Home » » Stress Relief » Chairs, Posture, Ergonomics and the Alexander Technique

Chairs, Posture, Ergonomics and the Alexander Technique

© Robert Rickover

As a teacher of the Alexander Technique, I am frequently asked about chairs by my students and about which designs are best. Some have been given very expensive, ergonomically-designed chairs at work and wonder if they are actually any better than ordinary ones. Others complain about their car seats, or about the curved plastic chairs often found in waiting rooms and in many airport lounges.

It is certainly true that some chairs are a lot more comfortable than others, and that some chairs make it easier to have a healthier upright posture. But even if you could find the "perfect chair", you could hardly carry it around with you all day long. Sooner or later, you would be confronted with a choice between standing or sitting in a less than desirable chair.

From an Alexander Technique perspective, looking for the "perfect chair" is an exercise in futility. It is our body that sits in a chair, and if we want to improve our comfort and health, our primary attention must be directed at improving our own functioning - that is, what we do with our own body when we sit.

It's a sort of "bad news, good news" situation: The bad news is that we can't blame our aches and pains on our furniture. As the cartoon character Pogo once remarked, "We have met the enemy and they is us!" The good news is that we have it within our power to change the way we sit and, in fact, we can learn how to sit well in virtually any situation that presents itself to us.

The Alexander Technique is a very powerful method of learning to do just that. It teaches you ways to direct your body so that you can have an easy upright posture in virtually any sitting situation you find yourself in.

But what about those expensive ergonomically-designed chairs? Won't they insure good seating posture at least during the time you're using them?

I'm afraid the answer is "no". It's entirely possible to slouch, or distort your body in other ways while using these chairs. An ergonomist colleague of mine tells me that offices around the country are littered with unused very expensive chairs (and other furniture items) because they didn't seem to help.

In fact, some ergonomic designs are positively harmful. When I lived in England, training to become an Alexander Technique teacher, I often had occasion to use the British Rail system. I soon noticed three distinct types of seats: older, very basic, seats with padded flat bottoms and backs; somewhat newer seats (from the 1950's and 60's) that had a forward bend in the seat backs; and some quite new seats that combined an exaggerated bend with a forward-protruding head rest.