Best Ergonomic Chair

To that end, Aeron Office Chairs ''Live Back'' changes shape to mirror the constant, tiny movements between vertebrae. This provides the flexibility and support to make that awkward reverse reaching motion when you pick up something off the floor behind and beside you.

Second, no matter how you sit, the lower back requires constant support to maintain the natural curve of the lower spine. The upper back needs variable support, increasing as you recline. Accordingly, Aeron Office Chairs has separate support controls for the upper and lower back.

Finally, during a recline, existing chairs tilt you away from your ''vision and reach zone,'' the ideal place to see your work without straining your eyes or stretching your arms. I know this scenario all too well. As a vertically challenged worker, I like to lean way, way back (which is easier on the tailbone and discs) and put the keyboard in my lap. But in my Aeron chair, back in my Globe and Mail days, I would gradually recline until I was so far from the screen I had to enlarge the font size so I could read it. Then the phone would ring and I'd snap bolt upright to answer it, whereupon I'd be so close to the screen that the font would be too big.

So imagine my delight at encountering Leap's ''Natural Glide System.'' As you recline, the seat pan glides forward while the armrests and legs stay put. You can lean back without ever leaving your vision-and-reach zone. Your tailbone and discs can have their cake while your eyes and arms eat it, too. And there's no exposed, hard frame to dig into your neck when you recline all the way back, unlike the Aeron, whose narrow, unpadded protuberance puts too much force into a small area.

Steelcase would like to license its Leap technology for automotive and airline use. This would surely raise the ante on seating people comfortably for long periods of time. Perhaps Steelcase could have a little chat with Jack Diamond, architect of Toronto's proposed new opera house.

Teknion's entry in the life-after-Aeron sweepstakes is the Amicus chair, which sells for about a third less than the Aeron and Leap. ''We have come out with basically the same functionality as Leap at a lower price point,'' says Jana Turner, a Teknion seating-product manager. Amicus, while less slim and avant-garde looking than the Aeron, is ''something sleek for the new millennium, with more of a European profile.''

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