If you’re seated reading this, I’m sure many of you are sitting cross-legged. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cross-legged chair? Cross-legged is the default posture of millions of people. It just feels so relaxed and much better to sit and tuck your legs under each other, only that you are likely to experience cramps after sitting for long periods in this position. Your knees and calves would hurt because you’ve restricted blood flow to your legs.
Introducing the cross-legged chair
Last year, Health by Design, an American company began retailing Soul Seat, an ingenious creation designed to make sitting cross-legged less painful and more relaxing [1]. This unique piece of furniture features a top perch (adjustable to desired height), a lower platform where you can fold or cross your legs and still maintain optimum blood flow, and detachable legs (for placing the seat directly on the floor). According to the company, this seat helps to improve posture because it “tilts the pelvis forward, opens the hips, and lets the spine align to a comfortable, neutral position”.
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How the chair came to be
“Designer and founder, Pack Matthews, was frustrated with how conventional ergonomic chairs left him in pain and offered no options for changing position while working at the computer,” the company’s website reads. “Collaborating with friends, a physical therapist, yoga instructors, fine woodworkers, and industrial engineers, Pack developed Health by Design’s first product, the Soul Seat.” The design turned out to be so unique and innovative that it has been registered with the US Patent Office.
If you’ve been flunking yoga, this chair might be your way up
Matthews had been trying out yoga before he came up with the Soul Seat’s design and apparently, he’d been an ‘Average Eddy’ at yoga. However, with his new soul seat at the ready, he got more comfortable sitting on the floor, and with time, he found himself killing it at yoga, doing poses he’d never tried out before.
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You’ll never need another chair
“With this product, Pack’s dream of never needing a conventional chair again became a reality. Now he starts his day on his yoga mat, switching to work on the computer, and ending the day stretching on the yoga mat before bed without ever having to use a conventional chair.” According to Matthews, his target audience is comprised mainly of yogis and Malaysians who love to Bersila (sit cross-legged). And luckily, he hit the jackpot because Malaysians are all over this product. Asian natives are usually groomed to sit cross-legged from childhood. A Malaysian artist, AzyanDraws posted a photo of the seat on her Twitter handle and dozens of Malaysians were curious to know if the seat could be shipped to their country. The post went viral and has so far garnered over 42,000 reactions.
Final verdict
You should totally get yourself a Soul Seat – if there’s enough room in your comfort-item budget. These seats are class acts and they don’t come cheap. The regular Soul Seat is priced at $975. The floor model variety retails at $575 while the Bamboo Soul Seat goes for $1,200.
The company explains that depending on how the seats are used, a little wear may be expected over time, as with all kinds of furniture. They come in two material variants which include Primera and Pendleton wool (+250). They are also produced in several unique colors which include black, chalk, merlot, blueprint, grey, marine, and doe. The wooden leg of the Bamboo Soul Seat can be finished in three colors – amber, natural, and wheat.
Reference
- “Someone Created A Chair For People Who Love To Sit Cross-Legged At Their Desk.” Says. May Vin Ang. January 16, 2020.