The Best Chair Is No Chair At All

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Cranz hopes readers “will be inspired to make changes in their own lives, to not be cowed by convention. And I suppose I'd like them to make at least one place where it's comfortable for them to read. And that would mean they'd have to get a place where the book is not sitting flat and they'd have to find a way to sit, ideally in a perch position.”

A not-so-awful traditional chair has a seat height no greater than the top of your knee minus two inches, has a firm-textured surface, is upholstered but no more than an inch deep, and allows a concave butt space between seat and back. If you can't get to a Danish furniture store or can't afford its wares, Cranz advocates “guerrilla ergonomics”: phone books stacked for a footstool, a book wrapped in a towel as a car-seat back.

After all our talk about lousy posture and doomed seats, I stood up, pulled back my shoulders, and told myself that hunching, slouching, dull aches, and numb butts don't have to be. As we said good-bye, Cranz looked me over and handed me a business card—for a local Alexander practitioner. Her message was clear: Decades of bad sitting can't be undone in an hour. But they can be undone.

From East Bay Monthly (Nov. 1998). Subscriptions: $12/yr. (12 issues) from 1301 59th St., Emeryville, CA 94608.

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