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Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

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Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#51

Post by jlos »

1) Main is a standing desk with a wobble board. The wobble board allows for constant micro-adjustments and also a few good 'steady' position for focusing

2) Ikea Nilserik wobble stool. This lets me "perch" in a semi standing position and, again, make lots of movement throughout the day. I also reposition myself on this regularly.

3) Kneeling chair

4) normal office chair for little breaks (30 minutes in the morning and 30 in the afternoon)

I would never go back to just sitting in a chair all day. I've never seen anyone who can maintain good posture for 8 hours a day. And even if you do, your still weakening your glutes and abs while tightening your hips and calves.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#53

Post by macNchz »

lbotos wrote: post #15

If you are in a major city you can often find used "high-end" chairs for reasonable price. I'm on a 5-year-old used Aeron I got for $275. Herman Miller has made newer fancier chairs but I'll ride this one for probably a decade before I upgrade.

I think now is likely a great time to be looking for one as well, as there's going to be a lot of flux as companies figure out what's next in terms of office space. My home office Aeron came to me for free recently when a friend's company moved out of their office space and gave lots of stuff away.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#54

Post by rcoder »

I've been about 90% standing/10% sitting for the last several years, and while standing is great for me, the ergonomics of switch to and from my Aeron -- bought 15-ish years ago from a startup closing up shop -- felt less so.

I passed along the Aeron to my wife, who prefers a supportive chair and has also obviously been working from home, and got a Fully Tic Toc stool. It forces me to maintain something like healthy posture and keeps me at least gently moving throughout the day, and as a bonus fits neatly under the desk when I'm working rather than forcing me to find space elsewhere in my very compact home office.

I've found that for my 40-year-old knees and hips some sort of motion was necessary to keep from getting sore by the end of the day. The Tic Toc helps with that, as does the balance board I pull out when standing for any length of time. (The board is a Fluidstance, which is stupidly expensive for what amounts to a skateboard deck on top of a piece of bent sheet metal, but it feels a lot better than standing still and has held up really well so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.)

Obviously this kind of setup isn't good for everyone, but I really like it.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#55

Post by etrautmann »

lbotos wrote: post #15

If you are in a major city you can often find used "high-end" chairs for reasonable price. I'm on a 5-year-old used Aeron I got for $275. Herman Miller has made newer fancier chairs but I'll ride this one for probably a decade before I upgrade.

I found commercially-resold Aerons in NYC for ~$400, which seems quite common (and quite reasonable) about a year ago.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#57

Post by pickle-wizard »

Right before Corona hit, I bought a Herman Miller Aeron for my home office. For the couple of days a week I worked from home it was great. Once I started using it everyday, it aggravated my sciatica. No matter how I adjusted it, I could not get it right.

Here in Austin we have a store called Texas Office Product Supplies. They sell used office furniture. The prices are pretty good for commercial grade equipment. I took the afternoon off and went and tried all of their chairs to find one that didn't hurt my back. I ended up buying a Sitonit Wit chair. It wasn't too expensive, think I paid about $200 for it.

The other thing I did is buy an adjustable desk. I ended up buying that at IKEA. I am 6'4" and most desks are too short for me. With the adjustable desk, I am able to set it the correct height.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#58

Post by ezekg »

polm23 wrote: post #34

I had been using a chair that was past its useful life so I asked friends for recommendations recently. Besides the chairs you see recommended elsewhere in this very thread, one friend recommended a "gamer chair". I was dubious, but it had some nice points: - has all the features of expensive office chairs - not mesh (I hate mesh chairs) - half the price of fancy office chairs (~500USD) I got a Secretlab Omega specif…

I've had an Omega for a couple years now and I'm not a huge fan anymore. The pillow isn't enough for good lumbar support. I've been looking to switch to an Aeron or something similar.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of chair are you using for WFH?

#60

Post by temp234 »

pen2l wrote: post #43

I use a wooden chair much like this one: https://i.imgur.com/2LZ2d3M.png What I came to realize after a while of thinking about this is that this is all bikeshedding (at least, it was for my situation). If you have issues of a high severity, it might make sense to invest in a chair to alleviate some symptoms like pain and discomfort. If you have money lying around just waiting to be used, it might make sense to spend…

I use a similar wooden chair or, when just a laptop is fine, sit or squat on the floor. It's a shoes-off house and a nice carpet that I reckon gets cleaned more often than most expensive desk chair seats. I think the floor time improves my flexibility and mobility. A lot of adults in my country aren't comfortable lowering themselves onto the floor or standing up off the floor and I know I'd be among them if it weren't for my arbitrary floor work habits.
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