The ProtoArc Flexer Pro is comfy, adjustable, and affordable. I’m sitting in it right now.
Photo by Ivan S on Pexels.com
I spend altogether too much time sitting in an office chair. I have done this work long enough to know that the chair I choose to sit in is one of the most important decisions I make about my health, physical comfort, and happiness. I’d love to drop a fortune on this and get a deluxe ride from Herman Miller. But, instead, I found the best Aeron chair alternative, and I love it.
There is a saying about mattresses: You spend half your life lying on one. Get a good one. This is even more true of the chair you sit in when you work.
The key to a great office chair is adjustability. It has to fit your body. It has to move with you when you move. It has to encourage you to move. And it has to support you when you are focused and not thinking about moving.
For many people, the epitome of the perfect office chair is the Herman Miller Aeron. It was one of the first office chairs to be built with a serious eye to ergonomics. It is a great chair. It costs a fortune, though.
You don’t have to pay over $2000 to get that level of adjustability, lumbar support, and comfort. I found the best Aeron chair alternative.
The ProtArc Flexer Pro I am sitting in right now is agile, adjustable, supportive, and affordable.
The armrests are nearly infinitely adjustable
Everything adjusts. The angle, seat depth, height, and even the level of lumbar support. One place where many — even those that claim to be the best Aeron chair alternative — office chairs fail to adjust — the armrests — is handled beautifully in the Flexer Pro. Both armrests move forward and back, up and down, and in and out. They even pivot.
Often, the first pain you experience when sitting is in the lower back. I fight this with movement. I get up every hour, at least. And I move as much as possible when I’m sitting.
This chair approached the problem with an adjustable lumbar support to support to that fragile area. Two pieces adjust to create a custom support that fits your back. This adjustable support is embedded into a breathable mesh back that lets your back breathe as you work.
It’s very comfortable. I never sit long enough, at a stretch, to let my lower back suffer. But if you have a bad back, this could be a lifesaver.
The seat is obviously important. Bad seats are one reason that there is such a large aftermarket for seat cushions.
The seat in the Flexer Pro is a comfortable, breathable foam. It is not as soft as some chairs I have owned. But it is soft enough. And its firmness encourages me to stand up and move about. I find that getting too comfortable in a chair leads to long, uninterrupted work sessions, which are bad for my health in many ways. To combat this, I stand up — either to walk around or to work standing. I have reminders for this. But I often ignore them if I am on a roll. There is no better reminder than, “My ass hurts. I have to stand up.” This might sound like a criticism of the chair. But I’m serious. I actually demoted a chair with a softer seat out of my office and into another workspace because this seat makes me stand up more often.
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Getting the tilt right
I won’t sit in a chair that doesn’t let me dial in the way it tilts back and forth. I work, often, with my feet up on a foot cushion. But I also sit upright, with the chair supporting my back.
It’s important to me to have a variety of seat position options in the chair I commit to. This chair moves with me, and lets me adjust the tilt, the reclining tension, and the depth of the seat. Once I got it set right, it sits up when I do and reclines with me. This is often the only thing many other affordable ergonomic office chairs tackle. It is essential. This one gets it right.
The chair arrives in pieces, but it’s easy to assemble. It comes in black or white. It’s attractive and easy to move around your office.
And at less than $300, this is, I think, among the best of the best aeron chair alternatives.
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