Like nearly every other white-collar worker I know, I spend eight hours a day seated in a chair and staring at a computer. When one position comprises half of your waking life, it better be comfortable. Like many of my computer-staring friends, I also work from home, which means my eight-hour chair will necessarily feature prominently in the decor of my apartment.
Here’s the dilemma I found myself facing: Since ergonomic chairs tend to be both expensive and hideous, trying to create an ergonomically healthy work environment would wreak havoc on both my budget and the feng shui of my living room. (I live in New York, so my office is the living room and the dining room and also the kitchen.) If I didn’t disfigure my apartment, I would disfigure my back.
Or so I thought, until I started tooling around on the internet and discovered the Easy Posture Lumbar Back Support Mesh. The device borrows its strategy from the wildly popular (but unpleasantly stern-looking) Herman Miller Aeron chair, the office status symbol that says, “Someone cares enough to spend a grand on my spine.” Much like the Aeron, the Easy Posture sports a bouncy nylon mesh stretched over a light wire frame, and, as opposed to a shapeless pillow, it comfortably curves into the lower back near the base of the spine. It’s a gentle nudge to sit up straight and can be strapped onto the chair of your choice — and, most critically, removed whenever you want. Like, say, when you’re entertaining guests whom you wish not to know you as the sort of person who requires lumbar support. (Of course, I’ve now blown my cover. I’m martyring my cool for you, reader.)
Before Easy Posture, I spent the seated portion of my day hunched in a ball. At the end of those days, I felt as though I was two inches shorter than when I started. But like a classic before-and-after, now I’m standing taller and feeling great — so great that, when my work day ends, I can stay right here and watch Netflix for hours.
Drop the BackJoy SitSmart Posture Plus onto any seat — from cushy desk chair to kitchen stool — to lift your tailbone up over your butt. It comes in all of the primary colors, plus purple and orange.
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