Posted by Geoff in Export, General | I recently came across this article, which talks about using an exercise ball as your home or office chair. I have used an exercise ball as a chair before, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Here are some of the benefits of using an exercise ball as your chair. Whether you spend your desk time at the office, or studying at home for that next exam, office ball chairs can help you in many ways. Because an exercise ball is not stable, your body needs to try to balance itself on it. The perfect spinal posture is coincidently the easiest to balance with. Thus, your body will automatically try to align itself into the proper posture. This helps improve your spinal health, and decrease back pains. An exercise ball causes to you to change your position often to balance. For example, if you turn 45 degrees to face the phone, your body will assume a new position. This helps reduce damage caused by prolonged sitting in the same position. Another great thing about using this alternative to a chair, is that you can do stretches or mini-workouts whenever you want, without getting up.
If you’ve ever stuck waiting for a minute or two, you can make productive use of that time with a quick workout or stretch. Because it’s much more convenient, you will probably do it more, thus resulting in better health. This one is very understandable. Sitting on an unstable surface all day will improve your sense of balance, as well as the reactions of your muscles. An overall better balance, that can be observed out of the office. Your body primarily uses your core (abdominal) muscles to help compensate for changes in balance. Thus, your essentially getting a low-key abdominal workout. This may not sound like a lot, but consider the amount of time you spend on your computer at the office, or at home. Those hours can build up, and result in a strengthening of ab muscles. Using an exercise ball will keep the blood flowing to all parts of your body, throughout the day. A desk chair on the other hand, reduces circulation to some parts of the body after prolonged use.
It has been proven that staying in one position, will make you more tired, while moving around and being active with give you more energy. With an exercise ball as a chair, you will feel much more energized after you finish your work. More movement during the day = more calories burnt. Burning 350 calories per day = losing one pound of fat every 10 days. You may not burn quite 350, but nonetheless, it will help you stay fit. Specialized exercise balls designed for sitting usage can range from $15 to $80. Much cheaper than buying an ergonomic chair, which can range anywhere from $100 to $400 and up. Who doesn’t like the idea of bouncing around on an exercise ball all day. Exercise balls are an exciting alternative to chairs, and may just give that spark of fun to your day. Update: I just bought an exercise ball for myself. So far, I am really enjoying it! My only complaint is that in the morning when I am half-awake, it is hard to balance. I found this cheap exercise ball which is great for trying it out, if you don’t want to invest $40-$50 in a ball which you may never actually use.
Also, before you buy, make sure you know what size is right for you. I am about 5 feet, 6 inches, and the 65cm ball fits me well. Your legs should be almost parallel with the ground. If you are above 5ft10 I would go with a 75cm ball. Have you personally had experience with using an exercise ball as a chair? Drop us a comment on how it worked out for you.I’ll confess up front: I have terrible posture. It’s been bad since I was in high school at least, and probably for even longer than that. It’s one of those things I keep in the back of my mind as something I know I should do, but never get around to, like eating more vegetables and sending more postcards. It’s really interesting to explore commonly held assumptions for Buffer blog, because I often find out surprising things. Researching how our posture affects us was no different. If you’re like me and struggle to sit up straight when you know you should, you might like this post. We’ve talked extensively about body language before.
But this time, we wanted to take a different drift. The way we stand, sit, and walk actually has more long-reaching implications on our mood and happiness than we thought. The latest studies reveal it: Body language is closely related to posture—the way we move our bodies affects how others see us as well as our own moods and habits. In terms of scientific research, the two overlap quite a bit. This isn’t too surprising, but how our posture and body language affect our thoughts is. For instance, a study at Ohio State University in 2003 found that our opinions can be subsconsciously influenced by our physical behavior. Here are two fascinating examples: When participants in the study nodded in agreement or shook their heads to signal disagreement, these actions affected their opinions The same study also showed that when participants hugged themselves, they were sometimes able to reduce their physical pain. Dutch behavioral scientist Erik Peper has done extensive research into this area as well.
He regularly makes participants in his classes stand up and stretch for similar reasons why exercise has been linked to happiness, like here: Here are three fascinating things that happened once our posture changes: For example, when we sit up straight, we are more likely to remember positive memories or think of something positive in general, according to this experiment. Another insight was that if we skip during breaks, we can significantly increase our energy levels. A slow, slumped walk on the other hand, can do the exact opposite and drain us of our energy. those who were most affected by depression before the study found their energy drained more than others. So Erik Peper is convinced (and I am, too) that we should keep a careful eye on our posture and body language—lest it bring us down without us realizing. When we talk more broadly of body language, as opposed to good posture, we can actually see the affects it has on relationships right throughout the animal kingdom.
In particular, body language is used to express power through expansive postures (i.e., spreading out your limbs and opening up your body) and large body size (or the simple perception of large body size). You might know about Amy Cuddy’s famous Ted Talk and her incredible insights on how posture changes our hormone levels. Well, some more recent studies took this even further: A study by researchers from Columbia and Harvard Universities showed that body language symbolizing power can actually affect our decision-making subconsciously. The researchers measured the appetite for risk of participants in either expansive, powerful poses or constricted poses (occupying minimal space, keeping limbs close to the body). Those in the powerful poses not only felt more powerful and in control, but were 45% more likely to take a risky bet. Plus, the study used saliva samples to prove that expansive postures actually altered the participants’ hormone levels—decreasing cortisol (C) and increasing testosterone (T):
This neuroendocrine profile of High T and Low C has been consistently linked to such outcomes as disease resistance and leadership abilities. So clearly, our posture has more to do with our minds than we might have thought. And, in fact, it seems like our bodies come first: When we alter our posture and body language, it subconsciously influences our thinking and decision-making. So if you want to take advantage of these proven benefits to live a healthier and happier life, where should you start? We know there are many parts of the body that can be painful when we have bad posture. Here’s just a short list of them: Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of research into how exactly to adopt good posture—a lot of what we know tends to come from being told to "sit up straight" as children. A study in 1999, however, found that sitting at an angle of 110 to 130 degrees is optimal for spine comfort, and another in 2007 showed that leaning back at 135 degrees is ideal for preventing back strain.
Not only is a position like this difficult to measure and maintain (do you know precisely what angle you’re sitting at right now?), not everyone agrees. The team at LUMOback has created a posture sensor that you can wear around your waist during the day to help you develop better posture. The device watches for slouching and shifting to the side and vibrates to remind you to sit up straight. The team, which includes a doctor and a data scientist (as well as a medical adviser), doesn’t advise the leaning-back position for your workday. Instead, they maintain firstly that "the best posture is always the next posture," or in other words, always keep moving: We know that many of us have jobs that do require us to spend time working at desks, so knowing how to sit and stand with good posture is certainly important and beneficial to one’s health and well-being. That said, the human body was built to move, not spend eight hours at a computer. While many of the apps and devices designed to track our daily activity focus on workouts and regular exercise routines, LUMOback is more focused on small, regular bursts of movement:
Walking around helps your body to reset itself into healthy posture, so make a point to get up from your desk at least twice an hour. When it actually comes to posture, the LUMOback team recommends a neutral pelvic postion (i.e., sitting up straight). They promote this posture particularly for times when we’re sedentary for long periods, like sitting at our desks all day: When you maintain a neutral pelvic position with a straight and upright back, the vertebrae in your back are nicely aligned. This takes a lot of pressure off of your spine and back muscles, which can reduce back pain. Here’s an image from the study that promotes leaning back at 135º: As the LUMOback team points out, while this is beneficial for your lower back (if you manage to keep it straight), your upper back and neck will suffer if you try to maintain this position while working. In an office setting, you’re likely to have to crane your neck to see your computer screen and strain your upper back and shoulders to reach a keyboard.