The 10 Best Office Chairs for Sciatica Pain
Whether you’re working from home or going into an office five days a week, today’s work environment isn’t the most conducive for those with back pain — especially lower back pain. Prolonged sitting can make your lower back pain even worse and cause sciatica, a common condition that can be relieved through consistent stretching and physical activity, but one that can be irritating and even painful if left untreated.
In addition to physical activity, you can help alleviate your sciatica issues by using an office chair with the proper ergonomics. As you can imagine, several manufacturers have found a market for those dealing with sciatica and other back issues, resulting in a number of chairs on the market today.
We’ve done the research to help you find the perfect office chair for sciatica for any budget.
Here are the top 10 best office chairs for those dealing with sciatica:
The Best Office Chairs for Sciatica
- Duramont Office Chair – Best Under $300
- Sihoo M18 – Budget Pick
- Steelcase Gesture – Editor’s Pick
- Secretlab NeueChair – Best Value
- Secretlab Titan – Best Gaming Chair
- Herman Miller Aeron – Best Mesh
- Herman Miller Embody – Best for Piriformis Syndrome
- Fully Hag Capisco – Most Ergonomic
- La-Z-Boy Delano – Best Executive Office Chair
- DRAGONN by VIVO – Best Kneeling Chair
Duramont Office Chair – Best Office Chair for Sciatica Under $300
The Duramont Ergonomic Office Chair is the on the best values in terms of price vs performance on the market offering excellent build quality, adjustability and comfort.
Read our full Duramont Office Chair Review
For a chair priced under the $300 level, the Duramont Office Chair is packed with a variety of adjustments to support your lower back and keep you productive during the day.
Let’s dive into some of its features:
- Recline. Those dealing with sciatica pain need a chair that can recline a bit and the Duramont delivers in that category. The back also has a sliding adjuster to perfectly give you some lumbar support where you need it most.
- Mesh back. Any chair with mesh backing does a great job of keeping your back cool — even if your office or home runs a bit hot during the warmer seasons.
- Great warranty. For such an affordable chair that you can buy on Amazon, Duramont offers a great five-year warranty. The company touts the quality of the materials used to build its chair that it’s confident you won’t have to use the warranty. Additionally, if you don’t like this chair, you can return it with no questions asked within 90 days.
In terms of weight capacity, the Duramont Office Chair can support someone who weighs up to 330lbs., which is a great capacity in this price range.
Owners of this chair have praised its ease of assembly. They say the roller wheels are super smooth. And the overall comfort is excellent.
Now, it’s not perfect. Some have argued the design of the back can feel a little odd. The seat cushion might also push up between your legs, depending on your height. But for the price, you can’t beat Duramont’s option.
Sihoo M18 – Best Cheap Office Chair for Sciatica
Read our SIHOO Office Chair Review
For those experiencing lower back pain, but who also have a tighter budget for a new office chair, the Sihoo M18 is an excellent choice with minimal compromises.
Sure, it doesn’t look as sleek as the more expensive Steecase or Herman Miller options, but the number of adjustments on this chair allow you to custom tailor it to your lower back needs.
First, let’s talk about the mesh back. If you tend to run warmer, you’ll appreciate how this chair keeps your cooler throughout the work day. The tight mesh also aids in back support, offering the perfect amount of give.
The adjustable tilt tension features a wide range of seating angles, allowing you to hone in a seating position that best supports your individual back.
One downside are the adjustable arms. They go up and down, but don’t swivel for full 360-degree control. Some have also argued that the armrests don’t come down low enough for complete comfort.
With a 250lbs weight capacity, this chair also can’t hold as much weight as its more expensive counterparts. The chair itself only weighs 28lbs, making it one of the lighter chairs on our list.
For the money, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better chair. So, if you’re willing to deal with some of this chair’s shortcomings, then by all means buy one today.
Steelcase Gesture – Best Overall Office Chair for Sciatica
The Steelcase Gesture is the company's top-of-the-line ergonomic office chair. It's a premium chair featuring excellent build quality, adjustability, and comfort.
Read our Steelcase Gesture Review
When it comes to office chairs, you can’t go wrong with any product from the luxury brand Steelcase. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company is the go-to pick for office chairs and other furniture pieces, including desks and storage.
The Steelcase Gesture is the brand’s flagship office chair. It’s a great option for those dealing with sciatica because it offers a range of motions and contours to the spine like a glove. Even better, the headrest is adjustable to keep your neck and upper back in a comfortable, stable position. And when your neck and upper back are straight and secure, your lower back will also be in a suitable position to help alleviate — or at least stabilize — sciatic pain.
The Steelcase Gesture comes in a bevy of beautiful colors. It’s on the heavier side at 72.8lbs, but it can support up to 400lbs, which is quite impressive.
Here are some other things we like about the Gesture:
- Beautiful design. Steelcase is known for modern designs that make office furniture stand out in the crowd. The Gesture is no different, featuring sleek lines and top quality materials.
- Ships fully assembled. Office chairs aren’t exactly difficult to put together, but they can take time due to their size and weight. The Gesture comes ready to sit in the box.
- Adjustable arms. While this doesn’t necessarily help with sciatic pain, it’s a game changer in terms of overall comfort. The Getsure 360 arm moves like a human arm and can essentially be set in any position — perfect for all-day typing.
The Gesture is on the higher end of the pricing spectrum, as are most products from Steelcase. But if you’re upgrading your home office, or if human resources is letting you splurge for a new chair at the office, you can’t go wrong with the Steelcase Gesture.
Secretlab NeueChair – Best Value Office Chair for Sciatica
The Secretlab NeueChair is engineered to be the ultimate modern computer chair—fully ergonomic, intuitive to use, comfortable.
Read our full NeueChair Review
With an impressive 12-year warranty and 49-day satisfaction guaranteed return policy, the Secretlab NeueChair goes beyond our choice for best value — it’s a no brainer to at least try out.
The folks at NeueChair engineered this piece of equipment to be the “ultimate modern computer chair.” It’s fully ergonomic and quite easy to use. And, honestly, it just looks really nice.
The secret sauce in this chair is its ability to not just allow you to sit comfortably, but also balance your body naturally.
It’s also really simple to use thanks to the company’s ControlShift Adjustments, which allow you to change the height of the chair and unlock its backrest with levers conveniently located under the armrests.
For those who suffer from sciatica, the lumbar support on this NeueChair is simple, but effective. Simply adjust the sliding back piece to suit the curvature of your spine.
Compared to other chairs in higher and lower price rangers, the NeueChair has a relatively low weight capacity at about 250lbs. Additionally, the chair’s seat is a tad narrow, which could make it uncomfortable for those with larger frames.
For most people, though, this is the best office chair to help with sciatica for your money. The materials it’s built with are extremely high quality and it has a nice modern look to it.
Secretlab Titan – Best Gaming Chair for Sciatica
The Secretlab Titan is a premium gaming chair that offers top-notch build quality, adjustability, comfort, various design options, and multiple size options.
Read our full Secretlab Titan Review
If you deal with sciatica, work from home and like to game at night once your work is done for the day, the award-winning Secretlab Titan is a great option to support your back and prevent your pain from getting worse.
The Titan is a competitively priced chair depending on your choices in material. There’s a $500 difference between a baseline leather and a more premium NAPA leather. Priced in between the two there’s also a very nice looking SoftWeave fabric option. And then Secretlab gives you three different color choices on top of those material options.
This chair is designed for those between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet 7 inches and who weigh 290lbs or less, which is a nice range that will accommodate most people.
Secretlab’s, well, secret for great support and comfort is its patent-pending cold cure foam mix. The unique manufacturing process results in just the right amount of firmness to help with your overall posture, but provides enough cushion for outstanding comfort.
I’m really impressed by the hardware on this chair. It not only looks sleek, but it performs really well. Every pull of a lever or pressing of a button feels firm and solid. This is especially true in the 4D armrests, which are completely made of metal. This mechanism allows you to swivel and lift the armrests in any direction, to help you find that optimal position.
In terms of dealing with Sciatica, the Titan employs its signature memory foam pillows that do a great job at supporting your neck and lower back.
This chair can also recline back 165 degrees, while supporting your lower back.
While it may be a tad more expensive than other office chairs to deal with your sciatica, there’s not really anything else too negative about this chair.
Herman Miller Aeron – Best Mesh Office Chair for Sciatica
The Herman Miller Aeron is one of the most iconic ergonomic office chairs ever made. It's best-in-class build quality, adjustability, and comfort make it ideal for any home office or gaming setup.
Read our Herman Miller Aeron Review
When you see the name Herman Miller, you know you’re looking at an office chair with a higher price tag. But you also know you’re buying a quality piece of furniture that will last a long time — and most importantly, keep you sitting with a great posture to help alleviate any sciatica pain.
The Herman Miller Aeron certainly falls in that category and it’s our pick for best mesh office chair. Like most Herman Miller products, you can completely customize the materials and colors of this chair to fit your aesthetic needs. Because these chairs are custom made, you might need to wait a few months to receive your chair after ordering.
The sliding posturefit SL is the key component to supporting your back while at work. In fact, Herman Miller was one of the first companies to actively design an ergonomic office chair. It has been fine tuning this chair over the past 25 years.
So, if you have a higher budget, definitely check out the Aeron.
Because these are custom-made chairs, Herman Miller gives you three different size options, from small to medium to large.
The chair comes full assembled, so don’t worry about getting your tools out. You can sit on it right out of the box.
If you’re dealing with sciatica, have a healthy budget, and are looking for an office chair to support your back — and something that looks absolutely stunning — you definitely need to look into the Herman Miller Aeron.
Herman Miller Embody – Best for Piriformis Syndrome
If you're looking for the best of the best, then definitely check out the Herman Miller Embody. It's best-in-class build quality and innovative design make it a top contender to be the best office chair ever made.
The Herman Miller Embody is our pick for the best office chair for Piriformis Syndrome, which typically goes hand in hand with sciatica.
Herman Miller launched its lineup of ergonomic chairs more than 25 years ago and has evolved that lineup over the years. Today, it offers the Herman Miller Embody, an absolutely gorgeous office chair that can support your posture for all-day use, alleviate your sciatica pain, and look pretty nice in your home office if you have the budget to support it.
A quick note: Herman Miller also makes a gaming chair under the Embody name (and it’s also really nice!). This chair is the office version.
Like it’s other pieces of furniture, the Michigan-based furniture maker allows you to totally customize the Embody with a bevy of color and material options.
When Herman Miller designs chairs, it just doesn’t make them look appealing to the eye. They work with top doctors to make sure the ergonomics are top notch. As a result, the Embody’s backrest and seat automatically conform to your body’s movements — even the smallest of movements — to provide consistent, all-day comfort.
This is critically important for people with Sciatica because even the smallest adjustment in posture could result in that nerve being slightly pinched.
I also really like how durable this chair is and the fact that it’s made using 42% recycled materials and is 95% recyclable at the end of its useful life.
Fully Hag Capisco – Most Ergonomic Office Chair for Sciatica
The HAG Capsico is an innovative ergonomic office chair that features a unique design ideal for people who struggle with poor posture and tend to sit at their desks for long periods of time.
For those searching for a smaller-profile office chair that offers top notch ergonomics, the Fully Hag Capisco is an office chair that checks those boxes.
This chair requires a second glance at first. It’s certainly not as large and plush as other chairs on this list, but this unique chair is all about supporting your back and posture.
The saddle is firm on this chair, but once you’re positioned for a work session, it does have a relatively comfortable feel to it. That’s because it’s molded to support your lower back in a way that’s a tad more deliberate than other chairs on this list.
For those concerned about size, Hag does offer similar chairs with larger profiles.
As you can probably imagine, based on the photo of this chair, it’s not the best for sitting for a long period of time. There just isn’t enough a cushion in its smaller profile to make it truly comfortable for all-day use. You’ll likely want to schedule breaks from it to walk around, which is a good practice anyways for those dealing with Sciatica.
The main purpose of this chair is to support your back and it does a great job at this.
The Fully Hag Capisco isn’t a cheap chair, but if you require an office chair with the ultimate ergonomic profile, you can’t go wrong with it.
La-Z-Boy Delano – Best Executive Office Chair for Sciatica
For those with the impressive mahogany-filled offices and large, impressive desks, the La-Z-Boy Delano might not only be the most comfortable chair on this list, but it also does a darn good job at supporting your posture and alleviating sciatica pain.
Now, this chair isn’t for everyone. The whole “executive office” fad pretty much died in the early 2000s, but there’s certainly a crowd out there who still finds the large leather roller office chair attractive and useful.
So, for those interested, here’s what you need to know about our pick for best executive office chair that also helps with your lower back pain:
- Great weight capacity. One benefit of a larger chair is a larger weight capacity. This chair, which weighs in at about 55lbs, can support up to 350lbs worth of weight. Additionally, this chair undergoes rigorous BIFMA testing.
- Solid materials. Yes, those arms are made of real mahogany, which is a very sturdy wood.
- Reclines. The ability to recline is extremely important for those who deal with sciatica pain.
One of the best parts of this chair is its price tag. It’s on the lower end of this list and very affordable by most measures.
Some owners have complained about quality control issues, but La-Z-Boy has responded promptly by sending new parts.
DRAGONN by VIVO – Best Kneeling Chair
The DRAGONN by VIVO is a kneeling ergonomic chair that promotes good posture, making it an excellent option for people who are prone to back pain.
One of the best chairs for those with sciatica pain, but certainly not one to sit in all day, is the Dragonn by Vivo kneeling chair. This unique chair is designed to support everything from your back to your knees, shins and buttocks — and it does a great job at that.
There’s certainly a learning curve with any kneeling chair. You have to build up some muscle in your shins and knees that will develop over time and simply get used to “sitting” in a kneeling position.
Owners of this chair say it has offered great relief from their back pain, but are adamant that this isn’t an all-day chair. Your knees can hurt after a few hours and will almost definitely hurt after six to eight consecutive hours. If you’re in a job where you’re at your desk for 20-60 minutes at a time, but are constantly moving around, this could be a great option.
We really like how there are wheels included, making adjustments quick and painless. The front wheels do lock so you can stay in place.
Impressively, this kneeling chair can support up to 250lbs. Its height is adjustable by 10 inches.
There are more expensive kneeling chairs on the market, but this one is a steal when it comes to price. If you’re on the fence about a kneeling chair, you can’t go wrong at least trying this one out. Chances are if you don’t like it, you could sell it second hand to someone else who is interested in learning about kneeling chairs.
What is Sciatica?
Sciatica is most common in those who are dealing with a herniated disk, bone spurs on the spine or with spinal stenosis — the narrowing of the spine. While these are all serious issues, resolving sciatica can be done without surgery and simply through physical activity and stretching. Of course, the most extreme cases could potentially require surgical options for relief.
A new chair certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
Choosing the Best Office Chair for Sciatica
When shopping for an office chair to help with your sciatica pain, you have a number of features and requirements to look into before making a purchase. Use this guide to make the best-informed purchase.
Ergonomics
Obviously, the ergonomics of a chair are most important. You want a chair with the following:
- An adjustable lower back support. This is typically a curved plastic plate that wraps around your back that slides up and down.
- A recliner. The ability to recline can help you stretch your lower back while sitting and comfortably adjust. It’s also nice to sometimes lean back and relax!
- Adjustable armrests. Many chairs today feature a 360-degree swivel to allow you to use your keyboard and mouse in the most comfortable position, cutting down your chances of carpal tunnel.
More expensive chairs feature full back support and ultra-comfortable headrests.
Lumbar Support
Lumbar is another word for the “lower back.” So, anything that supports your lower back is considered lumbar support.
Look for a chair with an adjustable lumbar support option because everyone has different needs.
In terms of sciatica pain, some kind of lumbar support is critically important.
Typically, lumbar support is controlled by a knob, while other chairs simply mold their mesh back in a way that provides adequate lower back support.
Adjustability
Luckily, most chairs on the market today can adjust in all the right places: height, armrests, and back supports. More expensive models feature more detailed adjustments, like 360-degree adjustable armrests, or fully adjustable back supports.
These adjustments are controlled by knobs typically located under the chairs seat. But some models figured out that it’s more convenient to include knobs or paddles under the armrests that control things like height.
Comfort (seat comfort, back comfort, armrest)
Obviously, people want an office chair that is comfortable. If we didn’t, we’d be OK sitting on a slab of stone.
Here’s what you should look for in terms of comfort:
- Mesh backing. Mesh is not only surprisingly supportive, it also allows your back to breathe and keep you cooler.
- Memory foam. The best chairs implement some kind of memory foam into the seat that allows you to slowly sink into a comfortable, supportive position.
- Cushioned armrests. There are plenty of chairs on the market today that feature metal or hard plastic arms. You need a chair with a plush armrest that makes typing much more comfortable.
Build Quality
Quality materials are important as any chair — both expensive and cheap — will eventually wear out. Unfortunately, shopping online is always a difficult way to decipher build quality outside of reading user reviews.
You have a couple options:
- Research the materials listed in a product description.
- Go with the chair with the least amount of plastic, as it wears out the fastest.
- Price does matter. The cheaper you purchase, chances are good the materials are also cheaper. Find something priced in the middle of cheap and expensive.
Price
Office chairs vary significantly in price, with the cheapest models around $200 and the most expensive models flirting with $2,000.
Yes, you’re buying a much higher quality and likely a better looking chair when you’re shopping on the higher end of the spectrum, but you can certainly find an office chair that works for you — and is affordable.
Remember to stick with your budget and research as much as you can to find a quality piece of furniture that not only helps with your sciatica pain, but also looks nice in your office.
FAQs
What kind of chair is best for sciatica?
A chair that can recline and include solid lumbar support is the best option for those dealing with sciatica. While a chair won’t heal your back pain — only stretching and physical activity will do that — it can prevent your pain from getting worse. Of course, you also want something that’s quality and can handle you reclining in your chair throughout the day.
How do you sit in an office chair with sciatica?
Start with both feet flat on the floor — no crossing your legs! Next, keep your hips and knees bent at a comfortable 45 degree angle. If your chair has wheels and a swivel, it’s important to use those when working around your desk, as opposed to constantly twisting your spine in different directions.
What position is best for sciatica pain?
In terms of sitting, there isn’t a position that will cure your sciatica. Stretching and physical activity is the only cure, but proper sitting will prevent your pain from getting worse. Sit up straight, keep both feet on the floor, and position your hips and knees at a 45 degree angle.
When it comes to sleeping, sleeping on the back is considered the best position for those dealing with sciatica. Adding a small pillow under your hips and/or lower back can help alleviate any stress around those ligaments, and on the sciatic nerve.
Recap of the Best Office Chairs for Sciatica
| Office Chair for Sciatica | Award |
|---|---|
| Steelcase Gesture | Editor’s Pick |
| Staples Hyken | Budget Pick |
| Duramont Office Chair | Best Under $300 |
| Secretlab NeueChair | Best Value |
| Secretlab Titan | Best Gaming Chair |
| Herman Miller Aeron | Best Mesh |
| Herman Miller Embody | Best for Piriformis Syndrome |
| Fully Hag Capisco | Most Ergonomic |
| La-Z-Boy Delano | Best Executive Office Chair |
| DRAGONN by VIVO | Best Kneeling Chair |
