Sorry in advance for the long comment but I've spent a lot of time thinking about this because I want to be able to continue doing this line of work until I retire without completely wrecking my body.

A little background: I've been doing 8+ hours of programming and often a few more hours of chair time (gaming, personal work, whatever) after work for about 15 years now.

When I started, I could sit on/in anything. On a really long day I might feel some discomfort or slight back pain, but nothing major. Starting 3 or 4 years ago, that changed.

If I sat in a chair without back support, poor ergonomics, or a bad seat, I got quite a bit of pain. I'm not sure how much of that I should attribute to weakening core/supporting muscles from the heavy amount of desk time vs. the natural effects of aging, but it was obvious that something was causing me pain where I hadn't previously had it. Throughout my whole programming career I've stayed active – at 35, I'm only 10lb up from the weight I was at through my late teens, lifting as well as cardio for exercise, etc.

Once I noticed I was having pain, I started an (unfortunately very expensive) journey to find a chair that agrees with me. By this point I had been working from home for 3 years and I was sitting on a $50 generic office chair that I knew was at least part of the problem that caused me a lot of pain.

The first new chair I tried was a Steelcase Leap. I'd had one at a previous job and remembered liking the armrests and back support a lot. I sat it in for about a year, but the seat pan was literally as hard as a rock, or otherwise cursed and was literally a huge pain in the ass. However, the back support was great and I knew I was on the right track.

I sold the Leap (luckily not at too much of a loss) and then tried an Autonomous Ergochair Pro. I liked the back support on that chair a lot as well, but likewise found the seat to be super uncomfortable. I sold it a few months later.

The last chair I tried (and the one I finally kept) was a Herman Miller Embody. I knew from enjoying the back on the Leap chair that I liked the idea of a flexible-backed chair that could move with my spine and allow me to stretch, but the Embody ended up being the choice for me because of the seat. I'd tried other mesh seats in the past but they always had kind of a "hammock" feeling. The only way I can really describe the seat on the Embody is that it feels like all of the "suspended" feeling of a mesh chair, but with none of the "hammock" effect where you feel like you're sitting in the middle of a bowl. The seat is basically invisible for me to sit on. On long days I don't have any pain, and I honestly feel like I'm able to work more effectively without being distracted or uncomfortable from pain.

The other thing I did was just try to sit _less_. Getting a standing desk along with a nice chair has made a world of difference. If I'm honest, some days pass completely without me standing at all, but having the option there is great when I need it.

The biggest downside is that erognomic setup stuff can be insanely expensive – all said and done, I've spent probably 3k on it. But compared to the amount of time I spend working, and the amount of money I make _from_ that work, it's all worth it to me. If I want to keep doing this shit for the next 15 years, I need to be able to do it without pain.

I hope you find something that works well for you!