[G4] OT: Ergonomic Chairs

[JayB]

On Feb 28, 2006, at 8:14 AM, Anne Keller-Smith wrote:

> Hi all -
>
> Being one year shy of 50, it would seem that things are breaking down 
> a tad. To wit, I need a more comfortable office chair. Having been to 
> Staples and surfed a bit on the net, it would seem that some chairs 
> offer various features that are supposed to provide support.
>
>




Anne-

Since these fine folks have helped me out on my questions, I feel 
compelled to give back some of my own "dos centavos":

A good chair is a must but I only spent about $120 on mine at Office 
Depot.  I like the mesh back for sure and would have loved an Aeron 
with mesh seat too.  Mine has mesh back and regular foam seat.  
Adjustable arms are a must for me. One of the problems with fitting the 
chair if you are petite is, making sure that the seat is short enough 
in depth to allow your butt to sit in the right spot so that the back 
of the chair will support your spine.  In other words, making sure the 
front edge of the seat doesn't rest too firmly against the back of your 
knees when your are seated properly.  You can't do this without putting 
your butt in a bunch of chairs (& sitting at a display desk and mocking 
your set -up) at probably more than one store. You will almost 
certainly need a custom or adjustable foot rest. But all that said, you 
have to have not only a good chair that fits YOU, but you have to 
configure the monitor and keyboard height exactly right too.  Also, 
don't for get that the angle of the keyboard makes a big difference 
too.

I switched over to a Kensington (now using theTurbo Mouse Pro) more 
than 10 yrs ago and can't imagine why ANYONE would use a conventional 
mouse.

Do whatever you can to make this as comfortable as possible (if you 
spend much time at the computer) because the injuries you can get from 
carpel tunnel, etc are very serious and can be life long, seriously 
crippling injuries.

Hope this helps.

~Jay