Saddle Chairs Australia
A saddle chair is not a variation on an office chair. It is a different way of sitting, and it exists for people who work over something rather than back from a desk.
If you spend your day leaning towards a patient, a bench, an instrument or a workpiece, a conventional task chair is working against you. It is built to support a reclined posture you never actually adopt.
Why the saddle position works
Sitting astride a saddle seat opens the angle between your torso and thighs to roughly 135 degrees, rather than the 90 degrees a flat seat forces. That single change tilts your pelvis forward and lets your lumbar spine hold its natural curve without you having to think about it.
It also puts your weight through your sit bones and thighs instead of collapsing it into your lower back. The practical effect is that you can lean into your work without rounding your back, and you can get closer to what you are working on, because there is no bulky seat front in the way.
Who these suit
The people who take to a saddle chair fastest are the ones whose work is precise and close up.
Dental and clinical
Dentists, hygienists, oral health therapists and surgeons, working over a reclined patient for hours and moving around the chair without repositioning.
Bench and lab
Jewellers, watchmakers and lab technicians, where getting nearer to the task matters more than reclining away from it.
Music and studio
Guitarists, pianists, cellists and producers who need their arms free and their torso open.
Sit-stand desks
A high gas lift lets you perch at standing height, giving you a third position between sitting and standing.
We have written in more detail about why dentists and clinicians choose active sitting and about the Capisco for musicians.
The HAG Capisco
The Capisco was designed by Peter Opsvik in 1984 around the posture of a rider on horseback, and it is still the reference point for this category. The saddle seat lets you sit forwards, backwards, astride or perched, and change between those positions without consciously adjusting anything.
Capisco 8106
Fully upholstered seat and back. The most comfortable over a long day, and the one most clinics choose.
Capisco Puls 8010 and 8020
Moulded plastic shell with a soft-touch finish. Easier to wipe down, which matters in clinical and lab settings.
Capisco 8105 Backless
No backrest at all, for maximum freedom of movement where you never lean back anyway.
All carry a 10 year warranty from Flokk on structural components.
Getting the specification right
Two decisions matter more than the model.
Decision one
Gas lift height
The standard 200 mm lift suits a conventional desk or a dental chair at normal height. The 265 mm lift is the one to choose if you work at a raised bench or a sit-stand desk at standing height.
This is the single most common ordering mistake, and it cannot be corrected later without replacing the cylinder. Our Capisco buying guide works through it.
Decision two
Footring
On any high-lift model a footring is worth adding. Without one your feet dangle, and the posture benefit is undone.
For clinical environments, also consider castors versus glides. We stock genuine Flokk parts including glides, castors and replacement gas lifts, so a chair can be re-specified rather than replaced if a room changes use.
Give it a fortnight
Worth saying plainly: a saddle chair feels strange at first. It asks you to engage rather than settle, and most people find the first few days unusual. Nearly everyone who persists through the first fortnight does not want to go back. If you are trialling one for a practice, plan for that adjustment period before forming a view.
Try one before you commit
A saddle chair is genuinely hard to judge from a photograph, more so than any other chair we sell. Our Pyrmont showroom has the range set up so you can sit in them properly.
Chair Dinkum Showroom
1/209 Harris Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Monday to Friday, by appointment
For practices fitting out multiple surgeries or benches, we can quote on volume and supply warranty and testing documentation for tender submissions. See commercial fit-outs or contact us with your requirements.