Things just come in waves. In the course of 2-3 days I had 3 inquiries from customers that had to do with size and weight and which chair would work. I had two folks that were over 6 feet and weighed between 300 – 350 lbs. On one of the days when I received an inquiry, I had a salesman at the showroom who overheard  me  talking on the phone with this customer about his size concerns. The salesman just happened to be 6’5″ tall and weigh 350 lbs and he just happened to offer to sit in all of my massage chairs in the showroom and give his honest opinion of which chairs fit OK and which did not. 

Before I go into the results, I should say that this fellow, named Lyle, was very tall and his weight was quite evenly distributed. He had a big belly, but the remainder of his frame was evenly distributed. There are different body shapes and sizes, so what might fit for Lyle may not work exactly for someone who has exceedingly broad shoulders or a massive mid-section or buttocks. Does that make sense?  So, Lyle’s opinions are for his body type and may or may not work for yours. But, at least there are some helpful suggestions and opinions that may serve you in your decision-making process.

Here is a list of the chairs he tried and a concise opinion of each, as they pertained to his size and fit:

Osaki OS-7075R – too tight in the shoulders
Osaki OS-7200H – arms and shoulders too tight
Panasonic MA70 – too tight in seat and shoulders
Panasonic 30007 – too tight in seat and too short of a chair
IT-8200 – too tight in shoulders
IT-9800 – fit OK
iRobotics 6 – too tight in shoulders and body
HT-7450 – fit OK
HT-9500x – fit OK
Inada Yume – fit OK
Inada Sogno – fit OK (his exact terms were “Oh, wow” and “Unbelievable”)

So, the long and short of it is that the following chairs fit him:

IT-9800
HT-7450
HT-9500x
Inada Yume
Inada Sogno

Each chair company has a recommended weight maximum of the user. Infinite Therapeutics IT-9800 has a weight limit of 350 lbs. The weight limit for the HT-7450 and HT-9500x is 285 lbs. The motto for Inada chairs is “if you can fit, you can sit.” So, using recommended weights, the IT-9800 and the Inada chairs would be the best options for a person of Lyle’s size.

I hope this helps somewhat in deciding which massage chair to get when you have a bigger body morphology.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com