I see our school nurse has swapped her desk chair for an exercise ball. In doing research on the subject, I found many sites listing the pros and cons. Here are a few conclusions:
Instead of ditching your desk chair entirely for an exercise ball or skipping out on using the ball altogether, Matthews recommends alternating between sitting on the two throughout the day.
The bottom line: Exercise balls should be left for … exercise! And not used for sitting at your desk all day. Use them for small periods of time as part of your fitness and exercise plan.
The idea of improving your health while doing something you have to be doing anyway is attractive. However, this is not a good means to do it. If you want to improve your health, eating healthfully, being active, stretching, and engaging in an effective exercise program are much better ideas than swapping out your chair for an exercise ball. Save the exercise ball for crunches and wall squats.
“To be quite frank, I cannot see any advantage or reason for a person to be using an exercise ball as an office chair,” says Jack P. Callaghan, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Spine Biomechanics and Injury Prevention at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
So there you have it, folks. Your friendly librarian saved you the trouble and did the research for you.
Interesting! I have one that I've used in the recent past. It really seemed to improve my posture as I was "forced" to sit up with a straight spine. I got used to it and didn't even think about it anymore. Then, my husband brought home a new office chair for me . . . ;)
