IKEA FAMILY products & offers Fabric armchair: your living space, your taste in decor Whether you favor the modern or the traditional, you’ll love our fabric armchairs, because they cover a wide range of styles and designs. One of our IKEA STOCKHOLM easy chairs is a generous 3 1/5 ft wide and is made with resilient, a foam that molds to your body and retains its shape when not being used. Our POÄNG fabric armchair has a bent birch frame, and a high back and head rest for great neck support. Many of our armchairs come with removable covers, like our EKTORP TULLSTA model, so you can completely change the look whenever you get a fresh new idea for your living room decor. Fabric armchair for your taste and comfort We can well understand and appreciate that you have special requirements for what you’re looking for in an armchair, which is why we’ve designed a wide range. We’re sure we’ve got just the thing to match your tastes. The POÄNG rocking-chair has a wooden frame that’s bent to provide optimum comfort, a high back for extra support, and a selection of extra cushions to choose from.
Or sink into our super-comfy TIDAFORS design, which has layers of cold foam and memory foam to support and mould around your body. Visit your local IKEA store to find the fabric armchair that’ll suit your lifestyle, taste and desire for comfort. Despite the popularity of balls-as-chairs in the workplace, the answer to this question is a cautious "maybe." If you work at, let's say, an active lifestyle magazine in Santa Fe, New Mexico, you’re likely accustomed to colleagues perched gingerly atop oversize bouncy balls, like prospective circus performers. Studies have shown that sitting on an exercise ball, as opposed to a regular desk chair, helps to burn an additional 30 calories per eight-hour workday. But is it good for your back? In the gym, exercise balls can provide great stability training, challenging your muscles to keep you balanced as you run through the standard sets of crunches and shoulder presses. As Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of Mayo Cinic's sports medicine center points out, “Even if you’re strong, you may not be very stable.”
It's important for athletes to train stabilizer muscles to prevent joint injury as they tackle heavier weights or longer runs. Getting a good fit for your exercise ball is important. As with any sitting device, you should use the "90-90" rule: make sure you're creating ninety-degree angles at your knees and hips, so that your hips are even with your knees, your back and legs are perpendicular to the ground, and your feet are resting squarely on the floor. (If the ball is too high or too low, you’ll end up leaning forward or backward, putting unnecessary stress on the spine.) Since most of us spend much of every day sitting at our desks, Laskowski recommends an ergonomic evaluation, in which a physical therapist comes into your office and fits your workspace to your body. (Some larger companies offer this sort of service in-house.) Especially when you’re recovering from a lower back injury, working your stabilizers is important. That said, you don’t want to overdo it. As always, Laskowski says, “If it’s causing you pain, making you stabilize too much, then you should ease off.”
And sitting on a ball all day might well be too much for most people. A 2009 study examining the effects of sitting on an exercise ball as opposed to a chair concluded cautiously that "the advantages may not outweigh the disadvantages." A separate 2009 study found that "both seating types [chair and ball] were found to replicate a poor sitting position." The trouble is, the ball only works if you sit up straight—which most people don't. Dr. Nick Shamie, an associate professor of spine surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in high performance athletes, says that balls are definitely not right for everyone. The benefit of a good old chair, he says, is that it supports your lumbar spine, lowering the pressure on your disks and your risk for disk degeneration: “Maybe initially it’s better to sit on a ball, but as you tire, you can get into trouble. The danger is the typical hunching or arching that happens as the day wears on. It only works if you maintain perfect posture."
As an example, if you get tired or distracted and start leaning to one side, you risk straining the joints on the side of the spine, leading to muscle fatigue, lactic acid buildup, and pain. “Anything beyond five degrees for an extended period of time means you’re putting too much pressure on the spine,” Shamie says. Unfortunately, no matter how strong you are, your muscles relax as you sit for long periods of time, transmitting more pressure to your disks and joints. In order to maintain your posture, Shamie recommends getting up and walking around every 40 minutes or so to take the pressure off your back and give your stabilizing muscles a chance to reset. He also emphasizes the importance of a full seven or eight hours of sleep to give your back the best opportunity to recover. Another option, besides an exercise ball, is to avoid the risky business of sitting altogether. A new study out last month indicated that sitting for more than three hours each day, regardless of fitness and exercise level, can literally take several years off your life.
The pressure on your spine is far greater when you’re seated than when you’re standing, so consider trying a vaulted, or standing, desk. (Some back injuries are aggravated by standing, so, as always, consult with your doctor if you're dealing with injury.) Stability training is important, but not at the expense of your back. If you do want to try out an exercise ball, be hyper-vigilant about your posture. Or skip the balancing act and try some quick back exercises throughout the day instead.The following is a guest post by Amanda Greening – a member of Workbar since September, 2014. Science tells us regular, sustained sitting compromises the human body in myriad, potentially dangerous and likely uncomfortable ways. In a nutshell, your body forgets it’s capable of movement; muscles forget how to lengthen and shorten, heart and lungs forget how to pump blood and oxygen, organs go haywire, bones lose density, metabolism slows to a crawl, even brain function grows sluggish.
If you have a desk job, you’ve probably experienced: all-over stiffness, sore back (or hips, knees, shoulders, or neck), shortness of breath, lack of energy, extra pounds creeping on, disturbing blood work, and the general feeling that moving is much harder than staying still. Your body has accepted its new position in life. Why is sitting so lousy for your body? Humans are incredibly efficient adaptation machines -adapting exactly to the stimuli you’re exposed to, but no further. This is called the SAID Principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. If you run, jump, bend, push, pull, reach and twist, SAID dictates your body will rise to the challenge – given time and progressive overload. If you sit all day, your body adapts no further, and throws on the brakes when you try to be more than furniture. Here is a classic scenario: Desk jockey goes for a run after a day chained to her chair. Seems benign enough to get some movement and fresh air. But, sitting for the previous 8 hours has not prepared her body for a thousand single leg hops;
flexion and extension at her hips, ankles, and knees with every step, or sustained heart rate elevation. Pain and injury ensue and her body gets weaker instead of stronger. The exercise modality usually gets the blame, but it’s the sitting that caused the injury – the exercise is only the canary in the coal mine. Now that we’re clear on the cause and effect relationship between sedentary lifestyle and loss of physical function, let’s talk rehab. Remember the SAID Principle – if you want your body to adapt for movement, you need to teach it, throughout the day, how to move. To this end, I’ve designed a workout of 10 targeted exercises, to be done at or near your workspace, that will get you fixed up faster than you can say “back spasms.” In creating this workout, my focus was on reversing the specific, negative, muscular adaptations associated with sitting. When done regularly, these exercises will elevate your heart rate, increase hamstring flexibility and shoulder and hip mobility, incorporate rotation and lateral movement, and – perhaps most importantly – activate your glutes throughout.
These aren’t the most aggressive movements on the block, because: 1) I want them to be safe for even the least mobile among us, 2) No one wants to break a serious sweat in their work clothes, and 3) I don’t believe you’ll really do them at work unless they’re low-profile. That said, if you zero in on form and focus on engaging the right muscles, you will absolutely feel the burn and the benefit. Support this work by walking more, taking the stairs, and intermittently standing to work. So, take off your heels, adjust your clothing if you need to, warn your cubicle neighbors, and get moving!Repeat entire sequence twice in the morning and afternoon.) About the Author: Amanda Greening is a Master Level Personal Trainer, Pilates Instructor, Certified Holistic Health Coach, and blogger at The Health You Want. She sees training clients at her home studio in Watertown, and Health Coaching clients at Workbar Cambridge. Get to know her on Twitter @DaHealthYouWant and Instagram @TheHealthYouWant.