Ask HN: Where do you sit?

At the start of the pandemic, I was using my girlfriend's piano bench, but she wants it to be at her piano. Now, I sit on an Ikea bekväm step stool. For decades now I've dealt with lower back pain, but that's almost entirely gone ever since I stopped sitting (and slouching) in office chairs. Sitting on the edge of a hard chair encourages good posture (for me? for classically trained violinists?). It's not terribly comfortable on the sit-bones! That's a feature: sitting motionless isn't good for you.

A former colleague once gave me some of the most important advice I’ve ever received a few years ago:

> Spend your money on what goes between you and the ground.

For about a decade I sat on a version of an IKEA chair, with a mesh neck and foam cushion. They’re good for the price, but I wish I upgraded sooner. The foam only ever lasted about 2 years.

The Aeron is a nice chair, but use one first before you buy. They’re often available second hand for cheap, which is great value. For me, I found them to be a bit uncomfortable.

My main chair now is a Herman Miller Cosm, with the high back. I love it, it looks great, and the leaf arms are the first chair arms I’ve ever left on a chair. The main draw for me was the single mesh across the whole chair. I find mesh more comfortable, and it doesn’t wear like foam.

I also have a qor360 active sitting chair. These take getting used to, but they’re pretty good. Definitely keeps me alert.

Finally I got one of the cheaper folding desk treadmills (walking pad I think?). I found I can walk for hours if my brain has something interesting to do.

Overall I spend most of the time in the Cosm. I’ve spent more on fixing back pain than any of these, and each has meaningfully improved that.

As our bodies all vary in shape, size, weight and proportions, you need to try as many different options to find what features are best for you.

The Cosm and qor360 ain’t cheap, but they’ve been worth it for me.

The benefit of chair recommendations is that you've likely spent longer timespans in your chair than I can reasonably spend in a store. In my experience, recommendations tend to yield better comfort long term than my own opinion in a store. But maybe others are better able to extrapolate. Honestly I've never found an office chair that I'd call comfortable.

Started on a standard generic office chair sitting for hours. Then decided that an ergonomic big-name brand chair would be my silver bullet.

The next step, sit/stand desk. But still had some aches as I would either stand for 3 hours or sit for 3 hours.

The current setup is a mix of sit/stand desk and regular short breaks every 30 minutes or so. Even a glance away for 1 or 2 minutes to stretch but still keep a mental image of the work intact so you don't lose focus and flow.

The key for me, reaching a point where stretching and movement are incorporated into my day.

Sorry in advance for the long comment but I've spent a lot of time thinking about this because I want to be able to continue doing this line of work until I retire without completely wrecking my body.

A little background: I've been doing 8+ hours of programming and often a few more hours of chair time (gaming, personal work, whatever) after work for about 15 years now.

When I started, I could sit on/in anything. On a really long day I might feel some discomfort or slight back pain, but nothing major. Starting 3 or 4 years ago, that changed.

If I sat in a chair without back support, poor ergonomics, or a bad seat, I got quite a bit of pain. I'm not sure how much of that I should attribute to weakening core/supporting muscles from the heavy amount of desk time vs. the natural effects of aging, but it was obvious that something was causing me pain where I hadn't previously had it. Throughout my whole programming career I've stayed active – at 35, I'm only 10lb up from the weight I was at through my late teens, lifting as well as cardio for exercise, etc.

Once I noticed I was having pain, I started an (unfortunately very expensive) journey to find a chair that agrees with me. By this point I had been working from home for 3 years and I was sitting on a $50 generic office chair that I knew was at least part of the problem that caused me a lot of pain.

The first new chair I tried was a Steelcase Leap. I'd had one at a previous job and remembered liking the armrests and back support a lot. I sat it in for about a year, but the seat pan was literally as hard as a rock, or otherwise cursed and was literally a huge pain in the ass. However, the back support was great and I knew I was on the right track.

I sold the Leap (luckily not at too much of a loss) and then tried an Autonomous Ergochair Pro. I liked the back support on that chair a lot as well, but likewise found the seat to be super uncomfortable. I sold it a few months later.

The last chair I tried (and the one I finally kept) was a Herman Miller Embody. I knew from enjoying the back on the Leap chair that I liked the idea of a flexible-backed chair that could move with my spine and allow me to stretch, but the Embody ended up being the choice for me because of the seat. I'd tried other mesh seats in the past but they always had kind of a "hammock" feeling. The only way I can really describe the seat on the Embody is that it feels like all of the "suspended" feeling of a mesh chair, but with none of the "hammock" effect where you feel like you're sitting in the middle of a bowl. The seat is basically invisible for me to sit on. On long days I don't have any pain, and I honestly feel like I'm able to work more effectively without being distracted or uncomfortable from pain.

The other thing I did was just try to sit _less_. Getting a standing desk along with a nice chair has made a world of difference. If I'm honest, some days pass completely without me standing at all, but having the option there is great when I need it.

The biggest downside is that erognomic setup stuff can be insanely expensive – all said and done, I've spent probably 3k on it. But compared to the amount of time I spend working, and the amount of money I make _from_ that work, it's all worth it to me. If I want to keep doing this shit for the next 15 years, I need to be able to do it without pain.

I hope you find something that works well for you!