Avoid big-box office supply stores at all costs--the vast majority (if not all) of their chairs are total shit, ergonomically speaking. Same goes for IKEA, Target, etc.
When I was shopping for a chair in college, I picked a handful of well-known manufacturers (Steelcase, Herman Miller, etc), priced out their used goods on eBay and Craigslist, then went to their dealers to try out the same models news. (You can find dealers through the manufacturers' websites.) After waiting a month or so for a good deal to emerge, I wound up nabbing a Steelcase Criterion for about eighty bucks total, which was, in fact, a wicked deal. I was pretty pleased with the chair, but I find that these days, I don't use it very often.
My employer recently bought a bunch of brand new fancy-pants office chairs, and though I can't remember what they're called, I could definitely find out--as chairs go, they're pretty nice. THAT BEING SAID, I and a number of my coworkers eschew chairs entirely, preferring exercise balls. There are also fancy-pants "exercise ball chairs" for which you can pay through the nose, but paying extra for one of those is like paying extra to have a new pair of pants "enhanced" with horse guano and fire: a completely dumb idea.
You can pick up a totally decent exercise ball at Whole Foods for something in the neighborhood of $25. Prana's a very common brand, and I've been sitting on one of their balls for something like a year now with nary a problem. You can probably also find them at Yogalife or Target or Joe's Sports. If you go to Yogalife when a class is not in session, I'll bet they'd let you try sitting on an inflated ball to figure out which size is right for you--you want your knees to be bent around a 90 degree angle or so, maybe a little wider.
You'll feel a little unstable during your first couple of days on the ball, but after that initial period of neuromuscular adaptation, you'll think nothing of it at all. (It's kind of like getting your "sea ass," where the sea is a sphere of stretchy polymer.)
BALLS OVAR ALLZ!!!1!111!1
When I was shopping for a chair in college, I picked a handful of well-known manufacturers (Steelcase, Herman Miller, etc), priced out their used goods on eBay and Craigslist, then went to their dealers to try out the same models news. (You can find dealers through the manufacturers' websites.) After waiting a month or so for a good deal to emerge, I wound up nabbing a Steelcase Criterion for about eighty bucks total, which was, in fact, a wicked deal. I was pretty pleased with the chair, but I find that these days, I don't use it very often.
My employer recently bought a bunch of brand new fancy-pants office chairs, and though I can't remember what they're called, I could definitely find out--as chairs go, they're pretty nice. THAT BEING SAID, I and a number of my coworkers eschew chairs entirely, preferring exercise balls. There are also fancy-pants "exercise ball chairs" for which you can pay through the nose, but paying extra for one of those is like paying extra to have a new pair of pants "enhanced" with horse guano and fire: a completely dumb idea.
You can pick up a totally decent exercise ball at Whole Foods for something in the neighborhood of $25. Prana's a very common brand, and I've been sitting on one of their balls for something like a year now with nary a problem. You can probably also find them at Yogalife or Target or Joe's Sports. If you go to Yogalife when a class is not in session, I'll bet they'd let you try sitting on an inflated ball to figure out which size is right for you--you want your knees to be bent around a 90 degree angle or so, maybe a little wider.
You'll feel a little unstable during your first couple of days on the ball, but after that initial period of neuromuscular adaptation, you'll think nothing of it at all. (It's kind of like getting your "sea ass," where the sea is a sphere of stretchy polymer.)