Intelligent and iconic, yes, but can an office chair also be ergonomic? I’ve been looking for active sitting solutions to support my clients who sit all day long. A zero gravity chair like the Gravity Balans chair might be the answer.
WORKOUTS UNDONE
If only my fitness clients didn’t have to go back to the office after their workouts, they would progress so much faster. So much of their hard work is undone when they return to their body-destroying workstations. My ‘office dweller’ workouts always include what I now call a ‘corrective component’ where we spend a good 10 minutes on chest opening exercises and back mobilizers just to undo the hours of sitting, hunching and straining at the computer. While ergonomic interventions can do a world of good, we are just not meant to sit for extended periods of time.
ACHY BREAKY BACKS
My clients get very creative as they try to avoid sitting related back, neck and shoulder pain. One of my clients has a lounging lawnchair tucked in the corner of the office and he pulls it out for midday lay-down. Another client employs a ‘laying-on-the-office-floor-during-long-phone-calls’ strategy to save her back.
ACTIVE SITTING
Knowing that the body does not respond well to sitting for extended periods, I am always on the lookout for active sitting solutions to extend my clients commitment to their healthy and active lifestyle beyond the gym. However, I am usually met with laughs (for good reason) when I propose a ‘stay active while you work’ plan. The stationary cycle beside the desk never caught on. There are software programs that hijack your computer every 45 minutes to encourage you to walk around or perform your neck stretches, however, the has always met with a quick ‘uninstall’.
A CHAIR THAT MOVES WITH YOU
Recently my interest was peaked by VARIÉR®, a furniture company whose story seems to resonate with my clients sitting woes. ‘Energy, ideas and well-being are released through variation and movement’ is a statement I would expect to see on a fitness or wellness brochure, yet it serves as the principle on which furniture company VARIÉR® has built its unique sitting concept.
Scandinavian in design (Peter Opsvik) and boasting a 26-year time-test, VARIÉR’s Gravity Balans chair (shown above) claims to offer relaxers a sitting experience that is ‘probably the closest you will ever get to achieving zero gravity’. For taskers, the Gravity Balans supports reclined computing and claims to ‘continuously and effectively support the body’s natural impulses to movement’ throughout all seated working requirements.
CLASSY AND FUNCTIONAL
For my discerning clientele with Eames and Le Corbusier accented homes and offices, VARIÉR’s bold designs (and environmental stewardship) are worth exploring. The Gravity Balans chair might just be the inspired active sitting solution we seek.
“The ‘living’ human is in a relationship with his chair that supports his natural, and thus healthy activities and doesn’t interfere with them. Human and chair form one unit. The natural rhythmic accumulation and release of stress, which is important for the “whole person”, is no longer hindered but rather supported – continually and effectively.”
VARIÉR Gravity Balans Spec Sheet
Rethinking sitting (Designer Peter Opsviks’ animated and interactive discussion on active sitting. Recommended!)
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I started pumping iron and drinking green smoothies in my teens. Now a 40+ mama with 25 years of experience working in the fitness industry, I do things differently. What I discovered during my personal healing journey made me pivot in my approach as a personal fitness and wellness coach. Now I teach people how to sweat, nourish and glow from an entirely new perspective.
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