As a teacher of the Alexander Technique(1), 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 Ergonomics.org website at http://www.ergonomics.org explores the relationship between the science of ergonomics and the benefits of Alexander Technique training.
Robert Rickover is an Alexander Technique teacher living in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also teaches regularly in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Fitness Without Stress - A Guide to the Alexander Technique and is the creator of The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique website at http://www.alexandertechnique.com
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