Re:Standing versus Sitting
by wanorris on Tuesday April 29, 2008 @06:11PM
(#177051)
I helped my dad start an office furniture store back in the 90's, so I learned a bit about ergonomics by osmosis.
The central problem with kneeling chairs is that one of the most important ergonomic principles is that you have a natural (and necessary) propensity to shift positions every few hours. Kneeling chairs don't allow you a range of positions the way that conventional chairs, exercise balls, standing, etc. do. The ergonomics people I knew always went out of their way to say kneeling chairs were actually a bad idea.
Having said that, whatever works for you, works for you. But for people considering a kneeling chair, you want to be careful not to just try it in the store for 10 minutes, then buy it.
The central problem with kneeling chairs is that one of the most important ergonomic principles is that you have a natural (and necessary) propensity to shift positions every few hours. Kneeling chairs don't allow you a range of positions the way that conventional chairs, exercise balls, standing, etc. do. The ergonomics people I knew always went out of their way to say kneeling chairs were actually a bad idea.
Having said that, whatever works for you, works for you. But for people considering a kneeling chair, you want to be careful not to just try it in the store for 10 minutes, then buy it.