IGX

What makes chairs so awful for the body? That’s a complicated question to answer, because different chairs get different things wrong. Uncomfortable chairs typically put adverse pressure on some part of the body or require excessive muscular work in order to sit. This can cause soreness and encourage the sitter to adopt slouched postures that restrict circulation, impede respiratory and intestinal function, and lead to musculoskeletal injuries.

No one even knows what a “good” chair would have to do, hypothetically, let alone how to make one. Some ergonomists have argued that the spine should be allowed to round forward and down in a C-shaped position to prevent muscular strain, but this pressurizes the internal organs and can cause spinal discs to rupture over time. Others advocate for lumbar support, but the forced convexity that this creates is not much better in the short run and can be worse in the long: it weakens the musculature of the lumbar region, increasing the likelihood of the very injuries it’s meant to prevent. There are similar debates over seat height, angle and depth; head, foot and arm support; and padding.

If chairs are such a dumb idea, how did we get stuck with them? Why does our culture demand that we spend most of every day sitting on objects that hurt us? What the hell happened?

It should be no surprise to readers of Jacobin that the answer lies in class politics. Chairs are about status, power, and control. That’s why we like them. Ask any furniture historian about the origins of the chair and they’ll gleefully tell you that it all started with the throne.

Some time in the Stone Age, probably between 6,000 and 12,000 years ago, high-status individuals in some cultures began to sit on small raised platforms, just large enough to hold a single person and with a backrest to support or frame the sitter. This was an effective way to designate elevated status among people who otherwise sat on the ground – much more so than stools, which lacked a back, and benches, which accommodated more than one person. The earliest evidence of these primitive thrones comes from figurines excavated in southeastern Europe, but single-person seats with a back were important status symbols in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, as well.

Terry B. wrote:That's actually fairly interesting. I don't have that many chairs in my apartment and the ones that I do have, I don't really like.

Standing desk?

Terry B. wrote: Standing desk?

bigpeach wrote:I'll just lay on the couch, thank you.

Drew0786 wrote:

Terry B. wrote: Standing desk?

http://lifehacker.com/5874352/build-you ... esk-for-40

http://smarterware.org/7102/how-and-why ... nding-desk

Frogster wrote:OK, good to hear, I might try that some more.
What height was it in relation to your navel?

Shapecharge wrote:Okay Froggy...what the fuck is the diamond position?

baffled wrote:

Frogster wrote:OK, good to hear, I might try that some more.
What height was it in relation to your navel?

I'm not really sure. Right around the navel area I think though. I just set it so that I could type comfortably without having to raise or hunch my shoulders, and put as little stress on my wrists as possible.

I would figure worrying about where it is in relation to your belly button would be secondary to whether your posture was correct.