Embody Gaming final update
Update from https://www.reddit.com/r/hermanmiller/comments/1s8hyz8/embody_gaming_thigh_pressure/ (one week in) and https://www.reddit.com/r/hermanmiller/comments/1sx86w0/embody_gaming_lower_back_pain/ (a month in).
After three months with the chair, it has finally become comfortable and sitting in it is a seamless experience. One of my major issues all throughout, aside from the ache/pain in my lower back, was that I could not stop thinking about it and diagnosing how I was feeling every time I was in it. At one point I even tried to have it exchanged with an Aeron, but HM Europe are adamant that they will not accept returns or exchanges beyond the two week return period, which is fair play, it is stated clearly on their website. Thankfully nowadays I simply forget about how it feels to sit in it, as it is just there in the background, a comfortable experience.
In terms of what I did: I wasted so much time chasing wild geese, thinking in terms of adding more lumbar support or lessening it. This was pointless, the chair isn't designed like that. What matters is ensuring perfect alignment of the backrest with the curve of your back. What eventually worked, and this was quite a shameful realisation, was simply following HM's instructions from the Embody manual on how to set the backrest (page 4 of https://www.backstore.com/pdf/Embody-Adjustments.pdf).
I start by setting the backrest fully upright, which strongly pushes my shoulders forward, forces me to look downwards to the floor and creates a gap around my middle back that I can slouch into. With my back against the backrest, I turn the knob counter-clockwise, relaxing the backrest until my back and spine are in full contact with it and my eyes are level with the screen. Now I can't slouch anymore and if I were to try to squeeze a hand between my back and the backrest anywhere along the spine, I couldn't. From there, I adjust the tilt tension based on preference. I've ended up with a tension setting that makes the backrest quite flexible, which allows me to sit in perfect comfort while upright, but also makes reclining slightly too easy. I'd say this is a flaw of the chair, that the tilt tension adjustment controls both the feel of the backrest and the recline resistance.
I also had a lot of hip issues because I was incorrectly angling my pelvis, possibly putting myself in an anterior pelvic tilt position by really shoving my (relatively large) butt all the way into the gap at the back. Since then, I've learned that the butt is indeed meant to be in contact with the bottom part of the backrest, but I also need to be conscious of actually sitting on my sit bones. Put together, these two elements prevent the pelvis from angling downwards or upwards.
The rest of the adjustments are much easier to figure out and I had them locked in a long time ago:
- seat height set so that the knees form a 90 or slightly higher degree with the thighs
- seat depth set so that there is anywhere between a 2 to 4 finger gap between it and the knees
- armrests set so that the shoulders aren't sagging nor lifting up
I use the headrest when reclining in the last two tilt limiter positions and I sometimes use the footrest as well when relaxing (I got the one from Libernovo, it's pretty nice). When sitting upright, I don't use either of them.
Hopefully someone will find my experience useful and end up spending much less time looking for the perfect configuration for this chair.
