Posted on 25th May 2011 @ 5:50 PM

Back pain sucks.

Especially if you have to haul around a huge transparent Frisbee all day.

It seems to invade every inch of a victim’s daily life. It can be so debilitating that it can drive sufferers to try all kinds of outlandish techniques to alleviate it. Some even resort to a relatively new product called a kneeling chair.

First, a bit of clarification: a kneeling chair is not some regular-looking chair that you kneel instead of sit on. Nor is it a contraption that resembles a medieval torture device.

This chair is probably not good for your back, either.

A kneeling chair is basically a stool with little or no back support that is attached to a raised, tilted pad that sits about knee level. The idea is to place your knees on the pad and rest your buttocks on the seat. But the kneeling chair is angled so that most of your weight is on your legs and knees instead of your lower back.

Looks like fun, huh?

As you can see, the awkward-looking position of the kneeling chair is a concern for some people who worry that they will be uncomfortable. But there are lots of people who have tried kneeling chairs and swear by them. One Chicago man with back trouble reports that after he adjusted the chair to his body type, he could “write for six hours a day with little to no discomfort.” A Milwaukee woman with two injured lumbar discs likes her kneeling chair because it is sturdy, portable, and easy to assemble. And a person from Imperial Beach, California claims that it “made my lower back pain disappear.”

On the other hand, there are quite a few individuals who were not as impressed with their kneeling chairs. An Australian man put it this way: “You'll be distracted from your back pain by the new knee pain.” A German man concurred, noting that it “hurts your legs more than it does good for your back.” And a man from Ventura, California pointed out that because many kneeling chairs are only designed to support people weighing less than 200 pounds, they are “(n)ot a good choice for a man of any size or bulk.” Finally, some users have reported that the bolts on their kneeling chairs have worked loose, causing the products to collapse or topple over.

A very cheap kneeling chair.

Kneeling chairs come in a wide range of prices - from $160 at the low end to more expensive products which cost $1100 or more. So some people are understandably wary of shelling out a substantial amount of cash for something that may not even work for them.

Perhaps the best advice on kneeling chairs would be to try other (less expensive) approaches to alleviating back pain first. These may include stretching exercises, yoga, switching to a standard ergonomic chair, making height adjustments to your existing office furniture, or even chiropractic care. But if your back continues to hurt despite your best efforts, then ask your doctor or chiropractor to recommend a kneeling chair that’s right for you.