So Jay, in summary, you need a five castor orange box adjustable to stool height for your sit down/stand up workstation, with integrated rowing machine, power ball, ball for under your feet, yoga/pilates area, and you should expect to spend from $5 to $1000. The chair should/should not have a back and be interchangeable with your daughter's chair when the foam goes flat. You need a Microsoft natural keyboard and a kitchen timer, roses to smell and a small jogging track around your studio/editing room.

Seriously though, distilling the advice from those with back problems, we all said the chair is not as important as moving around a bit and the position of your monitor. Personally, I'm going to look into one of those natural keyboards.

I think Brian was right on in the advice about keeping forearms horizontal. Years back when I first started doing a lot of "mousing" my back would get sore. I had already figured out that I needed a keyboard tray to keep my arms in alignment. The problem is that most keyboard trays are only big enough for the keyboard. This meant that the mouse was on the desktop and I had to reach up and forward to use it. Not good.

I drilled some holes and added and extension on the keyboard tray to hold my mouse pad. With my arms aligned properly and armrests at the same level as the keyboard tray the back problems went away.

Here, now, I have built my own extra-wide keyboard tray to hold the keyboard and mouse pad.

I also like a lot of lower back support. Most chairs I have tried don't have enough in the lower-back region to satisfy me. The chair I am using now, I have been using for over 5 years. I bought it pretty cheap at Office Max, but I tried before I bought. Most of the stuff I tried there was crap. This one chair was a closeout, I think.

Sit in the chair for a couple minutes minimum. If anything seems the least bit wrong for you, it probably is.

Richard, what a summary. LOL I think you may have hit on something!

Many thanks to all those who took time to answer! There is a plethora of information and several chuckles along the way.

I had to raise my monitors up onto that shelf. The top edge of the screen glass is at eye level.

I had horrible head and neck pain until I raised the monitors up. As soon as I did, it all went away.

To each his/her own, I guess.

Rob Mack

Moving around is key. I'd suggest one of those baseball pitching machines pointed at you so that you have to duck and bob a bit during the day.

Or maybe bees, lots of bees...

For monitor height, try to get them mounted in a sort of Calder mobile structure so that the screens are never in the same place twice.

We're all just trying to be helpfull.

Rob Mack

I haven't read all the posts, but I edit in an old wooden captains chair and dumped my lumbar support office chair.
The #1 thing that has helprd me, was to stop using my reading glasses to edit. I had another pair made with full lense, longer focal length, and my neck, shoulder, arm aches disappeared. Reading glasses generally focus within 27", my new ones are in the 30"-36" range. John

I'm partial to the Aeron chair (and I'll ditto the sentiment that this chair may not be for everyone). There are two great things about the Aeron:
1. There are 3 sizes to choose from (A=small; B=medium; C=large). The Healthy Back Store in my area usually has B and C sizes in stock so you can go in and try them out. (if you custom order it, you get choice of color too, but that doesn't help your comfort much...)
2. The mesh is breathable, so there's no excessive overheating / sweating in the warmer months (no, I do NOT sweat a lot!)

It has the typical full array of adjustments, including adjustable arm height.

If you're gonna get one, and you know the size to get, you should be able to get a great deal on eBay.

Have fun choosing!

I hope you'll let us know which chair you choose in the end. After reading all the threads, I won't be surprised if it IS an orange crate - but at the "proper" height and with casters, of course!

lili

I guess I shouldn't have told you about that Vette chair, it's so comfortable you will not want to edit, just play around.

JJK

I haven't found any chairs that by themselves do the job but there are plenty of chiropractic lower back supports that you can place on the chair that do a great job. I use them on all my PC chairs and also for driving.

I'd certainly agree with what some others have said. Excercise, or at least a 30 minute walk every day makes a huge difference for me (not just my back but shoulders too). Another thing that helps for me is changing positions; everything from not using the back rest and keeping my back straight to leaning back (in one of those Officemax "executive" chairs) and using a wireless keyboard and mouse.
FWIW,
Randy