Chair for parents of toddlers

 Images Salubrion-ChairAs the parent of a two-year-old, I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting on the floor, playing with her. After about five minutes, my back and hips are stiff and burning. The Salubrion Chair, designed to support your lumbar, looks like it might be just the ticket. Of course, I'll have to buy two of them, because my daughter will insist on sitting in it when we play.
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Reader comment: Jenn says: "About a year or so ago, I got rid of my desk and chair and set up office at a coffee table on the floor. I use a traditional zafu meditation pillow to provide the same kind of support the Salubrion Seat does. Made from cotton canvas and filled with lentils, the zafu is a far more environmentally friendly option than anything made from dyed molded plastic. (Though admittedly not as cool looking.) It also allows for a greater variety of sitting positions, important to avoid the burning sensations in the hips and knees. I spend four or five hours a day sitting on the floor now.

"I switched to sitting on the floor after reading a piece in a yoga magazine about how weak and underutilized westerners' lower back and stomach muscles are from receiving the constant support of our expensive ergonomic chairs. I can definitely report that after so many months, my back and stomach are stronger and I've become far more flexible in my hips and knees. It's not always comfortable, but that's a good thing as well. Sitting at a computer all day often seems to make us numb to our own bodies. Working in this way, I find I can only ignore my body in ten-minute increments and then I have to shift.

"I should add that it's a very bad idea for people with weak knees or back. Even I go and sit at my dining table or at a cafe at least a day a week. Too much of anything is never good."

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Reader comment: ToddZ says: "Hey Mark, I just noticed the floor-chair article, and reader Jenn's response.

"A while back I discovered another alternative for better seated posture. Sissel makes those inflated excercise balls that you see in the Pilates commercials, and they also advocate sitting on them as a chair replacement. The constant slight body position adjustments it requires serve to strenghen the back and torso muscles. Replacing my office chair with a big rubber ball was just a tad extreme for me, so I opted for the Sitfit, another product from Sissel. It looks like a fat inflated frisbee, and you simply drop it on your current chair and sit away! It causes the same kind of mandatory good posture as sitting on the ball does, and is much less obvious. I found it very effective, so I like to spread the word.

Reader comment: Peter Orosz says: "The office where I work is crammed with hideous office chairs and people with back pain constantly booking chiropractor appointments. Kati is a biker girl who sits next to me on a big purple ball she got on her physiotherapist's advice after she had to get lower back surgery. For a while, it was her single ball in a sea of office chairs, then last week, another girl got a ball and now there's a list of some 30 people signed up to get big rubber balls to sit on, which should make the office look rather Googleesque. I'm getting one myself after giving Kati's ball a try and liking the fact that I have to constantly readjust my sitting position. My intervertebral muscles can't wait."