falling apart. Exposed foam on the whole front of the seat, pleather in tatters, and no support anywhere.
So what are the good chairs out there???
I’ve been looking at a bungee chord chair. Some people swear by those. I’m not sure that one of those ultra ergonomic chairs are the solution either, since I’ve tried the medicine ball chair, which worked well for about an hour, and then I was just hunching over worse than normal and wishing I had an arm-rest to give my shoulders a reprieve. And I’m now doing about 8 solid hours of work in front of a computer. But, if you swear by some ergonomic chair and am similarly bad-posture prone, bring it on. I’m entertaining pretty much all ideas.
It’s actually so contrary to our body architecture to sit all day and work in a chair, if you think about it. Doesn’t surprise me at all that people with office jobs are far more likely to have health issues associated with weight and lack of exercise. And I think it’s quite the testament to how adaptive and flexible our bodies really are, that we’re even *able* to have jobs now that require us to sit as long as we do when it’s completely contrary to how our bones and muscles evolved. Which is to say, I suppose, that our architecture was in point of fact designed to be extremely adaptive and flexible. Dumb luck. No Babylonian was sitting in an office all day moving only his fingers. Even writing back then meant you had to make your own paper and ink. But they had it in them, the ability to do it. Even though there was no necessity at the time.
I’m not looking forward to the day when I hit my limit. When I try to do something physically and I can’t, or more likely something breaks because I pushed it too far. Not that I often exert myself that hard, but that’s kind of my point. It’ll be one of those moment where I don’t even think I’m pushing myself too hard, but I am, and pop; I’ll know.
I’m not really sure where the brief expose on aging came from, but there it is. It’s the great equalizer. At 30, I realize that I know virtually nothing of “aging,” but the fringes are there. I can smell it in the wind.
So yeah…I want to try and take care of this body. It’s the only one I have. And it needs a new chair. If you have any ideas, give me a holler 😉