Along with the recent suggestions to use sit/stand desks and also to get up and walk around every 30 minutes or so, I’ve been reading about a couple of office/desk “chairs” that aren’t really chairs but backless stools that promote good posture, permit the body to move while seated, and, many say, help alleviate back problems.
Please let me make one more comment and then this thread can die a natural death.
I went by the Relax the Back door yesterday to sit on the $700 Swopper. It’s very sproingey and bouncy. When you sit on it, you do sink down on the heavy duty spring. There is also considerable side to side and back and forth circular motion. You do not feel stable, and I can see where your back muscles would have to be constantly engaged to keep you upright. I can also see that if you ever got good at it, your balance and strength would have increased.
The store owner said people can experience a lot of shoulder and neck tension as part of the learning curve. They recommend not using it for more than an hour at a time. Of course, we’re supposed to be getting up from our normal desk chairs every half hour and stretching, too, right?
He said they used to carry the Kore Wobble chair but stopped because people kept falling off of them.
If you’re near a Relax the Back store, go try one out.
I just use a balance ball, not a balance ball chair. It’s like sitting on a balance ball. It supposedly works my core - don’t know if it really does. And if you’re a determined sloucher, you can slouch on it. I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’m used to it.
My mother uses something that looks like the Kore and likes it (as it is my mother, I’m sure she found it at a thrift shop - which gives two data points. Someone didn’t like the chair and got rid of it).
We have a Swopper. The kids love it. Strong-cored little minks. I use it for shorter periods of time and it’s fine.
My dad sat on it and went right over. Not for someone in less than normal physical condition.
I think you have to constantly remind yourself to sit straight and not slouch to get a benefit. The Balance Ball chair seems more effective to me. Although I’ve seen it used, and used it myself, as just the largest size balance ball. No chair.
I considered getting a Swopper. I tend not to depend on my chair backs much anyway, and so the idea appealed to me. I also have to rotate around a lot for work (switching between several computers), so that aspect also seemed nice. Never actually tried one, though. At work we get a chair subsidy which I was going to apply to it.
There’s a Relax the Back store near here (never heard of them before); I’ll check them out–thanks for the suggestion.
I got it when my bulging disc was acting up and at that point I was ready to try anything to get the pain to go away.
It’s comfy for short periods, but after a while it makes my butt fall asleep. It does let me sit in a position that tends to help with the sciatica. I also have a motorized sit-stand desk and a normal desk chair, and I’ll cycle through all three over the course of a day.