5 Reasons to Exchange Your Office Chair for a Yoga Ball
You may have heard of or seen the popular exercise ball (or yoga ball) in place of a desk chair at your office, supervisor’s office, or even at a friend’s home desk. This is no ordinary trend! While yoga balls are great for different exercises, stretches, and poses, they also provide some great benefits in your work environment. Why should you swap your office chair for a yoga ball?
1. Work Those Muscles!
When you’re on a yoga ball, your body needs to balance itself. In order to create and establish balance, your body is working all kinds of different muscles in small ways. So while you’re sitting at your desk, you’re really working muscles and helping to tone them while you work! The yoga ball will subtly roll or shift, and your body will compensate for this by repositioning itself and working to achieve balance again. Throughout your workday, this results in hundreds of different movements that help keep you toned and sculpt your core.
2. Perfect Posture
Now, don’t get me wrong—you can still have poor posture on a yoga ball. However, if you have the correct-sized ball for your height and the desk’s height, you should be able to achieve perfect posture. Your back will be forced to stay straight in order to achieve balance. This might be a little difficult at first and it may even create soreness if you’re not used to having such good posture at your desk. With time, however, your body will adjust and you’ll have great posture while working. Good posture is important to keep our bodies healthy and feeling great!
3. Burn Calories
All those little muscle movements that we mentioned earlier? Yeah, they are helping you burn calories just by sitting at your desk! Which is great if you have a rather stagnant work environment where you don’t get to move much until lunchtime. The little movements your body is doing to create balance help you burn calories throughout your work day. Getting a little exercise in addition to the balance routine on your yoga ball is ideal, but you might feel better about skipping that short walk at lunchtime every once in a while knowing you’ve burned another several hundred calories while on your yoga ball at work!
4. Stay Energized
Sitting at an office chair is not getting your blood flowing, am I right? You might cross and re-cross your legs (which, admittedly, is not good for your legs or their veins), shift your torso and back, and occasionally straighten up from being slouched over. These movements are not helping you stay energized, and the poor posture is hurting your back more than anything else. This can lead to headaches, sublaxations in the spine (minor dislocations), and over time, will likely cause you chronic pain. Stay energized at work and keep your creative juices flowing while bouncing, shifting, and maintaining balance on your yoga ball.
5. Get Excited
Working at a boring office desk chair just isn’t very exciting—they’re dull, they collect dust, and over time, they get really worn out. Why not get a fun colorful yoga ball to sit on at work, whether you work in a corporate office or at home? You can choose your favorite color and the perfect size for you (your thighs should be just about parallel to the floor for your perfect size). The best part about yoga balls is that they are inexpensive! You can get a great quality one for as little as $20! So get excited about the benefits of using a yoga ball as your office chair!
Should you switch your office chair for a yoga ball? The choice is yours. Maybe your office isn’t as excited as you are about you bouncing around on a bright pink yoga ball. Regardless, consider the benefits and talk with your boss about making the switch! And if you work from home or have your own office, what are you waiting for?
