The kneeling chairs offered by our suppliers have weight limits of 250 – 275 lbs. Our heaviest rated saddle seat has a 300# weight limit. We haven’t seen a kneeling chair made for the “big & tall” offered by any supplier. The design challenge isn’t just the weight limit, but also the size of the chair.
There are also clinical concerns:
- There are health risks for a very heavy person to bear body weight through a bent knee, as this transfers unsafe loads to the knee joint and compromises circulation to the feet.
- Most kneeling chairs require > 90-degrees of bend in the knee (a.k.a., knee flexion). Few 400 lb people can bend their knees to that extent.
- Ingress and egress from a kneeling chair is challenging, even for people of average body weight. The user needs to be able to balance on one leg, and also needs to be able to rise from a semi-squat position without the assistance of their arms. Few 400 lb people have the strength to do this, except for some 400# linebackers and Summa wrestlers.
A better choice for obese people is to be supported in a semi-standing posture, with a leaning seat or sit-stand stool. This would provide all the benefits of a kneeling chair (open thigh-torso angle) without the negatives. Unfortunately, we don’t know of any sit-stand or leaning stools built for big & heavy body types.
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