I’ve been suffering from some pretty intense back pain for the past three days, and I think I know the cause–my crappy desk chair. So I thought I’d send out a warning to anyone who spends a large amount of time at a desk: do not skimp on your chair!
Back in L.A. I had a pretty nice, padded swivel-chair from Ikea. It got left behind with all of my other furniture, and when I arrived in Japan I discovered that my apartment came with two functional kitchen chairs. Functional, but not very comfortable–they’re low to the ground, meaning that when I sit at the table (which is my desk 90% of the time) I tend to hunch over. And there’s very little cushion and no lumbar support to speak of.
When I first arrived I swore that I would immediately go out and buy a desk chair. But I kept putting it off–the decent ones were all around $200, which seemed like a LOT of money. And then the back pain hit, and I felt like an idiot. So I went out and spent the $200 and never looked back.
Bottom line: you need a good desk chair. Don’t skimp. Really, if this is where you will spend the bulk of your waking hours, it needs to be comfortable and not likely to cause back problems.
My lovely new padded, high-backed swivel chair won’t arrive for another few days, so I’m going to go pop some more Advil, stick on another one of those heat-packs, and try to work a bit from my bed.
So true … it’s amazing how much you can spend on an office chair. But it’s also amazing what a quality chair can do. Thanks.