Web Exclusive: {{productModel.wholeData.prodDetails.giftWithPurchase.giftDescription}} Offer details Ship to you only - {{couponLength>1?couponLength +' coupons available':'Coupon available'}} Clip ${{offerValue || offerPercentage}}% coupon View coupon details {{couponLength}} coupons availablesave 50% on the lowest priced product.':' get the lowest priced product FREE.'}} Web Exclusive: {{productModel.wholeData.prodDetails.giftWithPurchase.giftDescription}} See gift Customers who bought this also bought Are You Still There?Please choose to continue your session or sign out now. Looks like you didn't complete your reservation. Do you want to If you need help making your reservation, call 1-866-237-8289. Free shipping* on orders over $35 (excludes products with ) Earn Reward Zone points on all your purchases What's in the Box? BalanceBall for Weight Loss DVD What's in the Box Was this information helpful? More about Customer Reviews
Positive vs. Critical Reviews Rate & Review this product Tell others about your experience with this product. Galam Balance Ball ChairExpensive but does what it advertises 5/5 on this chair. Love love love it. Very easy to put together. We use it while we paint. Sitting on it with leg weights is great to. Now we need a 2nd one. Somebody doesn't like to share. I have a herniated disc and this chair has provided a very comfortable solution to a very difficult problem of sitting with a bad back. This is the second chair purchased as the first one was for my husband and I kept borrowing his so much that I got my own. It has locking casters which help greatly with the stability. I haven't tried the suggested exercises that are on the DVD. Very affordable with good quality. Rating: High to Low Rating: Low to High Do you have feedback about this page? HUGE SAVINGS on computers, tablets & accessories Major DEALS on major appliances
SAVE UP TO 70% on luggage sets - plus other great DEALS on luggage & bags TAKE YOUR HEALTH TO HEART with connected scales and blood pressure monitorsWASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — At work, Pam O’Donnell types at her computer, talks on the phone and, every so often, bounces a bit on a big blue ball. O’Donnell has an office chair, but this doesn’t mean she uses it. She prefers to sit on an exercise ball. Although some posture experts are leery of the practice, she and others say sitting on the ball lets them work a little workout into their work time, and strengthen their legs, abs and back muscles. The inflatable balls, typically the size of a big beach ball but made of tougher plastic, have migrated to offices from health clubs and physical therapy clinics. The lack of armrests, back support or other attributes of a chair, except for a spot on which to sit, makes her pay more attention to posture, said O’Donnell, director of member service for the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, a Boston-based trade group.
“It makes me sit up straight,” which gives a ball some advantage over a chair, she said. “When you are sitting at your desk, especially at a computer or keyboard, you tend to hunch over.” “What we are trying to promote is active sitting versus passive sitting,” said physical therapist Cheryl Soleway, of Vernon, British Columbia, a consultant to Ball Dynamics of Longmont, Colo., which sells the products. “You get a low level of neuromuscular activity — your abdominal and trunk muscles are contracting to some degree,” Soleway said. “Without that activity, you would fall off.” An upside to falling down To Soleway, there is even an upside to the fear of falling down. The natural urge not to slide off the ball should help to train the balance system, reducing the risk of falls, she said. Position counts in ball work. Soleway said the ball should be big enough to allow the legs to slope slightly downward at not quite a right angle from the thighs.
However, she conceded there are many unknowns in the physiology of ball sitting as an office exercise. “I’m not sure anybody has spent a lot of dollars researching this.” Sitting on a ball at work should improve muscle tone, but a risk of injury could await people who do it for a full day, said Dr. Henry Goitz, chief of sports medicine at the Medical College of Ohio. “Twenty minutes is good, 30 minutes is great, but 8 to 12 hours, some time in that span, you may have fatigability,” he said. Exercise balls in offices have raised concern in other parts of the world. “Providing fitness balls in a workplace may place the employer at risk of introducing a hazard,” according to a statement posted on the Internet by workplace safety officials in the Australian state of Victoria. And an expert in office ergonomics — the fitting of office functions to the strengths and limits of human bodies — has doubts about the wisdom of substituting a bouncy ball for an ergonomically designed chair.
“I don’t think this would be anything I would use to reduce my exposure to musculoskeletal disorders,” said Peter Budnick, chief executive officer of Ergoweb, an ergonomics training and equipment sales company in Midway, Utah. “It’s not an ergonomic device. It does not offer the full support you would expect from an ergonomic chair: stable base, adjustable height and back support.” Just the same, “I have to say it sounds like fun,” Budnick said. If exercise balls encourage fun — or a less stressful workplace — companies should encourage balls, said Nancy Lynch, an adjunct professor of human resources management at Canisius College and president of Human Resources Consulting Associates in Buffalo, N.Y. Companies in which employees look like they are having fun will find it easier to attract new hires, she said. Activities that get people moving are also good for “thinking and problem-solving,” Lynch said. O’Donnell said fun is only one of the advantages to using a ball.