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bad_mirror
September 3, 2011 - 9:12am
Permalink
Backjoy
I looked up their website, and found it hard to tell from the pictures if it could be helpful. But I do wonder why anyone would pay $40 for something they have to lug around when they can learn how to sit using their own spine strength. Cheaper & more portable :-) I don't know -- maybe someone else here has used it with positive results?
louiseds
September 3, 2011 - 7:14pm
Permalink
Backjoy
Hi Lillian
I kind of agree with BadMirror. I have a small, cheap, D-shaped lumbar pillow in my car, purchased from an auto parts chain store. It goes with me whenever I have to sit in potentially hostile seats for a long time, eg anything with a seatbelt or insufficient room to adapt to, like Qantas Economy seating, or on the ground at a music festival. It has a zip off cover (which I stash my blowup neck pillow in) and I have sewn on an adjustable shoulder strap to hang over the back of head rests, or a suitcase, or my shoulder. It works for its living.
But, I do not have any special seating in my home. I can adapt any seat with the way I use it. After 7 years I have become so accustomed to noticing when I am sitting on my tailbone and slumping my lumbar spine that I don't need a support at home or in my workplace.
My office chair where I am sitting now is an old, broken one one, which I removed the upholstered back and seat from, and bolted a flat, triangular piece of ply on the base which slopes slightly forward, and an old sofa cushion on top of that. It is just the pedestal and gas lift (if it still worked) If I don't have a back rest I have to sit up to make my posture work, which it does. Keeping my upper spine back I can relax my shoulders and balance perfectly.
At work I have been given a non standard chair (from the old furniture stash, doesn't match the colour of the others, is a bit tatty, but better quality than the newer, matching seats) which has a seat slope adjustment, and which has relatively flat upholstery, so it doesn't push my thighs together. I also use one of those dropdown keyboard shelves, which I can adjust to the correct height so my forearms are > 90 degrees to my upper arms.
Keep both feet planted about shoulder width apart and adjust your seat height so there is a slight downward slope on your thighs, then get your keyboard at the right height. Then adjust your monitor so you don't have to crane your neck forward and up to see the top of the screen.
I have glasses that have three different zones of focus, and I have to view my screen through the bottom half of the lenses, so my monitor needs to be quite low (top of screen at mouth level, rather than at eye level). If you have one of your bits of hardware at the wrong height and it cannot be adjusted, eg desk height for your monitor and keyboard, then you just have to adjust everything else to match it. There is a lot you can do with old phone books or a low, wide platform for your feet, eg a couple of house bricks and a plank, or a monitor that has adjustable height, that you can push right down to suit your neck. I also sit on the front of my chair so I am not tempted to lean back on the back. This means my body is always working to keep my posture right, so it is in my control. The posture people at work get a bit thingy about me sitting on the edge, but they can see that my spine is probably in a better shape than anyone else's, so they respect that I am mindful of my posture, and can see why I do it, though they don't endorse it.
It so annoys me in big companies, when all the Staff have finally found a chair that suits them and their desk, and management comes along and tells them that "they are all very lucky because the company is replacing all the chairs with nice, stylish new ones that are all the same, and have good lumbar support, so you can be comfy anywhere in the company". Unfortunately, to ensure that everyone gets a new chair they got one model down which does not have a seat slope adjustment.Sigh. Everyone is back to the drawing board, and that is why they have products like Backjoy!! So people can have (often at their own expense), a chair to sit in 38 hours a week that is different from everyone else's. Go figure.
As soon as you lean your shoulders back on the back of a seat they are fixed in space, so you are unable to use your fine balancing muscles to keep your shoulders in the right place in space. So you relax against the back. The first thing to go is that your chest will collapse, then your lumbar curve. Nah! Using your muscles is how you keep them strong. So, use 'em!
If you have a particularly hostile chair at your workplace, that you cannot replace with a stool that has an adjustable seat and seat height, or one you can work with, then I think a Backjoy might have application for you, but so will my cheap little d-cushion, or a blowup pillow that you can stash in your desk drawer at home time, if you have to. If someone pinches it for themselves, just stick a pin in it while they are using it. That won't happen again. You can stick a gob of silicon mastic on the hole and get it back into use mighty quick. Get creative.
Louise ;-)