Herman Miller Aeron PostureFit Evolution: Back Pain Prevention?

It could well be that your first question is of the type “What is PostureFit?”

To answer that, we must go back to 1994 and the introduction to the office market of the revolutionary Herman Miller Aeron chair. It received critical acclaim throughout the furniture design world and started a revolution in the office chair design process.

In itself, the Aeron was a total departure from what was expected of a luxuriously comfortable office chair. The norm before this had been a heavily padded chair covered in fabric and to be replaced by Aeron’s semi-transparent Pellicle Weave was completely innovative and in many ways quite daring.

In November of 2000, a new name appeared in the image of ergonomic biomechanics, safety, and comfort in office chairs, through the innovative Herman Miller Inc. That person was Dr. Brock Walker, and he had a vision unique insight into body mechanics and how the skeletal system works. he was able to work with optimal efficiency.

Dr. Walker’s early career as a competitive alpine skier was cut short in 1970 by a serious accident while skiing. This accident drew his attention to the structure of the back and how it can be damaged and how physical therapy and manipulation can alleviate some back problems.

When his downhill racing days were over, he opened a very successful chiropractic clinic.

Eventually his interest turned in particular to the seating area. At the time, one of his patients was an Indy motor racing driver and Dr. Walker became interested in the fact that until then no one had taken much interest in how or what the racing driver actually sat on. .

It was his opinion that the correct seat could produce more efficient driving which, in turn, of course, could improve a driver’s chances of winning, not to mention driver safety. He saw the seat as an exoskeleton around the driver in the same way that a well-designed ski boot wraps around a skier’s foot.

During the following years, Dr. Walker designed many seats for racing cars; Among his clients was Buddy Lazier, who won the Indianapolis 500 while driving with a broken back and shattered pelvis!

His reputation earned him serious contracts even with the US military. Dr. Walker went on to design seats from fighter jets to race cars to marine vessels. His opinion has always been that whether you’re on your way to the upper stratosphere or trying to meet a deadline at your office desk, you’ll meet it faster and better from a seat that provides proper support to areas of her body. that needs it

Research has shown over the years that many office workers tend to slouch forward in their chairs while working on their keyboards. This posture is not good for us at all and can result in a wide range of health problems including, believe me, headaches!

Herman Miller approached Dr. Walker with the idea that he would work with them to overcome some of these modern health problems that plague the sedentary office worker. This was Dr. Walker’s introduction to seating in the form of furniture, but he brought his considerable wealth of specialist seating experience to this pool of design and engineering talent.

Dr. Walker discovered that he held views very similar to the ideals of Herman Miller and it turned out to be a very beneficial relationship. He worked closely with Herman Miller engineers and the co-designer of the Aeron chair, Bill Stumpf, who sadly passed away.

What concerned them in particular was the gap that appears when people lean forward and the resulting stress it places on the lower back. The area between the back of the chair and behind the belt line of the person sitting in it. They coined a term for this as the “void” and looked for ways to deal with it.

The resulting convergence of ideas and design is PostureFit and was originally installed on the classic Herman Miller Aeron chair that was already renowned for its comfort and health.

The addition of PostureFit to this award-winning chair brought Aeron to a new ergonomic standard.

So if you have back pain while working at your office desk, would the introduction of a PostureFit-equipped Aeron chair help alleviate the problem?

Well, I’m certainly not an orthopedic expert and can’t give you a definitive answer, but I think common sense will tell us that lumbar support of one kind or another can only improve this situation.

It’s definitely one of those areas of life where preventive measures are infinitely more preferable than curative, but as we all know, hindsight is a wonderful thing!