The Body Mechanic by Todd Forman, PT

Is A High End Ergonomic Chair Worth The Cost ?

After spending 3 years in a beat up, inexpensive office chair, I decided I needed to answer the question for myself.  I never considered myself a candidate for a higher end chair, because I simply don’t sit that much.  The longest I’m ever sitting at my desk is for about 2 ½ hours, and that only occurs once or twice a week. I’m treating patients for most of the rest of the time, sitting down only briefly in between appointments to write clinical notes.

About a year ago, though, I noticed that I’d come into the office feeling great, but after one of my “administrative mornings” when I’d been at my desk for a few hours, my upper and lower back would feel stiff and sore. It would take most of the rest of the day (out of the chair)to get myself feeling normal again.  I knew my chair was set up properly, but at the same time, I knew that sitting, even for a few hours, was really beginning to cause some problems.

Now, a brief aside before continuing:  the real solution to this problem is not to sit for any longer than absolutely necessary.  A while back, I penned “Sitting is the New Smoking”, and I’m not backing away from my position that prolonged sitting causes large problems that exercise and ergonomic chairs cannot fix. I maintain my position that we simply are not designed to sit for long periods of time.   For  an excellent article on this subject, I recommend Frank Booth’s article “Waging War on Modern Chronic Diseases: Primary Prevention Through Exercise Biology” found here: http://jap.physiology.org/content/88/2/774.full.pdf+html

I recognize, though, that some sitting is inevitable in modern life.  Was there a better way to do it?  After a fair amount of online and telephone research, I settled on a “BodyBilt” chair from a company called Ergogenisis.  The best place to check out this product is their website at www.ergo4me.com.

Purchasing this chair was an interesting process, and a bit involved. The sales representative took me through a “fitting” process by phone, asking me my height, weight, inseam, type of work I did, number of hours sitting, and the types of problems I was having.  He then took me through an online “slideshow” of the different chair types and features.  The options were a bit overwhelming, but the representative did a great job making recommendations based on either my body type or the problem I was trying to solve.  The really cool part was that if something didn’t work out, they could send a technician out to change a component, rather than the entire chair. The entire conversation took about 30 minutes.

 About 3 weeks later, the chair arrived.  We dubbed it “Chairzilla”.  Now I had a number of options to make the chair more sleek and fancy, but my style has always been “function over fashion”.  Still, the thing was big.  It arrived completely assembled, though.  I played with the settings for a while, until I finally broke down and read the instructions, which were excellent.  After the initial set up, though, I was disappointed.  No feeling of Nirvana on sitting,  and I was considering returning the chair.

The company had scheduled a “fitting call” with me for that afternoon, so I decided to refrain from judgement until after that process.  The fitting took about another 40 minutes, and I ended up a bit more comfortable, but still not happy.  The next day, on my own, I went though the final process again, and finally got it right.  (In fairness to Ergogensis, I was only half listening during the fitting call. After all, as a PT, I knew best, right? Well, after I finally got the fit right, I realized that I had just done exactly what the rep told me to do in the first place.  What is it with males and following directions, anyway?)

I have the option of returning the chair, but I’m keeping it.  Interestingly enough, Ergogensis has a great return policy, but they insist on you trying the chair for 3 weeks before they take it back.  The first week I liked it. The second week I really liked it. By the third week, I loved it.  I can work now without pain, and I’m used to the settings and how to change them.  At a total cost of around $1,800 (including tax and delivery) it is a high price point.  But, I think, worth every penny.

A final word about my “product endorsement” here.  First, this was one chair that helped one guy (me).  Everyone is different, and I don’t recommend buying this as a “back pain solution” unless it is part of a comprehensive plan to address your problem.  Second, I’m a regular customer, paying retail, just like everyone else.  The company offered me (as they do everyone) a $25 referral fee if I would recommend them to all of my email contacts.  I politely refused.  I’m not interested in hawking their products, but I am comfortable giving a first hand recommendation for these chairs for those in the market.

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