Herman MillerEmbody Ergonomic Office Chair | Fully Adjustable Arms and Carpet Casters | Carbon Balance

I purchased this chair with every intent to return it, because I was positive that you could find a better (or equally as comfortable chair) for less money after reading all of the reviews about it. After a lot of hands-on experience with a few chairs, I decided to keep the Embody.For three years, I've used a Herman Miller Aeron. It's very comfortable, but it's what I call a "task chair", and is better suited for the office and less so for gaming or reclining back and watching movies on your computer. When I decided it was time for something more plush and comfortable, I tried out a few chairs:1. Steelcase Leap v22. Steelcase Gesture3. Herman Miller EmbodyHere is the short version of the review:- Skip the Gesture all together. The more adjustable armwrests do not make up for the fact that the back and lumbar support is not as good as the other two chairs. In every test besides the armrests, I could not justify getting this chair over the Leap. If this chair were cheaper, I could recommend it over the Leap, but as it stands, you are getting a much better bang for your buck by getting a Leap, or making the jump to an Embody.- Get the Steelcase Leap if you are on a budget, but do not pay more than $500 for the chair. (Madison Seating has some great deals on them refurbished) Past that, you might as well make the jump up to the Embody. The Leap is a very comfortable chair, and probably the one I would recommend to most people who are just dipping their toes into ergonomics on a budget. The cushion on this chair is deceiving, however, because if you have them side by side and you do a quick sit test, you will probably think that the Leap is more comfortable than the Embody due to the more plush seat and back (in comparison to the Embody). When I got the Leap, I immediately thought I would have to send back the Embody when I first sat in it. However, after about an hour, I started to feel pressure and discomfort in my back that I did not feel while using the Embody. After several hours, I realized that I sorely missed my Embody and it's form-fitting structure. Also, be aware that the Leap is a much warmer chair than the Embody. I never get hot in my chairs, but I felt quite warm after sitting in it for a full day. When I sat back in the Embody, it was like a cooling relief. However, I still think the Leap v2 is an excellent chair for under $500, and should be your next step up from a crappy traditional office chair.- Get the Embody if you want the most comfortable chair for the money, and ESPECIALLY if you spend all day sitting. This chair was the hands-down winner if you sit for hours, specifically once you get the chair dialed in to fit your body perfectly and learn to adjust it correctly depending on how you are sitting. It takes a few days of adjustments and trial to finally get that sweet spot, but once you do, it's amazing. The Embody was also the heavier and sturdier chair of the three, and I expect this chair will last a really long time. Bonus, the seat will never go flat. It's a much cooler (temperature) sitting chair than the others, and actually stays cool while you sit in it. The fabric is very comfortable, and while you have to treat it like fabric, it is a much higher-quality material than what is on the Gesture, and especially the Leap (the leap was soft but I don't think the material will wear well). While the Leap felt more plush in terms of cushion, I found this to be deceptive since the Embody proved to be much more comfortable. Overall, I was very impressed by the build quality of the Embody, it was far superior to the other chairs.Even the casters were smoother on carpet. Yes, it's more expensive. But unless you are on a tight budget, this chair will serve you better in the long run than the other two chairs.*******************************************************First off, you need to understand that chair comfort is a very subjective thing. At the end of the day, most of the reviews out there are literally comparing features and then telling you to go sit on them yourself, because what is comfortable to them might not be to you. Most of the reviews pointed me towards Steelcase, simply because of the adjustable arms. Let's just say that I'm glad I did my own research, because there are more important things than if you can swivel the armwrests backwards.*COMFORT*Hands down, the Embody was the most comfortable chair out of the three, especially when sitting for extended periods of time. You simply cannot sit in these chairs at a store for ten minutes and have that be a good judge of comfort. At first, I thought maybe the Steelcase Leap might be more comfortable than the Embody, but then an hour went by and my body told me that there was no contest, especially in the lower back area. However, the Leap is a very comfortable chair, and excellent for the price.Why is the Embody so comfortable?- The seat is kind of like a hammock, where you are being suspended by netting and supported by plastic coils (you can't feel them), as opposed to sitting on a solid foam object (like the other chairs). It's more complicated than that, but the idea is the same. Basically, your butt doesn't get as fatigued because you aren't flattening it against a solid block of foam. I see this kind of seat lasting for a really, really, long time when compared to a traditional foam seat.- The back is the most comfortable I've felt on a chair. It hugs and conforms to your back regardless of what position you are sitting in. You hardly even notice it, which is the best part. The back slider system on the Leap is a joke, and it's my major complaint with the chair. The Gesture was better, but I preferred the feeling of the Embody. Over time though, I found the Gesture to have less-than-ideal lumbar support, and found myself preferring the Leap over the Gesture for back support. The Embody has a knob that you can use to fill in your back, and after about a week of use I realized you should be adjusting the back for different sitting positions. When sitting straight up, I need to adjust the knob to fill in my upper back and provide some support there, rather than just pure lumbar support. When I recline back, I turn the knob the other way for more lumbar, and it's very comfortable.- Superior reclining ability. I found the recline adjustment on the Steelcase Leap to be really...annoying. The first THREE positions barely do anything, they're still sitting you straight up with just very slight steps in between. Then the last two are more reclined, but not as reclined as the Embody, or as comfortable. Also, I mention this somewhere else in the review, but the armrests do not move with the recline on the Leap, so when you are reclined back, you have to completely adjust the armrests for your new position. On the Embody, you really only ever have to set them once, since they move with the recline.- You can "float" in this chair. You can do it better in the Aeron, but due to the forward placement of the recline mechanism, you can find this wonderful half-reclining position where you feel like your body is being weightlessly suspended, or floating. The chair almost disappears, and your muscles relax. I can sit in this position for several hours, and get up without a single bit of pain or discomfort. It works best if you have a nice keyboard tray, and you can pull the tray into your lap and basically relax everything except your hands to type.- Adjustability, adjustability, adjustability! One of the BEST parts about this chair is how much you can adjust it, and you should be adjusting it often, based on how you are sitting. One of the mistakes I first made was thinking I could set it once and forget it forever, but that's not the case. I use a completely different set of adjustments when I am sitting straight up in the chair as opposed to when I am reclining back and watching a movie or playing a game. At first, I thought I needed MAXIMUM LUMBAR SUPPORT, but I quickly realized that I actually needed more upper back support! A few turns of the knob filled in my upper back, and I felt amazing after sitting all day. I have slightly hunched shoulders from years of bad sitting, and this chair actually forms perfectly to my upper back to support it. If some days I need a little more lumbar support, I just adjust the knob a bit.The Leap and Embody are both comfortable chairs. But for me, I find that the Embody has an edge due to being much more comfortable over long periods of time, and far superior build quality (it's also a lot more expensive). Also, YOU CAN SIT CROSS-LEGGED in the Embody, and it's very comfortable with the back supporting you in different strange positions. I do this a lot when I'm watching a movie or something, and it's awesome.Let me close this part by saying you NEED to spend a bit of time with the Embody to get used to it, and understand how the adjustments work to form to your body. It took me a week of sitting in the chair before I realized I needed to change the back support a bit when sitting straight up, rather than a "one setting fits all" kind of thing. If you buy this chair, spend a minimum of two weeks with it and mess around with it before making up your mind.*DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION*This is a very modern-looking chair compared to the Leap, which some people don't like. Personally, I find it very attractive from the back, but strange looking from the front, almost disproportional when you see how big the seat is compared to the back. The Gesture is much more normal-looking, and the Leap looks like a regular old office chair. I found the overall quality of the Embody to be superior to the other chairs. It just felt and looked so much more sturdy, despite the large amount of thick plastic on the back of the chair.Let's get one thing out of the way: the armrests. If you've read ANY reviews of this chair, people bash on the armrests as being so terrible and wobbly. Honestly, I PREFER the Embody armrests over the other two chairs, hands down. They aren't nearly as wobbly as people say, and actually the Leap had much worse wobble. Yes, the Gesture has much nicer and more adjustable armrests, but I don't find them as comfortable as the ones on the Embody. Once you get the width adjusted, they are rock solid and don't move an inch. Also, they curve down a bit on the outside edges, which is insanely comfortable and follows the natural curve of your forearm. It's hard to explain, but I love the way my arms rest on them. Also, the armwrests move back with you when you recline, rather than staying fixed like on the Leap. I found this to be incredibly annoying, because it meant I had to adjust my armwrests constantly, where on the Embody I didn't need to.The Embody also has very intuitively-placed controls. I looked at the manual once, and then I didn't have to look at it again. The knobs and levers just make sense to me for some reason. The Leap has awful controls, and they're confusing. The Gesture is better, but I prefer the Embody again in this department. It's not like they were impossible to figure out, I just didn't need to think about it. I knew where to put my hand exactly to adjust the recline, back support, etc. It's a small thing, but you can tell they had somebody sit in the chair and figured out where they kept instinctively putting their hands to make adjustments, and designed the controls around that.In terms of weight, the Embody is the heaviest chair of the three. The base really has some weight to it, and the chair feels like it's made of premium materials. The Leap felt much, much cheaper and lighter, and the Gesture is slightly less heavy. Still, I felt like the Leap was made of cheaper stuff and didn't feel as sturdy, even though the entire back on the Embody is plastic.Some people mentioned the Embody being noisy due to the moving parts on the back, but my Embody was the quietest chair of the three. I much prefer the seat adjustment of the Embody, once I got used to it. The Leap was really annoying to adjust the seat, since there isn't a dedicated object to hold onto, and I really loved being able to simply grab the two small handles to adjust the seat on a whim. When I recline back, I like the seat a little longer. I feel like I have a lot more control over the exact length when I'm using my hands as opposed to my hips to try to push it out to the right length.*STUFF I DON'T LIKE*Let's face it, I've said mostly great things about this chair. There are some things that I don't love, but these are mostly nitpicks.- I have a love-hate relationship with the seat slider. I love the idea, and I love how easy it is to slide forward (you're essentially unrolling the fabric and extending the frame to make the seat deeper). I adjust it a lot, because I like the seat longer when I'm reclining back, and shorter when I'm sitting straight up. Sometimes, it can be a bit finnicky to lock in place, and it has a less solid feel than I would like. Still, I like it better than the Leap or Gesture seats.- No headrest option. I was quite bugged that a chair at this price point wouldn't have a headrest, but I suspect it wouldn't work well with the flexible back. It doesn't make or break the chair, in my opinion, but it certainly would be nice.*FINAL THOUGHTS*One of the reasons the Embody is so comfortable is because you barely notice that it's there while you work, but you need to spend some time adjusting the chair to the perfect fit for your body. It has some of the best back support I've ever felt in a chair, and I really dig the looks. I love the seat, because I don't have to worry about it going flat after a few years of use. The armrests aren't as bad as everyone says, and I even preferred them over the competition. The chair reclines wonderfully, and is highly adjustable. I expected to send this chair back, but instead the other two went back. Steelcase makes great chairs, and you can compare based on price, but not pure comfort. I would absolutely recommend the Leap to somebody that is on a budget, and I probably would have been happy if I had only ordered the Leap. However, I once I got the Embody next to it, I couldn't return it, even knowing how much more expensive it was over the Leap. The extra money was worth it, in my opinion.Pair this chair with a footrest and an ergonomic keyboard tray, and you'll realize that your office is the most comfortable place in the house.

The bottom line on this chair is that it is unexpectedly miraculous. After just 3 days, I've found it is unconventionally comfortable and the thing that makes it unique is that it renders adjusting it a normal part of its usage. I was originally like most folks, I presume - set the chair and then see how it does - but this chair demands that you use its intuitive controls to change things around as your needs change during the day. It is so easy to do, and that is where the magic is.I graduated from an excellent budget chair, the Alera Elusion high-back that is very adjustable. After over 5 years of pretty heavy usage, though, it was showing its wear, and I was really starting to feel the cushion every time I sat on it. I also started to experience some neck, shoulder, and lower back discomfort, and decided it was time to graduate to a better solution.I did not consider the Embody chair initially. At first glance, it looked a bit weird, and it was also on the expensive side, so I blew right past it. My initial starting point was the Aeron. I had used one at work years ago, and I recalled its adjustability. My body was much younger when I had used it, so I didn't experience its ergonomic benefits as well as I should have. I also looked at Steelcase models as they had some good reviews. Steelcase didn't fit my requirements as well as the Herman Miller solutions, so I gravitated strongly to the Aeron and was about to push the trigger on the order. A last second search on YouTube led me to the Embody and I was intrigued because of a couple of factors: the intuitiveness of the controls and the emphasis on the flexibility of the back and seat. The people that loved it REALLY loved it, and that, compounded with the Herman Miller return policy interested me enough to try it.So, here are some findings from the past 3 days:First, the seat is incredibly comfortable. The pixellated solution flexes with the weight that is applied to it, and it makes you feel as though you are suspended with no uncomfortable pressure points - this completely resolved the issue I was facing with the old Alera. It breathes well, is cool, and just invites you to sit down. The seat length adjustment required a little strength, but works well - you are not stuck with just the default length that might be either too small or too large. I had to adjust a couple of times to get just the right length. Once set, I don't foresee having to adjust it often.Second, I have found that I change the recline setting on the chair frequently. When I am typing, I set it so that it is relatively rigid, and when I am mostly reading, I set it so that it flexes more. There are several aspects to this - for typing, I set the tilt limiter to the position that allows the least possible movement or the next step down. I tighten the recline knob to keep me more upright, and adjust the back to a comfortable setting. It is all really easy, and the chair gives immediate feedback to ensure a good setting. When I am reading, I set the recline to setting 2 or 3 (more recline) and relax the recline a bit. That gives me the opportunity to lean back as needed and move around, with full support. If I am watching YouTube, I go to the most relaxed recline setting, and adjust the back to a less aggressive setting, and it is very comfortable. Setting/resetting all of the controls is responsive, easy, and intuitive. I never thought that this would be so required in a good seating experience.Third, I fiddled with the height of the chair to find the most comfortable setting. I use an iMovR standing desk and a Kinesis Advantage keyboard. I initially set the chair/desk combination so that my feet were flat on the ground and so that my forearms were angled downward slightly - supposedly more ergonomic. I ended up with some discomfort in my right wrist. Through experimentation, I found that raising my table or lowering the chair so that my forearms are angled a bit upwards got me in the correct wrist position for the keyboard, since it has wells. I am more upright with these settings, and am finding that my back is much more in contact with the chair, providing great and flexible support. This may not work well for folks using normal keyboards, but it is great with the Advantage. I also adjusted the height of the monitor so that it is a little higher than most ergonomic folks would recommend. I had found that by keeping the top of the monitor strictly at eye level as recommended, I was moving my head down to read the lower part of the screen, and this was causing some neck discomfort. My current setting is very comfortable.I have spent long hours in this chair over the past few days, and I am very impressed. My experience with the Alera and Aeron, both excellent chairs, is that they unwittingly promote the initial set and don't adjust paradigm, simply because adjustments, though technically possible, are not as integrated into the seating experience - you have to bend, get up, or twist unnaturally to do the adjustment. The Embody chair, on the other hand, encourages adjustments while you are in the seated position because the controls are few and easy to reach. This allows adjustments that correlate to the changing needs of our bodies throughout the day with immediate feedback because all of the controls are so well placed and simple to use. Flexibility and consistent support are inherently part of the design.No doubt that this chair is expensive, but with the generous 12 year warranty, this chair is about as good an investment you can make for your back and your general health if you spend significant time in a chair.