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Comment by saturdaysaint | Hacker News Reader

I highly recommend kneeling chairs. You sit with your legs underneath you instead of in front of you, which puts your back at a much more natural angle (much like standing, actually) than a standard office chair. They're cheap (mine was $75) and very compact, so you can augment them with a "normaller" chair. Long hours in a kneeling chair can strain certain muscles (the small of my back gets a little tight), so I do recommend using a standard chair about %20 of the time.

I alternate between a cheap office chair and a cheap kneeling chair (something like this - http://www.amazon.com/Boss-Office-Products-Ergonomic-Kneelin...), switching if I feel any twinge of discomfort, and my back and neck feel great.

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Without any evidence supporting its benefits, the kneeling chair is little more than another fad in cubicle ergonomics. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe the things that are good for you are the things that make you feel good. Lying on a comfortable, supportive mattress is good for you. Sitting in a good chair at your desk is good for you. Walking, and other, more vigorous exercises are good for you. Kneeling in a knee-chair...is a fad. Either show me the data supporting the health benefits or don't be offended when I dismiss out of hand your new productivity- and lifespan-booster.

So how does heroin sit in your value system ? Only considering first order effects is very naive.

Heroin is a short-circuit of the brain's reward system. It's a validation of my point, not a refutation. That reward system exists to make us feel good about things that enhance our survival. That means, throughout history, the vast preponderance of things that make us feel good (eating, exercise, sex, etc) are also evolutionarily beneficial. Sure, lately, we've become very good at targeting the pleasure without the effort required to achieve the benefit, but for things like posture I'd still contend that a comfortable position is likely the one that's best for your body. See: slouchers have less back problems than people who sit straight in their chairs.

What gives you the impression that lying on a comfortable mattress is good for you? Comfortable and supportive aren't always the same thing, and neither one is particularly "good for you". Mattresses are really hard to get right. It depends on the shape of your spine, your weight, whether or not you have back problems (and which), and personal preference. There are trade-offs involved.

If you find evidence so important, I suggest you show me yours, as I find it to be strangely lacking. Ah, the irony.

There's a barefoot running movement stemming from research apparently indicating cushiony running sneakers leading to less healthy feet than running barefoot. Maybe the same could be true of bedding. Many Japanese today still sleep on thick cotton-stuffed pads laid on the floor, which is vastly firmer than most spring/foam mattresses.

Not much research has been done, but the most recent (2008) study concluded:

"This study suggests that ergonomically designed kneeling chairs set at +20 degrees inclination do maintain standing lumbar curvature to a greater extent than sitting on a standard computer chair with an overall mean difference of 7.633 degrees . Further research with a greater number of subjects and on different chair designs is warranted."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18810008

This is only an anecdote, but my parents replaced our office chair with a kneeling chair when I was a kid to keep me from monopolizing the family computer.

Not only did their plan fail, I found that I could sit for hours in that chair where in other "office" chairs I was highly uncomfortable after 30 min.

Also studies and other's anecdotes are worth a pittance compared to rigorous experimentation on your own part as everyone's body reacts differently. I can't count the number of times my experience has run counter to "accepted wisdom".

+1 for kneeling chairs. I've Varier Gravity Balans http://www.varierfurniture.com/Collections/Human-instruments... and it totally rocks once you get used to it.

The central problem with kneeling chairs is that it's normal and necessary to subtly shift your sitting position on your chair with some frequency (often without even noticing), and kneeling chairs are not conducive to this since they effectively hold your legs in a fixed position.

Of course, if you're switching between two different styles of chair when you need to, that may well alleviate any problems.

I use a kneeling chair(a Varier Variable Balans[1]) and I change position a lot, actually I think I move more with this chair than with traditional chairs. And I can stretch my legs(one at the time of course) while maintaining the correct posture.

[1] http://www.varierfurniture.com/Collections/Human-instruments...

I tried a kneeling chair a while back. The pressure on my shins was unbearable to the point of being painful. I really wanted to like it but couldn't use it for more than a few minutes at a time.

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