The Axion all33 may be a sausage for an office chair, but if you want to improve your posture and relieve back pain, Axion has 33 reasons and the chiropractor is just one.
All33’s Axion offers a distinguished pedigree. Designed in collaboration by the famous Los Angeles Clippers chiropractor and a former BMW designer, it uses a curved cushion and patented Sit in Motion technology to help stack the 33 vertebrae of the spine into perfect position.
After spending nearly two pandemic and uncomfortable years hunched over my dining room table in a nice leather chair while my husband hoovered up our office, I was ready to try something explicitly designed for long days of working from home.
Fortunately, the atypical design of the all33 Axion kept its VIP credentials, adding up to a satisfying and downright enlightening experience for your back, neck and home office.
$999 $849 at All33
If you’re willing to invest in an office chair specifically designed to improve your WFH posture and reduce pain, the $999 all33 Axion is well worth it.
When I came out of Covid lockdown it was a huge bummer to find that I had developed a small hump (yes, a hump) around my neck, from spending all these hours looking at my laptop screen. This led me straight to physical therapy, where I was told that this was becoming a common condition called “Tech Neck”.
After six weeks of specific exercises to say goodbye to that not-so-pretty hump, I vowed never to make my posture worse again. And first on my list was finding the right ergonomic desk chair for my home office (now vacated by my husband). I decided to try the Axion all33, because in addition to helping align my vertebrae, it’s also designed to keep your body in subtle movement throughout the day.
The Axion all33 box contains five parts. But unlike some Ikea-type assemblies I’ve dealt with in the past, the instructions were clear and it was easy to assemble. All by myself. No profanity or insults. My chair is black vegan leather, although it also comes in red and brown tones. You can also choose fabric in the same colors for the same price.
Once I put the chair together, I was a little puzzled by the dual combination of curved cushion and swivel-style bucket seat. It’s definitely not your mom’s office chair. But it felt sturdy and I was happy with its strong build and solid build quality.
The wheels don’t lock, but they also don’t slide around when you’re moving, which I appreciated. If you want to move the chair, you have to do it with purpose. The seat height ranges from 19 to 23 inches and swivels from side to side. The website says it can hold up to 275 pounds and suggests that anyone under 5’4″ use a footrest.
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This is where things go well. The whole design forces you into near-perfect posture while keeping you from sitting still for hours at a time.
This Sit in Motion seat (yes, it’s patented) may sound strange, but that’s because it’s designed to move up and down with your body. The point, according to Dr. Colonello, is that yes, prolonged sitting is not good for anyone’s chiropractic health. But it’s the kind of sitting we do in front of our computers all day that can lead to those nasty back and neck problems.
Put that mobility together with the elliptically contoured pillow that fits directly into your lower back and forces you to sit with your back straight, chest up and shoulders back. I mean, can you hear me, or can you believe Justin Bieber, one of Colonello’s famous clients who, in addition to livening up his posture, also figured out how to shoot a basketball and do an ab workout while on sitting in the Axion all33. .
That said, for normal schlubs like me, this chair is a revelation. Of course, you could cheat and move your bum to the front of the seat and still find a way to slouch. But if you place your back all the way to your back, you’ll have a hard time doing anything other than sitting up straight at the behest of this lumbar pillow. And it’s not like I have to think about it. It just happened. In fact, after about an hour, I could feel the difference in my lower back and shoulder muscles. It’s also nearly impossible to lean back, though if you do, don’t be encouraged to stay there for long.
During my initial physical therapy, I was told to stop a few times during the day, put my fingers behind my head and push on my elbows, hoping to make sure I kept my posture straight and not fall back into my old self. hunchback ways When I tried this exercise on the chair, I was happy to see that the shoulders and head were exactly where they were supposed to be.
And don’t worry, the movement of the chair is really subtle. So no, I wasn’t doing crunches like Bieber, but when I moved my legs or turned, the Axion all33 just moved with me.
“We’re doing a lot more static sitting that can cause immense damage to the body because it’s designed to move,” said Dr. Colonello, when I asked via email about the shift in the pandemic workforce to mainly remote. “The all33 chair is unique in the sense that you can sit all day, not feel tired, and not have that dragging feeling that makes you feel like you’re holding your breath and hurting your neck.”
In addition to adjusting the height, you can also tighten the tilt tension of the chair and even lock it completely if you want. For me, these two things added to the all33’s movement experience, so I didn’t bother modifying.
The all33 Axion is an investment. You can grab it for $999 on the all33 website, marked down from the original $1,399. And it’s not even real leather. So while celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Dee Snider are also rumored fans, the rest of us might not be ready to drop nearly $1,000 on an office chair.
My big complaint with the all33 Axion chair is its lack of adjustable armrests. Yes, you can turn them up and down, but if your desk doesn’t match their height, you’re out of luck. Unfortunately, this was the case with my setup, so I had to buy a wrist rest for my mouse and an ergonomic keyboard. Definitely not a deal breaker, but frustrating for the price.
Our current favorite office chair is the Steelcase Series 1, and it kept our reviewer comfortable and seated for a more affordable $486 (it’s even less on Amazon right now). The Steelcase also comes in a wider range of colors, if you want something other than black, red or beige. Neither is made of real leather, but the Steelcase Series 1 is more flexible, allowing you to adjust not only the height of the arm, but also the lumbar and arm covers.
But if you don’t mind spending the money on an office chair that can also be a gorgeous piece of furniture, you might want to consider the Herman Miller Aeron Chair (starting at $1,645), which also has an adjustable lumbar and passes for one of the most elegant i comfortable chairs we tested.
The all33 Axion is an amazing office chair for anyone who, like me, needs a big ergonomic boost. A compelling design, crafted by a well-known chiropractor and industrial designer, is an almost foolproof way to stay honest when it comes to better posture in your office.
The constant movement of the seat combined with a fixed lumbar cushion also helps to make it unique and almost impossible to sag when seated. But unlike the comparably priced Herman Miller Aeron, it’s not as pretty to look at.
As Justin Bieber so clearly says, “he’s the chair that moves like me.” And frankly, when it comes to sitting properly, you’ll really love yourself. Now you just have to decide if it’s worth $999.
