Padmasana on an Office Chair

[Guest guest]

Jim, that sounds interesting. My current chair is

just about done in -- I'll agitate for a seat like

yours as a replacement.<br><br>By the way, how's

ashtanga in Columbia since Tim's workshop?<br><br>Homer

[Guest guest]

Hi Homer,<br><br>I hope you can find a chair. If

you have a hard time figuring out how to tilt the

seat, I could email you a picture of the way I modified

mine.<br><br>Ashtanga in Columbus is very good. Good people and good

teacher. Unfortunately I don't get there very often

because of a mere 60 miles.<br><br>Namaste,<br><br>Jim

[Guest guest]

Now if anyone wants to get really radical, I'll

tell you what I did back when I had an office job. I

actually built a wooden platform, about 30" square and 15"

high and replaced my office chair with that. I'm not

quite able to get into lotus but I spent a lot of time

in half-lotus and also found that it was even

comfortable just to sit on the edge of the platform. Overall,

it seemed better than using the standard "ergonomic"

office chair. Eventually I went back to the regular

chair but that job was over soon after anyway. Later I

took my recliners out of my living room and used this

platform as my living room chair. I was just going to try

this as an experiment for a few days but wound up

using it for over two months. Have since replaced the

recliners, but I note that there is no possible way to sit

in them with any kind of correct posture. Perhaps I

will get rid of them someday. In reading the Sorehannd

mailing list, which is concerned with carpal tunnel

syndrome and other hand problems, I find a lot of

discussion about chairs and how to sit in them. This is a

big concern with Feldenkrais work and Alexander

Technique. Most books on those subjects talk a lot about how

to get in and out of a chair. I have been waiting

for a book to show up on eBay - The Chair by Galen

Cranz, which I think is a detailed look at chairs and

the associated ergonomics.<br><br>I was very

interested in post 9324 by takeitup_2000 in which he says

this:<br><The best hip opener IMO is sitting on the floor as

much as you can in baddha konasana, use a small pillow

under your tail. Another is to just squat on the floor

w/ feet shoulder width or a little wider. Alternate

between the two during the evening. After you're

comfortable sitting this way for hours, the hips will

probably allow most postures with comfort.><br><br>I

think a lot of people hurt their knees trying to get

into lotus. And it takes a while to understand that

the knees are not where the problem is, the hips are

what have to open. And squatting is a very basic

posture that humans throughout history have spent a lot

of time in, until recently. I think it is good to

explore variations on squatting. My teacher used to have

us squat for a minute or so as a warmup before

starting the class.<br><br>Some say the goal of asana

practice is to create a "comfortable seat".