My back screams at me by noon every day, as I sit at my computer trying to stay focused on my top priorities for the day.
My chiropractor visits have increased in frequency and my Physio keeps recommending a better office chair as well as her plethora of core strengthening exercises.
While my workload continues to build, the cost of simply living mounts and the most exercise I seem to be able to fit into my day, is a brisk walk to the StarBucks to reload my caffeine reserves.
As I scan the internet I can see an impressive array of ergonomic office chairs. Herman Miller, CoreChair, Human Scale, Steelcase and many more.
Of course there are many more that have no real identifiable manufacturer and appear to be very similar to most of the expensive ergonomic chairs from the notable brands.
With the exception of CoreChair, most of the other ergonomic office chairs look very similar with the branded market leaders offering the most expensive options and the big box stores offering similar look alike models very inexpensively.
CoreChair seems to have broken the mold and designed a distinctive ergonomic office chair that performs differently and apparently as effectively or better.
So how can there be such a discrepancy in pricing from very inexpensive ergonomic office chairs that look so much like an expensive ergonomic office chair?
Will a more expensive solution be that much more effective?
It seems that functionally, most traditional chair designs perform the same function in terms of body position and in fact some of these designs seem to offer too much support.
The big consideration is what kind of expected life cycle these products have and how they perform with a variety of more advanced fitting options.
While some of the more expensive ergonomic office chairs do seem to have a lot more adjustments, sometimes it is difficult to maintain consistency over time, if these adjustments get changed and the user isn’t exactly certain how to readjust properly.
The CoreChair ergonomic office chair keeps its adjustments very simple and focuses on pelvic position to provide a foundation of support for the entire spine, allowing more freedom of movement.
So now the decision is not much simpler so I begin to determine, if these more expensive office chairs that are designed to provide good back support and comfort, are that good, then how do I make sense of the cost.
Simply put, I visit my chiropractor 2-3 times per month at a regular visit cost of $50. Annual total is about $1200 to $1800.
Okay so the high end ergonomic office chair cost is going to range between $1000 to $1800 so that appears to be a break even. I suspect that my chiropractic visits aren’t going to just stop but will possibly diminish.
Now I consider that my daily visits to StarBucks is costing me about $5/ day, or another possible $1800 per year. Yikes, I seemed to have overlooked that accumulating expense.
So if I am able to just cut my chiro visits to once per month and drink a dark roast instead of a Cappuccino, I can all of a sudden cost justify the price of a high end ergonomic office chair with at least a few bucks to spare.
Okay, so now I am back to deciding which high end ergonomic office chair is the best for me in terms of comfort, sitting posture and back pain relief.
Do I explore the merits of more support which I can find in traditional office chair designs or less but specific support with more natural movement like the CoreChair?