Embody® Chair by Herman Miller®

What do we do every day? We sit. We sit in the office and at home. Staring at our computer screens moving nothing but our fingers. We get stiff and tired. Because sitting is bad for you. Embody is good for you. An agile chair that keeps your body and brain limber all day. Designed specifically for people who work for hours at computers, Embody is the first work chair that benefits both mind and body.

Embody's function is part of its aesthetic. From the back, you see the technology; from the front, you see organic shapes and curves. Embody's textiles add warmth, more like a skin than a covering. By design the textiles are meant to enhance, not cover up this innovative chair. The fabrication has "loft" for a cushy feel and to allow light and air pass through keeping you cool. Colors pair with two frame colors and three base colors to simplify choice and appeal to universal tastes. See the form, feel the function.

With new tilt technology, Embody's rotation points within the seat and back encourage the body to move naturally into the most positive seated postures. The back is "alive," adapting to the shape and movement of your spine; it automatically adjusts to your shifting positions and supports you through the full range of working postures. Because movement promotes blood and oxygen flow, Embody keeps the brain more focused and functional. Embody will move you.

Instinctive Back - Inspired by the human spine, the back is alive with the backrest and Backfit™ adjustment. It adapts to the unique curvature and movement of your spine and lets your move freely and naturally.

Pixelated Support Technology™ - The Pixelated Support Technology™ creates dynamic seat and back surfaces that automatically conform to movement and evenly distribute weight.

Cool, Airy Fabric Options - The textile is the “skin” to Embody’s exoskeletal spine-like form. It breathes and cushions the sitter. The palette features a selection of warm and cool neutrals as well as rich saturated colors.

Earth-friendly:

Carbon footprint? From a baby shoe. The facility in which Embody chairs are made produces about one trash can of landfill waste a month, 77 pounds. None of that waste is hazardous. The facility uses nothing but renewable energy. Made of 42% recycled content, the Embody chair contains no PVCs; at the end of its lifecycle, 95% of Embody can be recycled.

The Embody chair adheres to the McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) Cradle to Cradle protocol and supports Herman Miller's commitment to the environment. Embody is MBDC Cradle to Cradle Silver certified and GREENGUARD certified, and it can provide credits for LEED certification.

Award Winning:

* Embody chair receives Best of NeoCon Silver in the Ergonomic Desk/Task Seating category for 2009.
* Embody chair named "Best of 2008" by WIRED magazine in 2008.
* Embody chair named "Best of Tech" for 2008 by Yahoo Tech in 2008.
* Embody chair named People's Choice at National Ergonomics Conference and Exhibition in 2008.

"You can't design
without empathy."

The Embody story began in the design studio of Jeff Weber and the late Bill Stumpf. They saw an unsolved problem: the lack of physical harmony between us and our computers. They came up with a radical idea: What if a chair could do more than just minimize the negative effects of sitting? Could they design a chair that actually had positive effects on the body?

“You can’t design without empathy,” said Weber, who also designed our Caper chair. “Since design has become more technology based, we’ve had to sit in our chairs in front of computers for longer periods, just like everyone else. We identify with the problems people have as a result of sitting.”

Bill Stumpf, who designed our Aeron, Equa, and Ergon work chairs and worked for Herman Miller for more than three decades, brought the idea to us. Could such a chair be designed and made? We worked with more than 30 professionals, who contributed their expertise. Physicians and PhDs in the fields of biomechanics, vision, physical therapy, and ergonomics helped test hypotheses, review prototypes, and conduct studies that helped guide the development of the first health-positive chair

Expert input on these hypothesis fueled Weber and Stumpf's early thinking about the chair and formed the basis of experiments designed to establish whether such a chair was possible. But Bill passed away in 2006. Weber carried on. As Embody's designer, it was he who gave the chair its function and form, building on Bill Stumpf's inspiration. Prototypes followed, with experts sitting in them and offering appraisals of what was good and what wasn't. Researchers conducted laboratory experiments involving kinematics, preferred postures, pressure distribution, seated tasks, and metabolics. These guided the development of Embody and confirmed its health-positive benefits.

In the earliest discussions with the experts, we tested three hypotheses: Work chairs can be health-positive or therapeutic, not merely health-neutral.Dynamic surface pressure on a chair and back will provide more comfort, liveliness, and health-positive benefits than nondynamic surface pressure.Work chairs can let us achieve postural equilibrium (the upright balance point when our eyes are vertically aligned with our hips) naturally, no matter what our spinal curvature.

Tilt Limiter

This lever on the rear left hand side is used to limit the recline angle of your Embody chair.

To adjust Embody’s tilt, first release the tilt limiter by pressing the lever down.

Lean back in your chair and slowly shift your weight forward until you reach a comfortable position.

Lift the lever up to select one of four tilt limiting positions from fully reclined to fully upright. You will hear the limiter click into place.

Height Adjustment

Angle the joystick fully and lift your weight to raise the seat height to the desired level.

To lower the seat height, angle the joystick fully and remain seated. The seat will adjust down.

At the proper seat height, there should be slightly less than a 90° angle between your thighs and calves.

Seat Depth

Use the handles located on the right and left sides of the seat to adjust the seat depth.

Before adjusting the seat depth, lower the seat height to its lowest position by angling the joystick located on the right center of your Embody chair.

Lift up on your toes, lifting your thighs off of the seat fron and shift your body weight toward the back of the seat.

Gently lift up on the handles to disengage the locking seat depth adjustment.

Slide the handles forward or back to the proper depth and then release downward to lock the seat.

Slide the handles forward or back to the proper depth and then release downward to lock the seat. In the proper position, you will have at least two fingers of clearance between the back of your knees and the seat edge.

Arm Height Adjustment

To adjust the Embody chair’s arm height, press the button on the underside of the arm pad to release the lock, then raise or lower it.

When adjusted properly, your arms should make contact with the arm pad without any lift at your shoulder.

Release the button and lock the arm in place.

Arm Width Adjustment

To adjust the arm width, place two hand on the Embody arm pad and pull in or push out.

In the proper position, your elbows should be in line with your shoulders.

Backfit Adjustment

Backfit adjustments are made using the knob located at the back-right of the chair.

Embody’s Backfit adjustment allows you to position the back of the chair to fit the curvature of your spine and place your head in the a balanced position for alignment with your computer display.

To adjust, shift your weight forward off the chair back. Rotate the adjustment know clockwise until the back is fully forward.

Now lean back.

If you have a flat back with little curvature between your upper and lower back, rotate the Backfit adjustment knob clockwise to the full forward position or back slightly turning the know counterclockwise

If you have a curved back, rotate the Backfit adjustment knob counterclockwise until your spine is fully supported and the void of your lumbar is filled.

Tilt Tension

This knob, located under the right hand side of the seat, adjusts the tilt tension of your Embody chair.

If you are having difficulty reclining, loosen the tension by turning the tilt tension knob counterclockwise.

If you feel that you are reclining too far, tighten the tilt tension by turning the knob clockwise.

OMG!!! This Chair is AMAZING!

Written by reetsps321 from CA
Mar 10, 2010

My husband has an Embody and while he was traveling I had the comforting pleasure of sitting in it for a month, and I kid you NOT, it's the most comfortable work chair I've ever sat in. I suffer from chronic back, neck and shoulder pain, and while I sat in this chair, I DID NOT have to adjust myself once for comfort. Not once. Adjusting for comfort, so you know, is a minute by minute thing with me in every other chair I've ever had. I sit for long periods of time in front of the computer and on the phone. I have no issues whatsoever when I get up from the Embody - no groaning in pain, no stretching to get re-alligned....HM really did it right with this one. 100% in FAVOR!!!

Best Chair I Have Ever Used

Written by Rob from NY
Mar 18, 2010

I was tired of sitting in chairs that squeaked and didn't adjust to my height and preferences, so I wanted the best chair I could find. This is an excellent chair, and if you sit all day, it is worth every penny. I ordered it with rubber coated floor casters, which are whisper quiet on our hard wood floor. One detail that took me a while to figure out, which I finally did after speaking with a nice employee at Sit4Less: in order to adjust the seat height, you need to really angle the joystick hard (No. 2 in the diagram), so it just touches the top of the inside of the joystick handle. I didn't do it hard enough the first time, thinking it might break, but it won't. Also, when they say "angle fully", they mean angle up or down, not side to side or at an angle - just up or down. Also, it helps to use two hands to adjust the arm rests left and right, as they will click into the positions more easily. All in all, an amazing chair, and Sit4Less rocks!

designed to simply be the best

Written by automation_guru from MI
Jun 8, 2010

simply the best ergo chair in the world. intuitive, precise pixilated comfort for long hours that you may be seated. the seating components are like no other in the world and cannot be duplicated. stumpf and weber rule..

Embody® Chair by Herman Miller®

Reviews

Price as configured