Blog

abstract representation of lower back pain

Can Active Sitting Help with Acute Low Back Pain?

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard P. Feynman I’ve been interested in the benefits of sitting actively for sometime now. N...

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man sitting at a desk taking calls with a headset

Better Posture

Posture is a seemingly uncomplicated attribute of our every moment. It is simply the habitual way we array ourselves in response to gravity, and is as individual as our personalities. But, becau...

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medical drawing of the human spine

Posture, Good and Bad: We know it when we see it

Posture is simply how we arrange ourselves in response to gravity, so it seems a simple idea. The word posture comes from the Latin ponere, meaning "to place", and thus has an innate static qu...

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chiropractor treating patient with sciatica

Sciatica:  Causes, Cures, and … Chairs?

Understanding the cause of sciatica Sciatica is simply pain that radiates down the leg from the lower back. While “radiates” is a term loved by doctors, patients typically describe their pa...

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Two senior people in a Tai Chi practice

Active Sitting: Can it keep you young?

It is a personal failing of mine that I don’t monitor my phone very carefully, so I wasn’t surprised to find that I had missed another call, but this was a call I’m sorry to have missed. The messa...

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Are You Sitting Too Much?  Here are the symptoms of “sitting disease”

Are You Sitting Too Much? Here are the symptoms of “sitting disease”

What is sitting disease? “Sitting disease” is not a specific disease recognized by doctors. Rather, it is a lay term that epidemiologists have adopted because it neatly captures the health ...

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man seated at desk with hands rubbing back and neck

Why does my office chair hurt my back?

If you’ve ever shopped for an office chair you’ve likely noticed that all the designs are startlingly similar. All have backrests and a lumbar support arrangement, and most have armrests. Addition...

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frustrated woman sitting in ergonomic office chair

Unnecessary "ergonomic" chair parts

Why do office chairs have so many parts?   People searching for the “best ergonomic office chair” are nonplussed when they land on our website and see a chair that's missing most of its "key" pa...

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young woman practicing yoga

Mindful Sitting

Sometime ago I introduced a statistician programmer friend, Ramiro, to active sitting, and his eyes immediately lit up. But his first sentence took me by surprise: “When I sit on this chair, my mi...

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Office with long table and chairs

What “Big Chair” Doesn’t Want You to Know

As with many other industries, a handful of companies make almost all of the “ergonomic” office furniture in the United States. These are ancient and immense companies. Steelcase, for example, is ...

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Head Horns (Pt. 2)

Head Horns (Pt. 2)

Image Source: The Telegraph Recently, news emerged about a troubling finding: young people growing a “head horn.” Was this the physical manifestation of too much hand-held screen time? Are our ...

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Person running down a road

The inventor of the Barefoot Shoe loves our office chair

We recently connected with the inventor of the VivoBarefoot Shoe, and he loves our office chair. His idea for how minimal shoes help your body, parallels how active sitting in a minimalist chair su...

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gina petro, music producer and artist

Sitting Active While Making Music

Because sitting still is bad for people, the less one sits, the better. But, some activities require a seated posture, and for these beloved or necessary tasks it seems sitting was unavoidabl...

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ButtOn chair to keep kids active while sitting

Best chair for people with ADHD?

Can active sitting help people with ADHD focus better? Research shows that alternative seating and being able to move or fidget, can improve attention.

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hands on a person's back providing relief from back pain treatment

Can active sitting help people with scoliosis?

Can active sitting help people with scoliosis? Possibly. In the least, it helped relieve the pain of sitting for one young woman.

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Elderly person walking along tree lined river in Japan

Effortless Fitness: Why there are no gyms in Japan

Japanese people embrace walking as regular exercise. As a result, few people use gyms, but experience life-long health benefits. Could active sitting provide the same benefits as regular walking?

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woman demonstrates exercise using QOR360 chair

Active sitting - what's it for?

“What’s it for?” Or, occasionally, “What’s it good for?” I get this question about our chairs a lot, and I have to say, it’s a hard question for me. Which may seem a little odd, because I’m the ...

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Mayumi Ishii - Golf

Sitting for Sport

Every year, millions of people spend money on products that claim to improve their sports game. They might buy the latest running sneakers, or gloves for golfing, or refresh their daily yoga pract...

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Feldenkrais session with Uwe Mester

The Feldenkrais Approach to Healing Back Pain

Uwe Mester is a Certified Feldenkrais Teacher, and Member of the Feldenkrais Guild of America. In this second guest blog post, Uwe explains more about the Feldenkrais Method® approach to healing b...

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feldenkrais with uwe mester in burlington vermont

Back Pain: The Feldenkrais Perspective

A Guest Blog by Uwe Mester, Certified Feldenkrais Teacher, Member of the Feldenkrais Guild of America I would like to introduce you to Uwe Mester, a body movement and posture expert who has been...

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girl sitting in ergonomic chair

Somehow, Every Ergonomist Gets Sitting Wrong

The field of ergonomics hasn’t changed their approach and recommendations for chairs in many, many years, even while the rate of Americans with back pain stubbornly persists at 80%. With that sort...

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three people working at a desk

Workplace Wellness Programs Don’t Work. Time for a Home Office Reboot?

We humans spent our first 3 million years as hunter-gatherers, and over that long period, we came to expect certain benefits: sunshine, fresh air, fresh food, and above all physical activity. And...

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glass of water on a table

What if most of the advice you’ve been given is wrong?

We’re given a lot of advice over our lives, especially as children. And, because this advice comes from people we trust who want the best for us, this advice becomes the basis for how we live our ...

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woman squatting on path in the woods

Squatting in the 21 Century

We force kids to abandon squatting so as adults, the position is nearly impossible and uncomfortable. Try this… drop a pencil on the floor and pick it up. Notice - did you bend over at the waist, ...

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