Backrest

The much-loved Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair was launched in 2012, celebrating the philosophy that sitting is a natural, healthy activity. This office chair was designed to facilitate stretchsitting and stacksitting, two key techniques of the Gokhale Method® that transform sitting into a comfortable activity that heals you rather than hurts you.

The Gokhale® Pain-Free Chair has many features that facilitate the therapeutic techniques of stretchsitting and stacksitting once their principles are understood.

The need for an executive chair design breakthrough 

But some of our students, alumni, and members of the public asked us for recommendations for an equally comfortable executive chair—one that allows for leaning back with neck support. We gave our best guidance on what features to look for, and which to avoid. I also offered Live Chats on sitting and written blog posts about seating options—two examples being How to Choose a Backrest, and Comparing and Contrasting the Herman Miller Aeron Chair and the Gokhale Pain-Free™ Chair.

The Herman Miller Aeron Chair (top left) is a market leader, and there are a myriad of other brands, designs, and specifications to choose from. Images from: The Herman Miller Aeron Chair, The Leap Chair, Litfad Executive Chair, Laporta Executive Chair

The features we consider healthy in an executive chair are rarely all available in one package. Many common features, like lumbar curves which distort the spine, bolsters that round the shoulders forward, and head rests that crane the head forward, are problematic and difficult to work around. 

We are now delighted to be able to offer our own Gokhale® Executive Chair solution.

The Gokhale® Executive Chair

About the Gokhale® Executive Chair

Our regular Gokhale Pain-Free chair works well as a home or office chair, but for a professional working long hours, a well-designed executive chair offers additional, relevant features. For example, it isn’t always practical for a busy executive to take a walk outdoors, lie down on the floor, or relax in a nearby cafe. But they still need to reflect, reset, and refresh.

The Gokhale® Executive Chair provides this. At the pull of a lever, the backrest smoothly angles back and even rocks a little for a profoundly relaxing pause or deep-thinking time.

The reclining function of our chair combines particularly well with cutaways which allow your shoulders to rest back, the stretchsit nubs on the backrest that enable you to gently traction your back, and a headrest that helps to elongate your neck.

We decided to make the Gokhale® Executive Chair a high-end offering. It is crafted in luxurious Italian leather (also available in high-quality fabric) and quality materials for comfort and durability. It has an adjustable headrest, adjustable back height, cutaways in the shoulder area, and my favorite recline function. 

The guiding principles of Gokhale Method design

This chair blends form and function attentively. Its contemporary look belies the fact that its design is based on the timeless principles of healthy human posture. Its purpose is to not only allow you to sit elegantly and comfortably for as long as you wish, but also to bestow all the therapeutic benefits of time spent sitting well.

Most of the executive chairs on the market are designed to appeal primarily to the dictates of fashion. There is a parallel situation with shoe design; fashion does not always respect what is compatible with our structure. Additionally, from a Gokhale Method perspective, chair design often reflects conventional ideas on how to sit, which is also at odds with our natural structure.

Many designers—and consumers—are constrained by well-intentioned but misguided ergonomic principles like the S-spine paradigm. This is why almost all adjustable chairs come with excessive lumbar and neck curvature. Our chair is different because it is shaped by our knowledge of the body’s natural J-spine architecture to provide exceptional comfort and healing. No other executive chair that we know of has a J-spine paradigm informing its design. The Gokhale® Executive Chair is also uniquely compatible with all the posture principles and techniques taught in our comprehensive Gokhale Method courses (the in-person Foundations course, or one-day Pop-up course, or our online Elements course).

Let’s take a close-up look at the posture-enhancing features that enable users to sit in ways that are comfortable and therapeutic.

The Gokhale® Executive Chair works for you so that you can work in comfort.

In the video below Gokhale Method Teacher Sabina Blumauer gives her first impressions of the Gokhale® Executive Chair.

You can order your Gokhale® Executive Chair here.

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like to know which posture changes will help you be pain-free and functional, schedule an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

I frequently get questions about what makes a good office chair. Of course, some office chairs are primarily fashioned for style and aesthetic appeal. In general, I would say these may be easy on the eye, but, over time, hard on the body!

 This office chair sparkles with 1960s retro-chic. However, its markedly concave seat will internally rotate your legs, encouraging malalignment in the hips and knees, and flat feet. Its straight backrest leaves no space for your behind, encouraging you to sit on your tail and tuck your pelvis. lakeland-furniture.co.uk

Ergonomic chairs

People often ask my opinion on how various ergonomic chairs on the market might help them. This makes sense given the rising prevalence of back pain¹. “Ergonomic” means that something is designed primarily for the health, comfort, and protection of users, and among the specific chairs people ask me about, the Herman Miller Aeron Chair tops the list. To answer efficiently, I like to compare and contrast it with the chair I designed, the Gokhale Method Pain-Free™ chair, as this embodies the posture principles confirmed by my research and experience. 

The Herman Miller Aeron Chair. hermanmiller.com

The Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair.

Even though they are both designed to be “ergonomic,” they are clearly very different. The Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair reflects the paradigm shift that underlies the Gokhale Method® philosophy. This makes the chair quite different from every other office chair on the market.

How chairs shape your spine

The Aeron chair has been designed following the conventional wisdom of the S-shaped spine, the “S” being formed by alternating lumbar, thoracic, and cervical curves. Over the last 100 years or so, this shape has become the received knowledge learned by physical therapists, medics, and designers, resulting in chairs whose contours support a significant curve in the lumbar area, and accommodate a thoracic curve in the upper back. From a Gokhale Method perspective this excessive curvature is the primary cause of disc bulges and herniations, nerve impingements, muscular spasms, and the degenerative conditions that cause back pain. 

The Aeron chair is based on the concept of significant lumbar and thoracic curvature being desirable.  hermanmiller.com

The Gokhale Method advocates a J-shaped spine, which is the shape we see in infants and young children, in historical artifacts and photographs, and which still persists in non-industrial societies across the world. The J-spine is especially relevant when sitting upright, where, due to an anteverted pelvis, the behind is behind and the vertebrae of the spine can stack more vertically. We call this stacksitting.

No tensing the back muscles to get upright, no collapsing into a slump—and no alternating between these two problematic positions, which is a common strategy to try and relieve the discomfort they cause. Just comfortable, healthy sitting. You can read more about spine shape here.

Sitting upright at your desk

Both the Herman Miller Aeron Chair and the Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair have a waterfall front (where the seat pan front angles downward), which is ideal for upright sitting. If you know how to arrange your legs and trunk well, this will facilitate pelvic anteversion and all the good things for your spine and general health that come with it. Pelvic anteversion is central to the Gokhale Method and is taught in our in-person Foundations Course, Pop-up courses, or online Elements Course. 

The seat pan of the Aeron chair features a waterfall front in a mesh fabric. Some users may find the adjustment lever under the seat is too close for easy operation when the seat is tilted forward for stacksitting.  hermanmiller.com

I designed the seat pan of my chair using a combination of materials that give optimal support for sitting. The sitz bones need to experience a firm foundation for the pelvis and spine above, but they also need to be padded for comfort. In my experience this combination cannot be equalled or improved on by a single material or mesh fabric.

The seat pan of the Gokhale chair combines materials for optimal support and comfort.

Note that the metal backrest support is curved to accommodate the behind behind, another feature that helps in anteversion of the pelvis. 

To further aid stacksitting the Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair seat pan also has four soft, textured, rubbery nubs sewn into its front edge. These provide grip which help keep your pelvic position, and prevent any slipping off the chair. 

The Gokhale chair seat pan features four nubs which help you to stacksit for upright working at your desk.

Our seat pan is also slightly convex to facilitate external rotation of the legs and feet—that is, it encourages them to gently turn outward. This brings healthy alignment of the hip, knee, and ankle joints, and also the foot arches. A mesh fabric, pulled taut, cannot support external rotation in this way. 

Stacksitting with healthy external rotation of the legs. 

Armrests

Many office chairs come with armrests. It is healthier for the shoulders, which are very mobile joints, not to be continually fixed in position by armrests, however adjustable. Far better to learn to shoulder roll, which encourages range of motion and optimal arrangement in the joint. Shoulder rolls also help adjacent problem areas such as the trapezius muscle, neck, and upper back, and improve circulation to the area. A well-connected shoulder can support the weight of the arm effortlessly as you do your tasks.

Arm rests also create the significant problem of not being able to come close in to the keyboard, thus encouraging rounding of the shoulders. The absence of arm rests allows an almost cockpit like feeling of being surrounded by the desk and keyboard with no temptation to migrate the shoulders forward.

Backrests—traction trumps lumbar support

The Y-shaped feature at the back of the recent models of the Aeron chair has a support for the base of the spine which can be used to support the sacrum in mild anteversion. It also has a lumbar support which is less aggressively curved than that of earlier models. While these are considerable improvements, the mesh back of the Aeron chair is still not able to provide therapeutic length to the spine through traction, as the Gokhale chair does, or space for posterior shoulder placement. Nor does the backrest easily accommodate our trusty Stretchsit® Cushion. 

A contemporary Aeron chair features support for the base of the spine (sacrum) and lumbar area.  hermanmiller.com

The Gokhale chair backrest provides therapeutic length to the lumbar spine with soft, built-in nubs for traction.

Beyond supporting a healthy J-shape in your spine, ideally a backrest would also help tease out any tension in the lumbar area. The Stretchsit Cushion success in improving back shape and reducing back tension has inspired the same successful features in our Pain-Free chair. With a little know-how, these soft textured nubs in the backrest can give you hours of therapeutic traction at your desk, reducing pressure on your spinal discs and nerves, and improving circulation in the surrounding tissues. We call this stretchsitting. 

Are adjustable chairs better?

As consumers we have become increasingly familiar with hi-tech products that we can adjust and customize to meet our individual needs and preferences, and the Aeron chair reflects this throughout its design. 

The Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair requires just one adjustment, and that is the gas lift height adjuster. This is key to the use of the chair, which is designed to be raised for stacksitting so the thighs and pelvis can angle downward, and lowered a little for stretchsitting against the backrest so that the feet can still meet the floor well. The lifting mechanism comes in three different heights, and there is also our Petite Gokhale Method Pain-Free™ Chair, ideal for both smaller people and smaller spaces. 

The Petite Gokhale Method Pain-Free chair gives a range of working heights, and a foot ring. 

Foot rings

One additional feature on our Petite Gokhale chair is a foot ring, which gives more options for foot and leg placement, and prevents legs from dangling and pulling the pelvis into a tuck. It also avoids the constriction to circulation which may occur if the thighs hang over a seat edge.

A foot ring helps take care of the lower body—an area often overlooked in conventional office chairs. 

From a Gokhale Method perspective, adjustments for spinal curves or arm rests are simply not required once the basics of healthy posture are understood. Better to address these fundamentals before going all out on the bells and whistles. This means there’s less to go wrong—with your chair, and your body!

Sitting well is a partnership 

Almost every employer who wants to demonstrate care for their executives finds themselves purchasing a Herman Miller chair. Yet within the budget of an Aeron chair they can buy a Gokhale chair and treat their employee to a one day Pop-up Course or six-lesson Group Foundations Course in the Gokhale Method where they will learn postural skills that last a lifetime.

Healthy sitting is a partnership. It takes a good chair on the one hand, and good posture on the other. With the Gokhale Method Pain-Free™ chair and the Gokhale Method you have the perfect combination.

References:

¹Janet K. Freburger et al., “The Rising Prevalence of Chronic Low Back Pain,” Archives of Internal Medicine 169, no. 3 (Feb. 2009), 251–58, doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2008.543

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, sign up to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…

This blog post is about sitting with a backrest, which could be the back part of a chair, or something added to the chair for additional support and comfort. 

A well-designed backrest can contribute to a healthier back—but a poorly designed one can cause tension and pain. Pexels

Support and relief

Virtually any backrest will give relief that a tired back will appreciate. Support is certainly preferable when we sit for longer periods of time to enjoy reading, TV, a movie, or, if we are lucky, live theater. 

With the trunk slightly inclined against a backrest, there is less compressive force due to gravity acting on the spine. In addition, the trunk stabilizer muscles get a break. When we are driving or traveling by plane or train, a backrest also confers additional protection from vibration or any untoward impact. 

Backrests can certainly improve your comfort but it is also true that many do more harm than good. It makes sense to be discerning about your backrests and to understand the ways in which they can help or hurt.

Shaping your back 

There is unfortunately a significant disadvantage that is built into most modern backrests. A backrest will shape your back as you lean into it and almost all backrests introduce excess curvature, with a significant concave curve in the lower back (lumbar area) and a significant convex curve in the upper back (thoracic area). This is driven by the incorrect paradigm of the S-shaped spine.

This medical illustration of a spine (1990) is S-shaped, displaying the excessive curvature that can result in pinched nerves and compressed intervertebral discs. Traite d'Anatomie Humaine

This spinal shape is considered to be normal (as well as ideal) in today’s conventional wisdom. Physical therapists and medics are taught this S-shape paradigm, which is explained in detail in my book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, and in our blog post Which Shape is Your Spine? 

The S-shaped spine has become the concept that determines the design of our furniture, including backrests for chairs and car seats. 

Most backrests follow the S-shaped spine paradigm and are designed to give “lumbar support.” This creates exaggerated curvature and compression in the lumbar spine.

Office and gaming chair backrests are often engineered with exaggerated contours. These distort the spine’s natural alignment. Such excessive curves curtail the spine’s ability to lengthen.

This style of easy chair has less drastic curves but will still result in some lumbar and upper back distortion; it also pushes the shoulders and head forward. Back2.co

This lounger has a mild thoracic curve which still encourages the upper back to round. 

What you want is a backrest that reflects and promotes the healthy spinal shape that we all enjoyed as toddlers and is still prevalent in many nonindustrialized areas of the world. The shape of a modern letter “J” is a good shorthand to describe this relatively straight alignment of the vertebral column and the pronounced angle at the lumbosacral junction. Unlike the S-shaped spine, there is no exaggerated lumbar sway or thoracic curvature. You can see this shape embodied in the Ubong hunter’s torso shown below. It is J-shaped rather than S-shaped. 

These Ubong tribesmen have a J-spine.

This medical illustration from 1911 more closely depicts the J-shape spine rather than the S-shape of modern conventional wisdom. The only pronounced curve is at the L5/S1 junction at the base of the spinal column.

A backrest with gentle traction

Beyond supporting a healthy J-shape in your spine, ideally a backrest would also stretch your spine, especially in the lumbar area. With a little know-how you can get hours of therapeutic traction into your day, reducing pressure on your spinal discs and nerves and improving circulation in the surrounding tissues. We call this combination of healthy shape and traction stretchsitting.

This schoolboy in Brazil has healthy posture and instinctively uses the backrest to stretchsit, lengthening his spine. 

How to choose a backrest

1. If your chair’s backrest already offers some friction (e.g., textured fabric) and you don’t mind adjusting it when you sit, a folded towel can serve you adequately for stretchsitting. This video will show you how.
2. Our Stretchsit® Cushion creates healthier contours and provides traction with its soft, grippy nubs. It comes with extension straps that hold its position without repeated adjustments.

The Gokhale Method Stretchsit® Cushion comes with adjustable straps and can transform most chairs and car seats.

Teaching stretchsitting with a Gokhale Method Stretchsit® Cushion on a folding chair.

3. The Gokhale Pain-Free™chair is designed to provide healthy contours and traction for stretchsitting. It has the additional advantage of having a built-in wedge, a waterfall front, and other features making it suitable for stacksitting (sitting without a backrest). 

The Gokhale Pain-Free™chair has a custom forged “back upright” (the metal piece that goes between the seat pan and the backrest) to allow your behind to be behind. This allows your spine to have a healthy J-shape. The backrest has sticky nubs sewn into it to provide therapeutic gentle traction.

Free Online Workshop

If you would like to find out more about healthy sitting, including using a backrest, sign up for my FREE Online Workshop.