Exercise Ball Chair Exercises

Overview

The exercise ball chair is becoming more and more popular among people who are constantly sitting behind their desks all day. Bad ergonomics leads to a whole array of health problems, such as shoulder tightness, headaches, rounded shoulders and low back pain. By using the exercise ball chair you can improve posture, work on core stability and improve overall fitness--all while you still work.

Choose the Right Ball

One of the most important parts of sitting on an exercise ball chair is making sure the ball is the proper size. If you only use a ball and not a supporting stand with the ball the following guidelines will help you find the right size:

If you are between 4'11" and 5'4", you need a ball that is 55 cm. If you are between 5'5" and 5'11", you need a ball that is 65 cm. If you are between 6'0" and 6'7", you need a ball that is 75 cm.

Regardless if you use a chair base or not, when you sit on the ball you want your knees to be level with the ground or hips slightly higher than the knees while you are on the ball. You also want to be sure that your exercise ball chair is close enough to your desk that you aren't reaching too far forward with your work.

If you are overweight or obese it is still safe to sit on an exercise ball, but you do want to make sure that the ball is burst-resistant. There are companies that make burst-resistant balls that will hold well over 600 pounds.

Proper Sitting Position

While you are sitting on the ball, ensure that your back is straight up and not leaning forward. Your feet should be about should-width apart and toes pointing forward. Your ball should be in a position that is close enough that you don't have to lean or reach too far forward to work at your desk.

Posturally, you should have a slight curve in the low back while you sit. Your shoulders should not be rounded forward, and most importantly make sure that your chin is tucked in and your head is not too far forward over your shoulders. The ball is excellent at giving you the mobility and keeping your core engaged while you sit, but it's just as easy to develop bad habits on the ball as it is on a regular chair if you are not careful. When you first start to use the ball make sure that your posture is in proper alignment to prevent these habits in the first place.

Muscle Balance

When most people exercise they tend to focus only on the muscles on the front of the body and ignore the back muscles. This focus causes us to further slouch when we sit and causes a large muscle imbalance between the front and the back of the body. Using the ball as a chair provides excellent range of motion, stability and flexibility for the back muscles as well as the core to improve posture and prevent any type of muscle imbalance from forming.

Exercises on the Ball

The biggest benefit of sitting on the ball chair is that it gives you free mobility in the hips and core while you are sitting. Moving while you sit not only helps with bad posture but also allows you do develop your core while you are working. There are simple exercises that keep your hips moving and allow the core more stability at the same time.

Hip rolls: While sitting on your chair simply rock the hips forward and backwards by tilting the hips in that direction. Try to keep your upper body stable while you do this. If you have discomfort or pain while doing it, reduce the amount of movement in that direction.

Diagonal hip rolls: Very similar to the hip rolls except instead of going forward and backward and side to side, you want to rock in a diagonal direction. Make an "X" motion with your hips by coming forward to the right first then back to the left, then forward to the left then back to the left. Keep repeating this process as often as you want.

A little bit more advance exercise that is beneficial while you sit for your core is to slightly raise one foot off of the ground as you are sitting straight up in the proper position. All motions like this start in the core and work the core by making your body balance in one position. Switch legs back and forward and only hold the leg up for a second or two before switching legs.

Warning

One oversight that people often make with the exercise ball chair is that they think it can't be overdone. Unfortunately, in this case, there can be too much of a good thing. You should not sit on the ball for more than a couple hours at a time. The muscles of the low back and core are activated and engaged while sitting on it and you can over stress them by sitting on the ball for too long of a period of time, which will tend to cause tendinitis or overuse injuries in the back.

It's recommended that you ramp up the period of time you spend on the ball slowly over time. Start out by sitting on it for a half an hour to an hour at a time, then increase that time every week or two.