10 Reasons to Use an Exercise Ball as Your Chair
MyKidzMom
Posts: 97
I finally brought my exercise ball to work today and I can already feel the difference between the ball and the office chair! Loving it already!!! I found this article below and wanted to share.
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.
1. Forces proper spine alignment. 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.
2. Causes you to frequently change positions. 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.
3. Fitness is at your fingertips. 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.
4. Improve your balance. 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. The result? An overall better balance, that can be observed out of the office.
5. Get that 6-pack you’ve been wanting. 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.
6. Improves your circulation. 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.
7. You’ll feel more energetic. 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.
8. Burn up to 350 calories per day. 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.
9. Really cheap. 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.
10. C’mon, its fun! 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.
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.
1. Forces proper spine alignment. 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.
2. Causes you to frequently change positions. 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.
3. Fitness is at your fingertips. 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.
4. Improve your balance. 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. The result? An overall better balance, that can be observed out of the office.
5. Get that 6-pack you’ve been wanting. 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.
6. Improves your circulation. 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.
7. You’ll feel more energetic. 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.
8. Burn up to 350 calories per day. 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.
9. Really cheap. 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.
10. C’mon, its fun! 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.
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Replies
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My co-worker has an exercise ball sitting under another co-workers desk that he NEVER uses!
I'm going to ask him to borrow it!
Thanks for this!0 -
Thanks for this.
I'm going to place my exercise ball at the desk now. Should be fun
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ha I would love to do this... but as a teacher I can imagine the chaos already. my students would be playing games with my chair in no time :laugh:0
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If you're fairly out of shape and maybe do not have such a strong core, please read below:
May I please share my experience so you hopefully can learn from my mistake. I was advised to do this as well and I did it full force. For the first 3 days I sat on that ball for the whole 8 hrs each day. My back was killing me but I didn't want to quit. Listen to your body because I ended up really screwing up my back and really wished I had eased into it better. I then had to quit using it until my back healed. That was about a month ago. I still use it at work, but not every day and not always the full day.
Moral of the story: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY, and don't overdo it.0 -
ha I would love to do this... but as a teacher I can imagine the chaos already. my students would be playing games with my chair in no time :laugh:
:laugh: Yes I don't think that would be a good idea. Maybe you could use it as a chair at home. But then again if you have kids that might be hard too. That is one reason I brought mine to work so the kids would stop using it as their giant kick ball!0 -
Try the Gaiam fitness ball chair with frame.
I have one - work an office job.0 -
That is a really cool idea. I had a herniated disk in my neck at one point and had to go through traction and physical therapy to fix it. I was surprised that of all the exercises I was given to do, only one was for my neck, the rest were for my abs and back to give me good posture which is what I needed to fix the neck problem... I haven't kept up with the exercises at home over the lsat few years and know that my posture is not so good anymore. I'll definitely be giving this a try.0
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I've been sitting on mine at work for the last 6 months or so. I wouldnt recommend sitting on it all day, your back and rear start to get sore. I go back and forth from my ball to my desk chair.0
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I have degenerative disc disease (L4 and L5) with sciatica. My chiro actually recommended using an exercise ball to strengthen my core, especially since all of my college and my business requires me to be online all day. She said I should start with 5 mins at a time switching back and forth between it and a chair until I am comfortable with longer periods of time. I have been spending more time on the couch with my laptop rather than in my office on the desktop so I do not sit on it as often as I should.0
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I just started doing this on Monday of this week and I love it! I feel much less stagnant than just sitting in a chair and I do stretches and mini-exercises all day long. Not planning on seeing a difference from any of it b/c I already work-out a lot, but it can't hurt right?0
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What size ball are you all using? We are talking about this at work and want to make sure the ball is tall enough to reach our key board.0
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I have heard that before. I wonder if I do that if I can change my activity level from sendetary to lightly active. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:0
This discussion has been closed.
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