Does Anyone Use A Gym Ball As A Chair?

[daniel stallion]

I bought one on a whim at Asda and was wondering if anyone else had one and if they found it made any difference. The good thing about it is it does make a rather comfy chair and it does make me fidget about more so must be burning up some calories.

I have tried one. Not sure what the 'experts' have to say about it, but I found it make my back worse. I think it was because not only do you have to have on, but you have to use it properly as a chair - and if you are naturally slovenly (like me) its too much like hard work.

[Tiger Woods?]

I bought one on a whim at Asda and was wondering if anyone else had one and if they found it made any difference. The good thing about it is it does make a rather comfy chair and it does make me fidget about more so must be burning up some calories.

They can be good if you have a bad back as they enforce good posture. Mrs D'oh used one for a long time when she worked in an office.

[codeine]

All I can do while sitting on one is concentrate on sitting on it. I can't actually do any work on one.

[codeine]

Perhaps I just have a poor sense of balance... I'm 24 and am 10 stone in weight.

I could read HPC while sat on one but I definitely couldn't do any heavy concentration on one (without forgetting I am sat on one and falling onto my ****)

Never known anyone else that has used one in this fashion, but then I work in a secondary school so if I kept one there it would end up becoming a novelty football.

[Sibley's Love Child]

Perhaps I just have a poor sense of balance... I'm 24 and am 10 stone in weight.

I could read HPC while sat on one but I definitely couldn't do any heavy concentration on one (without forgetting I am sat on one and falling onto my ****)

Never known anyone else that has used one in this fashion, but then I work in a secondary school so if I kept one there it would end up becoming a novelty football.

Good god; at 10 stone i'd be more concerned about the gym ball eating you...

[Sibley's Love Child]

Maybe Codeine is a girl.

Hmm, possibly; they're everywhere...

[Si1]

Huh. I definitely must have some strong core muscles. I did a good afternoon's worth of work on it today without thinking about it (other than thinking how comfy it was).

do you have co-ordinator, champion, diversity or some other such public sector non-jobiness in your job title?

[ccc]

Biology PhD student - requires the use of your brain.

Everything requires the use of your brain. Drinking a pint of Stella, picking your nose, you name it.

[CHF]

a lot of it depends on how much pressure is in it as to how hard it will be but it is very good core work when used properly

[Pick It Down]

They can be good if you have a bad back as they enforce good posture. Mrs D'oh used one for a long time when she worked in an office.

Slouching can be good for your back. Think about it, having all the body weight on your vertebrae one on top of each other isn't all that clever, spreading by weight by having a good slouch eases the pressure between vertebrae. So long as you can relax that's the best thing, sitting on a gym ball and trying to work sounds like a nightmare. Best just to get a comfy chair you can sink into.

[osbaldwick]

It taught me that I have a poor sense of balance and that I should stick to the sofa

[Pick It Down]

It taught me that I have a poor sense of balance and that I should stick to the sofa

The sofa is probably better for your back.

All these people that go on about posture are the ones that seem fixed into an unnatural position and have weird diets, etc.

[I_Claudius]

All these people that go on about posture are the ones that seem fixed into an unnatural position and have weird diets, etc.

you mean like pretty much every single physician qualified to pass comment on back health?

[Pick It Down]

you mean like pretty much every single physician qualified to pass comment on back health?

Nope, physicians that say you need to sit on a gym ball are wrong.

[I_Claudius]

Nope, physicians that say you need to sit on a gym ball are wrong.

All these people that go on about posture are the ones that seem fixed into an unnatural position and have weird diets, etc.

I think you'll find they all "go on about posture" tho

Not sure they'd advise you that slouching into a soft chair to work is good for your back either.

[Pick It Down]

I think you'll find they all "go on about posture" tho

Not sure they'd advise you that slouching into a soft chair to work is good for your back either.

Slouch - it's the safest way to sit

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article652318.ece

Like I've always said on these threads - ignore the faddy female pseudo-science doing the rounds. It's useless.

[Sledgehead]

I definitely must have some strong core muscles.

[i am a ] Biology PhD student

Are you ever so certain you aren't really a personal trainer / sports scientist?

Sorry, but I simply hate that term. It's supposedly helpful language, yet I haven't come across a gym victim who doesn't think they have posturally important muscles inside (as implied by the term "core") their thoracic / abdominal cavities. When did it become popular anyhow?

[Pick It Down]

Are you ever so certain you aren't really a personal trainer / sports scientist?

Sorry, but I simply hate that term. It's supposedly helpful language, yet I haven't come across a gym victim who doesn't think they have posturally important muscles inside (as implied by the term "core") their thoracic / abdominal cavities. When did it become popular anyhow?

It's popular amongst those who like to talk about "functional exercises" too.

It's a kind of anti-visible-muscle argument. Used by skinny folk who like to think they are fit.

[Sledgehead]

It's popular amongst those who like to talk about "functional exercises" too.

It's a kind of anti-visible-muscle argument. Used by skinny folk who like to think they are fit.

Incidentally, I knew a roofer who was so out of shape, come lunchtime, he didn't even have the energy to shout suggestive remarks to young women passing on the street below. A personal trainer advised him to work on his qwoar muscles.

[Battenberg]

I don't think I could get on with a gym ball as a chair.

I had my coccyx injected 8 weeks ago and I'm constantly in pursuit of the best seat. I've been looking at those kneeling seats but some of them are over £100. A bit of a risk if it's uncomfortable.

[JustYield]

I had my coccyx injected 8 weeks ago and I'm constantly in pursuit of the best seat. I've been looking at those kneeling seats but some of them are over £100. A bit of a risk if it's uncomfortable.

A decent chair will cost a lot more than that. It's a false economy to get a cheap chair, back problems being expensive and time consuming to sort out. But that doesn't mean you have to get an Aeron or something. My $30 Swiss ball is more fun to sit on than my $x,000 Aeron, which is way too low for one thing. Or my desk is too high. In any case, I have to now watch I don't stay in one position too long.

And Sledge, get yourself down to a yoga class if you want to discover your core muscles. If you object to the term it's up to you to come up with a better description for those muscles groups.

[blankster]

No, but I might or might not have used a chair as a gym ball in the past.

[Cogs]

I don't think I could get on with a gym ball as a chair.

I had my coccyx injected 8 weeks ago and I'm constantly in pursuit of the best seat. I've been looking at those kneeling seats but some of them are over £100. A bit of a risk if it's uncomfortable.

They don't work very well, its the same problem as the gym ball. Its great for a day of two and then you'll find a way of slouching on both which is worse than useless. Learn to sit properly in a chair and if the will flags at least you are supported.

[Sledgehead]

And Sledge, get yourself down to a yoga class if you want to discover your core muscles.

It's my body, it's not the New World ffs.

IMHE the only muscle people seem to have trouble locating is their pubococcygeus muscle, and I don't think I'd want a yoga instructor "showing" me that one. For the rest try some proper excercises and weight training.

And incidentally, I had a chair made for me once by a "professional", following a car accident - money no object cos the insurers were footing the bill. I was horrified to find an off-the shelf Staples special was more supportive for 1/30th of the cost.

Fact is it's all big con. One decade they'll tell you you need more support, next decade, less. Then they'll invent stupid terms like "core" when trunk, lower-back, upper back, chest etc are far more meaningful. Personal trainers however love the term core because it is simultaneously:

- ambiguous;

- indicative of a sense of being essential.

Give 'em half a chance and they'll have you on acai berries, having moved swiftly on from gogi berries (and blue-berries before that).

These phenomena have one thing in common: the presentation of something as essentially new / novel so as to extract a higher margin. There is however nothing new about exercing the "core", just as there is nothing new about berries & currants. People used to go black-berrying for free and do crunches etc, for free. Now, because they are credit rich and time poor, they abdicate all responsibility for their own health, prefering to allow new age "gurus" to fleece them with psychobabble and pseudo-science.

[Sledgehead]

They don't work very well, its the same problem as the gym ball. Its great for a day of two and then you'll find a way of slouching on both which is worse than useless.

The whole point, surely, is just to have one. How else are you to prove to your friends that you are fit? The only alternative would be to actually get fit, and think how much time and hard work that would take!