Hello all,
I have developed back problems from working on this flipping phd sitting on my cheap IKEA chair (I'm not getting at IKEA - very reasonable and well-made stuff generally, I think. But they don't do chairs suitable for 24 hour use!)
I need to buy an ergonomic chair and thanks to Christmas/Birthday/Family loans I have the cash to do it. But what to get? There are so many different choices.
Is anyone sitting on something really comfortable right now?! If, so please let me know!
Or likewise, any "seating solutions" (my research indicates that no one in the industry has used the word "chair" in the last decade or so) I should avoid?
Many thanks for the help. I am terrified of making the wrong decision and wasting this money. Eek!

I got a good one from Staples - on their website they have a guide for what chair depending on how many hours a day it is used (I went for the 24 hour job for those days I pull an all-nighter). You'll be looking at over £50 for a good one, but its worth it.

Thanks to my amazingly well funded institute (and rigid to the letter application of EU health and safety laws) I am sitting in ease in a wonderful ergonomic chair. the back tilts when choose to apply weight to it. Arms and legs are adjustable. One can sit forward in it, or lean back to that your spin is properly supported. The back even offers neck support to somebody as tall as me ( I am over 6 foot). Follow this website, select English, and then you will see the chair. Excellent design. The company is set up to send things abroad it would seem. but if you don't fancy having it shipped from Germany, definately see if they are sold anywhere else online. The chair is called "Tango". There are lots of ergonomic catalogues which unless you know German will be useful only for the pictures showing how scientifically ergonomic the chair is! :)

http://www.loeffler-sitzmoebel.de/ergonomic-seating/tango_rueckenfitness_beim_sitzen.php

Hi Florence, I have an old victorian wooden scholar's chair which I usually sit in while writing (Igot it from the old uni in th town where I live when they were sagely chucking them out in order to replace 'em with IKEA type numbers, no doubt); it has a broad, rounded seat with a rounded back and arm support . I put cushions on it on the back and the seat, and I have never suffered discomfort in it. However, I don't use it for more that two hours at a a time solidly because I take breaks and move around. Occasionaly, I sit ont the sofa, to read and write, with the laptop precariously balanced on the arm of the sofa, but I don't stay like that too long either. That's my experience, I hope it helps. Good luck.

urgh - I have the worst back, after epidurals, spinal disc injections, a piece of metal called an x stop - I still have major issues. I've been away from uni for 5 weeks now. My legs go numb when I walk and my spinal cord gets cut off by my own spine (thanks skeleton - stupid thing) and I don't get any blood to my legs when standing or walking. So this is a real issue for me.

I have recently borrowed a herman miller chair from someone - its lurvely, but when I went to look at buyng my own its like £800!!!!! but then i went to ebay and all my problems were solved - they have them there for v cheap e.g. 99p!

If buying from staples etc. make sure you check the label. Apparently they have brought in labels saying how long you can sit on the chairs for e.g. 3 hours, 8 hours etc.

I've developed some sort of issue too (not sciatica but that might be next they tell me...). I'm seeing an osteopath on Monday and was planning to ask his advice (in which case I shall pass on any wisdom) but all I've been told before by a chiropractor, my mother's pilates teacher, a physio and so on - and never done clearly - is to get a kneeling chair. So that might be the next plan. I've tried two 'proper office chairs' (nicked from a 'proper office' when they moved so probably very expensive etc) but it's still caused problems.

megara I have spinal stenosis with neurogenic claudication and facet joint syndrome - maybe you have it too and we can be spinal freaks together!

Thank you for the offer but I'm hoping it's nothing quite so, erm, 'exciting'! Not impressed at having to take pills that mean I can't drink (clearly that's far worse than the bit yesterday when I couldn't sit down...)! :-)

ooh I know what you mean - they put me on anti-epileptic ones (?) and all the usual painkillers - I had to come off them though cos my brain turned to mush and I figured the pain of my back was less than the pain of my PhD not getting done for another X many years!

I am currently using the following Ikea chair http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20103101, and it's been v. good (my last Ikea one was terrible), but if I had the money I'd invest in a proper ergonomic one.

This might be a good seating solution, Florence - it's got lumbar support (so it's good for backs) and is relative cheap too: http://www.overstock.com/Office-Furniture/Boss-Lumbar-Support-Executive-Chair/2377844/product.html?cid=133635

I use a Captain's chair (v.comfy), but the family cat, during in periods of schizophrenic frenzy, has attacked it - so there's not much of it left.

can i just say that if you are short, the executive chairs often kinda crush you down - everythings all in the wrong place because they were designed by some tall languid designer with rimless glasses.

My cat has also done the same to my chair Wal - he jumps on the back and starts clawing away and hanging off it and then eating my hair - not good. I really want a herman miller one, just need to find one on ebay in the righ location and get a stupid paypal thing set up again

Interesting thread - I too have back problems, nothing like so exciting as Sneaks, but its there and i've managed to mess up all areas of my back over the last few months. The summer was good - we were moving, I had a board paper to write, my desk was moved early on and I wrote in it a squidgy deep chair with the laptop on my lap - cue messed up shoulder and upper back causing me the most incredible headaches too. Then a couple of months back I somehow managed to do something to my lower back and the pain - arrggghhhh - nightmare - I know its because my desk is an H&S nightmare - high old table, rubbish chair thats too low - I've even managed to mess up my left wrist - hurts at the moment - I think from sitting with my hand resting on the laptop while typing - so these things are so important - I'll go have a look at the links :-)

I thought I would share the wisdom of my osteopath whose advice I asked today regarding chairs. And his wise response? "Sit on whatever feels comfortable." He then added some rather more useful advice which is that posture is more important than chair. He uses a swivel chair base without a back to make him sit up straight as he thinks many office chairs don't have good enough lumbar support or make you lounge back into them. Incidentally my problem turns out to be a twisted pelvis as a result of problems in my lumbar spine. I have been pummelled and pulled about and feel really rubbish now but I dare say it will all be for the good!

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I hope it helps you Megara! You often feel far worse after seeing these people for a few days lol - I'm sure that they like to 'manipulate' just that bit extra lol lol, it does seem to help a lot in the long run though. Interesting about the lumbar support - mine is certainly rubbish - as is my posture when I'm working. I can see a backless chair causing me even more injury though - fling yourself back from the computer when in a frustration at your writing and crack your head open - that'd be my luck ;-)