If your chair is pretty good already, and you don't really want to spend so much on a new chair, you might try going to one of those "back stores" and getting a lumbar support. I've got a Mckenzie superRoll. This gizmo attaches to your chair with an elastic strap. It takes a little while to get used to it, but now I wouldn't trade without it. Might be worth trying for $20-30 before you spend $200-$3000.
I just saw this at the relax the back store, very comfortable and supportive: http://www.humanscale.com/products/freedom_index.cfm you thought the Aeron was expensive, this one is $1300
My back hurts from carrying all these lackey's in my trading room on my shoulders. Ba-dum-dum. Bob Lawbla
I guess the solution really comes down to what is causing GreenDog's back pain. Is it muscular or spinal/vertebrae issues? I had a slightly sore back before in high-school, but it never really bugged me that bad because most of the sports I did like running track and soccer kept the back fairly upright so that the muscles only had to just balance the upper-body's weight over the spin & hips. However, when I went to university and got into cycling and bike-racing, this really brought the weak back-muscles into the forefront. In cycling, you're bent over and the upper-body's weight has to be supported by the back-muscles. In addition, the push from the legs tends to push the body upwards, which then needs to be counteracted by pulling on the handlebars and transmitting that force through the back. Needless to say, within a couple weeks after starting cycling, I was laid out in bed and on painkillers. Recommendations from the doc was to get lots of bed-rest and stay away from activities that pulled my back. Well...this was really just relieving the symptoms and not solving the actual problems: weak back-muscles that can't deal with the loads I was imposing on them. Luckily, we had a sports-center with chiropractors and PTs experienced with cycling injuries. They had me gradually work on flexibility and strength. Lots of stretching and pilates to loosen up the muscles & back during the recovery. Then they had me gently work the lower back muscles in the gym. Simple back-lifts in the roman-chair built up the muscles. After a month, I could get around again without a cane. Then we started on building up strength by hanging onto weights while doing the back-lifts. Eventually I could lift a 50lb weight on the roman-chair. Getting back on the bike after 3-months of recovery and strenght-building was a transformation. I could do 3-4 hour rides now whereas my limit before was just 90-minutes before back-pain made me stop. I could do all-out 100% sprints at speed without worrying about pulling out my back. I ended up having 10 great years of bike-racing and made it to the Olympic Trials in '92 in Washington. So... rather than just "feel-good" relieving of the symptoms that just forces you to "make do" with your weaknesses, my suggestion is to find the actual problem that causes the pain and work on that,
Bundlemaker, Thanks for this post. I hunted the site down at the end of July when the thread was resurrected and found two of his books in our Library system. I used "Pain Free at your PC" which pretty well describes what we do and what I was originally doing when I developed back pain 15 years ago. Not extreme enough for surgery but chronic. 2 weeks of doing the basic "back currently in pain" exercises and I have less pain than I've had in years. Amazing. Having tried chiropractors, months of physio, massage, various exercises, good chairs, kneeling chairs etc etc and not done better than manage the amount of pain I am very pleasantly surprised. I'll post again in a couple of weeks and see if I'm still improving --- with backs lots of things seem to help a bit, for a while, but the real test is time.
Strange, I just realized that I am not subscribed to this or many other threads. Anyway, here is a picture of it. http://www.amazon.com/Aeron-Chair-Posture-Fit/dp/B0006NUB5U This might be an interesting website for people: http://www.spine-health.com/backtalk/res/btb_res_chair.html nitro
I have a geek nerdy looking neck that sticks out like a turkey from staring at the computer screen all these years.