Exercise Ball Office Chair

The exercise ball is an equipment used to perform stretching exercises, weight training and other exercise ball workouts. The use of exercise ball as office furniture is considered by a few experts as a better alternative to using traditional chairs. There are, however, conflicting views being expressed on the usage of this equipment as a seating tool in the long term. The following article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using the exercise ball office chair.

Benefits of Exercise Ball Chairs
Many experts claim that the use of exercise ball chairs in office, though not a common practice, is a better option than using ordinary chairs.

Proper Spine Alignment: The unstable surface of the exercise ball requires constant adjustment in the seating position on the part of the user. It automatically leads to the maintenance of the right body posture. The spinal health too is improved.

Balance: The sense of balance of a person, sitting on an exercise ball, improves with time. The exercise ball also causes improvement in the reaction of muscles towards the instability, resulting from its circular shape.

Change in Position: The office chairs that we normally use don't allow much body movement. Sitting in the same position for a prolonged time could affect the back and abdominal muscles in the long run. To avoid this problem, one should change the seating position as frequently as possible. The exercise ball allows for changes in the seating position due to its inherent structure and shape.

Improvement in the Blood Circulation: The exercise ball chair requires the body to move constantly. It helps in overcoming the blood circulation problems. The conventional office chairs hardly allow for such kind of body movements.

Abdominal Muscles Workout: The change in balance of the body is countered/leveled by the response of abdominal muscles. Thus, spending time on this chair is a type of abdominal exercise, which helps in working out the ab muscles.

Counter-view
The use of Swiss/exercise balls, though is recommended by few experts, have side effects that need to be considered. An exercise ball doesn't provide any support to the trunk as in the case of normal chairs. The constant movement of trunk muscles leads to their contraction and thereby the inter-vertebral discs undergo compression. The stress that the vertebral discs undergo, could aggravate into complex problems such as back pain or slipped disc in the future.

Swooper Chair
The swooper chair is somewhat like a stool that has a concave base and is considered to be the modified form of the exercise ball. The swooper chair, though modified to some extent, still causes the movement of the trunk and thereby increases the pressure on the discs.

There is little data available on the long term effects of using the exercise ball as a chair. One should thus, consider the pros and cons of exercise ball office chair mentioned above and proceed further.