Cooking With Chronic Illness: Is a Saddle Stool Worth It?

Someone in r/ChronicPain put it plainly. They can prep for ten or fifteen minutes before the pain hits, so they wanted a tall kitchen stool they could sit on to cook.

In r/ehlersdanlos, a thread starter with EDS and dysautonomia had just found out how much sitting helped, in the shower and at the makeup mirror. Then: "I need a kitchen stool!"

If EDS, POTS, chronic pain or chronic fatigue turns a thirty-minute cook into a bad idea, those threads keep landing on a saddle stool on wheels. The owners also say who it isn't for.

Why standing at the counter costs so much

Abby, an occupational therapist whose telehealth practice works with people living with fatigue, has written the clearest version of the problem. In that account, for people with dysautonomia, blood pools in the legs when you stand, the heart speeds up to compensate, and the brain gets less than it needs. "All of this can be set in motion by standing at a counter to make a cup of tea."

A kitchen asks you to stand still, and the same post calls it the room that asks more of the standing body than almost any other.

Sitting while cooking: the stool people keep naming

A saddle stool is a tall, backless seat shaped like a riding saddle, on a height-adjustable column and a set of wheels. You straddle it rather than sit on it, and that's what makes it different from a chair. It's the seat you've seen at a salon's shampoo bowl, and the one owners in those threads link is the FRNIAMC rolling saddle stool.

In a thread about getting through Thanksgiving, one reply needed eight words: "Rolling saddle stool. Game changer in the kitchen." Someone else there bought one for a makeup vanity and brings it into the kitchen for the long sessions. In another thread, about cooking with EDS and POTS, someone says theirs helps a lot.

The owner with the most to say had owned one for a week when they posted.

It's not great for washing dishes but it's doable, but it's a game changer for cooking. I can even lean over in it to get things from the oven and not feel like I'm going to spin bum over teakettle.

u/SingingStars, in r/ehlersdanlos

The person who started that thread bought the same one on the strength of it. Three weeks later the report was back posture better, a good position for the counter tops, and the height working at 5'4".

Why a saddle and not a chair?

Two reasons, and the owners give both.

You can get right up to the counter. On a chair, your knees meet the cabinet first. On a saddle you're straddling the seat, so one owner can scoot all the way up to the counter without knees in the way.

It's hard to slouch on. The week-old owner picked a saddle over a plain rolling stool because it's supposed to be harder to slouch.

A stylist who sits on them all day at the salon's shampoo bowls says they "force me to sit up straight", with less strain on shoulders and back.

Abby's view is the same from the clinical side. Saddle stools "tilt the pelvis forward" and are favoured for people with back pain or hypermobility.

Are saddle stools comfortable?

For cooking, the week-old owner says yes, and for the sink, doable rather than great. Someone who has them at work gives the fuller answer. They keep your back straight as long as you put your feet down somewhere, and they're not a seat you can relax on.

If you need a backrest, a saddle isn't it, and a rolling stool with a small back isn't the safe compromise it looks like. In r/cfs, someone who bought an affordable backed salon stool for the kitchen says it's not completely stable, and a fall is still possible because the back is so small.

How to sit in a saddle stool: height first

Abby's rule of thumb starts from a standard counter at thirty-six inches. A stool set between twenty-four and thirty inches brings you to it with your arms at a natural angle. Two inches too low, in that account, means raised arms, tense shoulders and a seat uncomfortable enough to make standing look better.

Check the stool's listed height range against your own counter before you order. One owner who's 5'4" says the height works for them. Then get your feet somewhere, flat on the floor or on a footrest, before you pull up to the board. Abby's reason is that otherwise your legs dangle and your core works harder to compensate. Dangling is also why one reader whose knees sublux on bar stools and tall toilets expects the same from a saddle, without having sat on one.

Wheels, floors and where it lives

Rolling is most of the point. Abby's case for a rolling stool is gliding between counter, stove and fridge "rather than standing and stepping". An owner with wooden floors pushes and rolls around sitting and says it saves so much energy.

That owner's stool came with wheels of the right type but too cheap, and the rattle ruined it until they were swapped for rollerblade-style wheels.

The EDS owner who scoots up to the counter has the same kind and calls the roll so smooth. They're the soft wheels desk workers fit to office chairs for wood floors, and they lift the seat a little, which is worth knowing before you swap a set in.

Then there's where it parks. The week-old owner's hardest part is walking to the corner where it lives and fetching it, rather than "I'll just lean here while the thing cooks". Abby says the same thing about every stool: if it requires a small detour, you may not use it.

Wheels help here too. An owner in a small apartment says the stool doesn't fold, but on wheels it's easy to move out of the way. Space hasn't been a problem there. Another person's friend keeps one tucked under the counter when it's not in use.

Saddle stool vs regular stool

Not everyone needs the saddle. In a thread about cheap household upgrades, one reader uses an adjustable rolling chair for prep. It's made a huge difference to energy conservation while cooking. The OT's advice is for a stool of any kind, and a rolling one if you can.

The saddle earns its place on balance and posture. The owner with wooden floors would take the saddle over a small-back stool for balance, control and push. The three people who talked about posture say theirs got better. A plain rolling stool gets you off your feet. The saddle gets you off your feet and up to the counter.

Measure the counter first, then check the stool's height range against it. Decide where it'll park before it arrives: beside the counter, never in a corner. Then get the FRNIAMC rolling saddle stool those owners linked and put your feet somewhere. Cook sitting down for a week before you make your mind up about it.