How to be Back-tastic!!

Here is an entertaining little video talking about how to choose an ergonomically correct chair for your desk.        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns_mt77JZb0&noredirect=1

Spine-Health.com also has some additional information on some more unusual office chair solutions. Here is a summary of their article:

• Stand Up Desk- A side benefit that some people find from working standing up is that they feel more energized and are more productive working while standing up
• Put your foot up on a footrail or footrest to shift your body weight around.
• Use a tall stool so you can change your sitting, standing, leaning position throughout the day
• Add a Podium- Consider adding a podium, lectern or stand up desk in your work area and just do certain tasks while standing, like reading or talking on the phone. This way you can move between your regular desk and your standup area and get some variety in your positions during the workday.
• Walking Desk- Burn almost 120 extra calories per hour while working at your computer, or 45 pounds a year! You are of course walking very slowly and safely...
• Exercise Ball- your body is constantly making minor adjustments to remain balanced on the ball - and this requires your core body muscles, your abs and large lower back muscles, to work to hold the body upright and balanced on the ball. And because there is not back as on an office chair, it's hard to slump or slouch, which encourages good posture.
• Balance Stool- A balance stool the same general idea as an exercise ball – forcing you to sit with good posture (as you're not able to slump or slouch) and many versions, such as the Swopper, encourage active sitting as they bounce up and down and side to side, making your core muscles work in order to stay balanced on it.
• Kneeling Chair- A kneeling chair is actually a bit of a misnomer, because you're not really kneeling while on the chair, just sitting while angled forward with some of your bodyweight supported by your shins. Your shins provide stability, but the body is still sitting, not kneeling. The design of the chair is intended to:
• Reduce some of the strain placed on the lower back when sitting in conventional, right angle office chairs – the idea is that sitting while tilted forward slightly places the spine in a more neutral position.
• Encourage good posture by sliding the hips forward so that your weight is distributed between your pelvis and knees/shins, which reduces spinal compression, and therefore reduces the stress and tension in the lower back and leg muscles.
• Recliner- Many people with back pain feel much more comfortable sitting in a reclining position than sitting upright. In a survey on Spine-health.com, we found that 72% of people with back pain felt less pain when lying down or reclining.

Here is the link to the article I referenced above http://www.spine-health.com/blog/unusual-office-chair-solutions