Back pain is almost a universal experience in modern America, but shockingly we’re not able to even say what’s causing all this misery.

While it’s unclear where the tsunami of back pain came from, it’s clear that the “lumbar support” offered by ergonomic office chairs hasn’t solved the problem.

Which made our team at QOR360 ask: “What if ‘ergonomic’ chairs aren’t the solution? What if ‘ergonomic’ chairs are actually the problem?”

We’ve now had hundreds of emails, postcards, letters, and videos from people who’ve found that our approach to sitting, active sitting, has largely or completely eliminated their back pain. I’ve heard this story so often now, I’m beginning to believe it. As a lifelong researcher I’m waiting on the double blinded, cross over controlled trials to show active sitting helps with back pain, but such trials are still away off. Back pain is notoriously difficult to study, and longitudinal studies require large sample sizes and are time consuming and expensive to conduct. So, we’ll just have to be patient.

But in the meantime, active sitting, unlike surgery or drugs presents virtually no risk. So, it’s a great approach to try first. If active sitting solves the problem, well, problem solved.

If not, well, just return your chair. There are lots of more expensive and riskier approaches to you can go on to try.