Cooper Center for Active Living - Newton MA
Cooper CAL Fitness Chair Options
@ rasala.net/senior/furniture/fitness_chairs
Updated June 4 2024
Note: If you click on any image on this page, the image will open in a separate tab. This is useful primarily if you are working on a large screen that will allow the separate image to display in a larger size.
Contents
- What are Fitness Chairs?
- Important Features of Fitness Chairs
- The Search for Possible Fitness Chairs
- BluDot Options
- Global Options
- MityLite Options
- National Business Furniture (nbf) Options
- PS Furniture Options
- Shelby Williams Options
- SitOnIt Seating Options
- Spec Furniture Options
- Discussion of the Above Options
- Searching Outside The Box
- Recommendations
What are Fitness Chairs?
Fitness Chairs should be strong, sturdy, flexible in use, and safe for both seated and standing fitness activities, such as, Chair Yoga.
The Hyde Gymnasium has good examples of Fitness Chairs.
Fitness Chair at the Hyde
Here is an example of a standing yoga pose demonstrated by the instructor Diane.
Fitness Chair at the Hyde Demonstrated
This is the kind of yoga pose (one arm extended and one leg off the floor) in which a yoga participant must feel 100% secure.
Important Features of Fitness Chairs
The Hyde chairs support a feeling of security by several important features that signal what we wish to look for in a Fitness Chair:
- The chairs are sturdy and plant firmly on the floor.
- The rear legs angle back so that there is extra stability when the chair is held while doing a yoga pose.
- Although the chair back tilts slightly backwards, the top back of the chair does not go as far back as the rear legs. This means that when a person grasps the top back of the chair the downward force exerted cannot tip the chair backwards.
- This property of a chair is noted on furniture sites as wall safe, that is, when the chair is backed up to a wall, the chair top back does not touch the wall.
- A person may grip the top back of the chair firmly with one or both hands. This is because the top back of the chair is mostly horizontal.
- There is a gap between the top back of the chair and the seat back panel that permits an extra firm grip on the chair.
- It is also important that there are no chair arms and that the seat is flat and horizontal.
- In some yoga poses we sit at a chair corner with legs forming a 90 degree angle.
- In some yoga poses, half of the body is on the chair and half hangs off a side edge so that the leg on that side may move backwards.
- Notice the railings on the side of the chair. This allows a hand hold for security when half of the body is off of the chair on the opposite side.
The Search for Possible Fitness Chairs
Nancy Johnson of BH+A provided a list of furniture manufacturers/distributors that the CooperCAL Working Group has been looking at for possible furniture:
There are 22 furniture manufacturers/distributors in this list.
I examined all manufacturers/distributors searching for stackable, armless chairs that might be suitable as Fitness Chairs based on the features described in the previous section. I used search criteria such as:
all chairs, stackable chairs, banquet chairs, side chairs
Only 8 manufacturers/distributors had any chair that approximated the features of a Fitness Chair:
- BluDot
- Global
- MityLite
- National Business Furniture (nbf)
- PS Furniture
- Shelby Williams
- SitOnIt Seating
- Spec Furniture
The next 8 sections show what I found from these 8 manufacturers/distributors.
I attempted to select chairs that appeared to look like possible Fitness Chairs. I did not wish to be premature by excluding any chair that might turn out to be interesting. Indeed, some chairs shown below will turn out to not work as Fitness Chairs but might be useful in other ways at CooperCAL.
Each chair shown is described by one or more screen snapshots that include extra information when possible. If a site provided information about list prices, chair dimensions, chair weight, etc, that is added. Each chair name is a link back to the site where that chair is displayed.
Blu Dot Options
BluDot: Chair Chair $195
Dimensions: 20w x 20d x 31w
Weight: ??
Dimensions: 17w x 20d x 30w
Weight: 18 lbs
BluDot: Chip Chair $395
Dimensions: 18w x 19d x 30w
Weight: 14 lbs
Comments
- The images of the Chair Chair and the Between Us Chair show that these chairs have a similar geometry.
- The Between Us Chair is only $30 more than the Chair Chair and has the advantage of light padding.
- The 3 chairs (Chair Chair, Between Us Chair, and Chip Chair) have fairly stable leg structure but the chairs are not wall safe. The chairs would need to be tested for stability in yoga poses.
Global Options
Global: Comet 4-Leg $327 (Armless Model 2172WS)
Dimensions: 19w x 23d x 32.5h
Global: Sidero 4-Leg Armless Models - $531 (Model 6901) or $476 (Model 6909)
Dimensions: 21w x 24d x 33h
Comments
- The Sidero is explicitly listed as wall safe whereas there is no comment regarding wall safety for the Comet.
- The Sidero is the only chair on this page that offers a low height seat variation (13 inch high seat).
- This low height seat variation would accommodate the needs of short adults.
- Getting 4 to 8 of these low height chairs might be useful if we plan to buy a large quantity of Sidero chairs.
- The Sidero is relatively expensive.
MityLite Options
nbf: Solid Upholstery Armless Stack Chair $139 (Model 51539)
Dimensions: 19w x 23d x34h
Weight: 30 lbs
nbf: Doni Poly Armless Stack Chair $359 (Model 224500)
Dimensions: 22w x 19d x 34h
Weight: 22 lbs
nbf: Uptown Armless Guest Chair in Premium Upholstery $369 (Model 75472)
Dimensions: 22.5w x 26d x 35h
Weight: 25 lbs
PS Furniture Options
PS Furniture: NIMA 4-Leg Option
Dimensions: 20w x 22d x 33h
Comments
- The NIMA 4-Leg has a back that flexes. This flex might be quite problematic for a sense of stability if the chair is used as a Fitness Chair.
Shelby Williams Options
Shelby Williams: Aluminum Stacking Chair (Model 8755)
Dimensions: 19w x 22d x 32h
Weight: 13 lbs
Shelby Williams: Aluminum Stacking Side Chair (Model 8680)
Dimensions: 18w x 22d x 33h
Weight: 18 lbs
Shelby Williams: Steel Stacking Banquet Chair (Model 5253)
Dimensions: 17w x 23d x 34h
Weight: 19 lbs
Comments
- Of the 3 Shelby Williams chairs, the Steel Stacking Banquet Chair appears from its image to have the best stability.
- The Steel Stacking Banquet Chair is perhaps wall safe.
SitOnIt Seating Options
SitOnIt Seating: InFlex Armless $357 to $473
SitOnIt Seating: Rio 4-Leg $290 to $406
Comments
- Although the InFlex and the Rio have suitable chair geometry, both chairs have backs that flex. This flex might be quite problematic for a sense of stability if the chair is used as a Fitness Chair.
Spec Furniture Options
Comments
- Both the Snowball-2 and the Urban have the option of a wall safe frame.
- My preference is for the Urban because its back has a simple design that is more suitable for a Fitness Chair.
Discussion of the Above Options
There are two manufacturers (Spec and Global) that supply chairs that are explicity described as wall safe. The chairs that I recommend as Fitness Chairs from these manufacturers are listed below.
Wall safe options as Fitness Chairs:
- Spec Furniture: Urban Four Point Armless (with the wall safe frame selected)
- Global: Sidero 4-Leg Armless Models - $531 (Model 6901) and perhaps a few $476 (Model 6909)
There are other chairs with stable leg structure and simple design that may be suitable as Fitness Chairs. These chairs would need to be tested to ensure that they would be safe in Chair Yoga poses.
Additional possible options as Fitness Chairs:
- nbf: Solid Upholstery Armless Stack Chair $139 (Model 51539)
- Shelby Williams: Steel Stacking Banquet Chair (Model 5253)
- BluDot: Between Us Chair $225
- BluDot: Chair Chair $195
I am not entirely happy with the options above in part due to the scarcity of wall safe choices and in part due to cost. These concerns led me to the search in the next section.
Searching Outside The Box
Being not entirely happy with the Fitness Chair options discovered above, I decided to use Google to search for armless stackable chairs. I came upon the following company:
There are 4 chairs from this company that seem to be viable options as Fitness Chairs.
Recommendations
I strongly recommend that CooperCAL select as its Fitness Chair:
This chair has an extraordinary resemblance to the Fitness Chair in use at the Hyde Gymnasium.
This resemblance means that this chair has almost all Important Features of Fitness Chairs.
The only question we cannot answer via images is: Is this chair wall safe?
I suggest that we invest $22 to obtain one chair to test if it is wall safe and to compare it directly with a chair at the Hyde Gymnasium.
I have had the idea that we should have fitness chairs in both the 3rd floor Fitness Room and in the 2nd floor Gymnasium. If a class grows to have too large an enrollment to work in the Fitness Room then we may wish to move that class to the Gymnasium. Since it is absurd to think of moving chairs between floors, both spaces need their own set of chairs. Also, the Walking Track will need a few chairs in the 4 corners.
Here is how I see the chair allocation:
- Fitness Room: 40 chairs
- Gymnasium: 80 chairs
- Walking Track: 8 chairs, with 2 chairs in each corner.
We will also need to have a Chair Dolly @ $157 for the Fitness Room and for the Gymnasium. The chairs in the Walking Track will stay put in the corners.
What is the budget for this?
- 128 chairs @ $22 to yield: $2816
- 2 chair dollies @ $157 to yield: $314
- Total: $3130
This budget of $3130 is a tiny amount to make both the Fitness Room and the Gymnasium fully flexible. Further, by having such a modest budget for fitness chairs, we will have more left over for other spaces in CooperCAL.