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

Herman Miller Aeron

Been there, opted for a Herman Miller Lino and I am super happy now. For me it was the middle ground between the high-class (and high-capex) Aeron and Embody and some no-name stuff that isnt any better than our chairs for the dining table.

Most useful would be to pay attention to your body while working and figure out where the tension buildup starts, then try to relieve that tension. Ergonomic products (even the most expensive ones) don't always help.

I purchased a lightly used Steelcase Gesture a few months ago. I had been using an Ikea Markus. It relieved all pain and discomfort I was feeling. I should have made the purchase sooner.

Herman Miller Mirra. There's always tons of liquidation stock on ebay and they're excellent as long as you get the one with the tilt and back support features.

I'm very torso tall and wide so for me the original Mirra is better than the Mirra 2 for day long comfort because of the large back shape

After years of the Herman Miller Embody, I moved on to the lighter Cosm and love it: https://turbo.paulstamatiou.com/uploads/2020/02/copyright-pa...

https://paulstamatiou.com/stuff-i-use/#desk

FYI, the Wirecutter has a great review of different office chair options: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-office-chair...

A Nowy Styl "Viden" with headrest: https://nowystyl.com/en/products/154/viden/

Learn some stretches that relieve the pain from sitting for long periods. There is a lot of good information online for neck, back, and hip stretches, and a daily routine of these have removed the pain for myself.

It's probably not the best, but I use a recliner and a remote keyboard/mouse with a tv. It's not the most professional, but my employers are more concerned with results than how I sit.

Piano bench. I've had chronic lower back pain for decades, despite having a Herman Miller at work. When I sit at the piano bench, I maintain good posture. Can't do it forever, so I take a break occasionally to stretch a little (I was supposed to be doing that anyway). It's great, and my lower back pain is gone.

> neck, back, and hip pain developing. Some of it is because of my renewed interest in working out

Ask for help in which work outs work best for that. IMHO yoga help me a lot and everything that look like plank.

Also, consider a Stan-up setup too. And I have discovered that different padding in your chair change the posture, so maybe try with different positions of the pillows or similar?

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.

The best thing for me has been to change several times through the day.

I start off in a random office chair. Mid-morning I switch to sitting on an exercise ball.

In the afternoon, I sit at the kitchen table for a while, and then move back to either the office chair or the ball.

I use 20+ year old hard plastic chair. If pandemic continues I can use it for next 30 years probably.

The ErgoChair Pro by Autonomous

https://www.autonomous.ai/

https://www.autonomous.ai/office-chairs/ergonomic-chair?opti...

Steelcase Leap v2 with a headrest. I bought it new, since finding a refurb one with a headrest is really difficult. My company gave us a WFH-office-setup stipend at the start of COVID lockdowns though, so that paid for about half of it.

I went from a crappy Staples faux-leather chair with terrible padding to this, and the comfort level is night and day.

I've been using a Steelcase Leap that I bought way back in 2008, and it's basically as good as new. Considering how much time we spend in our chairs and how (relatively) durable they are, I think making the investment in a nice one is probably not one you'll regret.

You might want to visit a local ergonomics store to test-drive, if it's practical for you -- for example, I personally don't prefer Aerons because the mesh bothers me. Those kinds of personal preferences are better to discover prior to spending $$$ on something.

Also, don't discount the rest of your equipment -- equally important to my ergonomics are wrist support and proper monitor placement. A good-quality VESA arm will also last decades and be able to follow you around. Your monitor should be about arms-length from you, with the center of the screen falling about a hand-span below your eye line.

Get a standing desk with a bar stool. Standing is much more ergonomic than sitting. And the arrangement with the barstool lets you very naturally switch between sitting and standing. Your body will tell you what it wants and half a second later you have the better pose. Also invest in a monitor at the right height, ergonomic keyboard and vertical mouse. If you have wrist pain like I also did, try alternative keyboard layouts such as QFMLWY. And a Mac-style keyboard where you copy/paste with the strong thumb (Cmd), not the weak pinky (Ctrl).

Ikea MARKUS it's $200 but has been pretty good to me, the price of a used Aeron is higher. The things is the MARKUS has a 10 year warranty though Ikea and is pretty comfortable and a solid price. I have used both and they are both pretty comfy to me but the Aeron is too much to pay.

I have an old Aeron I bought during my first work from home stint 10+ years ago. It's my daily chair for hours of time, and has held up wonderfully.

Cost me something like $600 back then, so at $60/year so far of service, it's cheaper than burning through cheap office depot chairs.

Some old armchair/recliner my grandparents had, the chair or bench outside, or previously various couches.

EAG Management. It's expensive, but I'm over the moon about it. Phenomenal chair. I got one for cheaper by ordering a scratch and dent (hardly) from the ebay store of a HM distributor.

edit: Also, you start seeing this chair _everywhere_ in movies and TV.

The Ikea Volmar (which is now Vallfjället).

After having owned at least a couple of expensive chairs (including Herman Miller Embody), I came to the conclusion that office chairs over 500$ or so are a ripoff (or, to put in other words, they have a high marketing tax), for two reasons:

1. chair feeling is very individual; as long as a chair is robustly constructed, price has nothing to do with feeling

2. as long as a chair has enough knobs (or better: the right ones for one's body), again, price doesn't make a difference.

I actually find the Embody terrible on my body, as it has a hard lower back rest, and narrow shoulder rest that pushes the shoulders forward. YMMV - depending on the height, one may not suffer those pain points.

> Can you recommend a chair

No.

I'm going against the grain of most replies here. It isn't a specific chair you need (perfectly good, bog standard office chairs are fully adjustable and ten a penny) but to instead take regular stretch breaks and don't slouch.

If I was a Silicon Valley geek, I'd recommend regular 10 minute yoga breaks, but since I'm British I find frequent walks around the garden with a cup of tea do the job just as well :-)

What the heck is WFH?