Hi Lifehacker, What ever happened to kneeling stools? It seems like they were all the rage a few years ago and now you never hear about them. Also, are they a viable alternative to a standing desk? Thanks, Head Over Kneels Kneeling stools and chairs are still kicking around — a cursory Google Shopping search reveals an abundance of available models. Like any office fad, you tend to hear less about these things once the hype has died down, but that doesn't necessary mean they've fallen out of favour. There are several health benefits that a kneeling stool provides over a regular office chair. These mainly centre around the concept of active sitting versus passive sitting. In a normal chair, your body tends to be either slumped and relaxed or tense and straight; neither of which are ideal postures. This can eventually lead to spinal problems and various other ailments linked to a sedentary lifestyle. By contrast, a kneeling stool promotes active sitting through continual, controlled movement.
Because the upper body is self-supported it has to balance itself which encourages the sitter to use their abdominal and back muscles. It's like a mini core workout. Other cited benefits include better blood circulation via increased limb motion, improved concentration (i.e. — no slumping/vegeing out) and almost double the amount of calories burned per hour. A lot of this could just be marketing pap to sell kneeling chairs, but independent research does support a few of these claims. For example, a scientific study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that lumbar curvature on an ergonomically designed kneeling chair is definitely superior to a standard computer chair: This study suggests that ergonomically designed kneeling chairs set at +20 degrees inclination do maintain standing lumbar curvature to a greater extent than sitting on a standard computer chair with an overall mean difference of 7.633 degrees . As to whether kneeling stools are a viable alternative to the standing desk would largely depend on the individual.
On paper, a standing desk probably aids movement and posture more, but only if you use them correctly. There's a temptation to lean on standing desks with your elbows supporting your weight (it's something I've been personally guilty of at the tail-end of each day.) Plus, if you have a convertible model you might end up using it like a normal desk more than originally intended. A kneeling stool, meanwhile, requires upper body balance at all times. There's no way to "cheat" when you're feeling tired. If you have questionable will power, we think a kneeling stool is going to be more beneficial in the long run. Got your own question you want to put to Lifehacker? Send it using our contact form.404 Not FoundThe requested URL was not found on this server.Former Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams has emerged as a backer and chairman of electricity retailing "disruptor" Mojo Power, which is promising energy-guzzling households savings of up to hundreds of dollars a quarter through a new subscription sales model.
Mr Williams said it took him "a millisecond" to sign up as a customer to Mojo, which uses the sort of subscription arrangement typical for pay television and Costco discount shopping but which is a first for electricity retailing.Customers pay a flat monthly subscription of $30 or so to access hedged wholesale power prices, which undercut rival retailers' standing tariffs by about 30 per cent. The structure means that unlike for other retailers, Mojo does not profit from selling more power to customers, creating what it describes as a "partnership" with households.Mr Williams described Mojo as "the Costco of power" and said its business model was "absolutely in the temperament of the time", with its use of digital technologies to tap into the consumer empowerment trend."It's about being a partner with the consumer rather than just wanting consumers to chew up more and more power," Mr Williams said in an exclusive interview in Sydney. The former News Corp Australia boss is one of the high net worth individuals that have invested in Mojo, which has also got $5 million from Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund, backed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Softbank China Venture Capital.
Majority owners are co-founders James Myatt, the Mojo chief executive who headed up junior retailer Australian Power and Gas (APG) before its $100 million takeover by AGL Energy in 2013, and his business partner Darren Miller, the chief financial officer. Mr Myatt said the idea behind Mojo germinated at APG when the rise of rooftop solar raised questions around the future of the traditional model of electricity retailing where consumption drives profitability. A customer would put in solar panels and suddenly their margin contribution would fall 30-40 per cent."When it started to happen en masse we thought, how does a retailer survive in this model long term, when its gross margin is being eroded by distributed generation?" "So we've taken all profit out of the energy rate and put it into a monthly subscription fee."The model only makes financial sense for a household spending about $750 or more a quarter on electricity, so families with perhaps a swimming pool and airconditioning.
With mainstream retailers those customers typically pay over the odds as they subsidise lighter power users, but under the Mojo model those cross subsidies don't exist. After an initial marketing effort starting in Sydney's Lower North Shore, Mojo plans to expand throughout NSW, then to other states and potentially overseas. Each customer gets a smart meter which provides personalised information about energy use through a real-time portal. It also provides the data to be used by Mojo to advise on suitable solar and battery storage systems to be marketed to customers in a second phase.As "customer number 60 or so", Mr Williams regularly checks out his energy use via the portal. "I'm still in the learning phase in seeing the whole horror of my power consumption and learning how to do something about it," he said, adding he is keen to install batteries down the track.Directions to Costco Wholesale from the top locations in Docklands using Bus, Rail, Tram. Click on a route to get updated schedules, live arrivals and step by step directions on a map.
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