What’s the best chair for someone with neck pain?

Customer: What chair do you recommend for my neck pain?

C.C. (Colm Campbell): The best type of chair, particularly for you with a neck problem, is a recliner. It’s really three chairs in one. You probably sit upright then, like the majority of men, after a period of time you get uneasy and start shifting from one buttock to the next until eventually your bottom moves forward in the seat and away from any support in your lumbar spine. This position puts great stress on your neck.

Customer: How the hell do you know that?

C.C.: I’ve been observing this for many years. Most women can sit for several hours at a time without moving. Men start fidgeting about after a much shorter period.

Customer: Why?

C.C.: I think women have better designed undercarriages. Anyway, when you get the squirming urge, in a recliner you just simply tilt the chair back. This relieves the uneasy feeling by transferring pressure to a different part of your body. And so on.

Customer: Yeah. But hang on. By doing this isn’t the S tilted to a different angle?

C.C.: Without sounding condescending, that’s a very intelligent question. You’re absolutely right. But look at the Swedish diagram again. The more you go to a reclining position the less the stress becomes. With the recliners we make, as you move from one position to the next, the spine and thighs are fixed. They don’t move relative to each other. So no matter how you sit you are always in the S position.