By Julie Smyth, National Post, Tuesday, Jan.13, 2004

Office workers are throwing out their chairs and embracing those spherical exercise devices you'd normally find at the gym!

Every morning, Lynn Picknell, an executive at a Toronto consulting firm, arrives at her Bay Street office, pulls out an exercise ball from behind her desk, sits down and begins her day. She stopped using a chair months ago and now sits exclusively on her 55-centimetre ball, rolling around while holding meetings, checking e-mail and talking on the phone with other senior executives.

Picknell, vice-president of human resources at Ajilon Consulting, has convinced another half-dozen employees at her office to sit on a ball full-time, getting them a corporate discount on the round exercise devices traditionally limited to fitness classes at the gym.

Across Canada, a number of managers, lawyers and government employees have thrown out their chairs and, instead, squat on large rubbery balls said to be good for posture, strengthening muscles and helping reduce back problems. Athletes have started using them outside of training, sitting on them in the comfort of their houses.

Wade Redden, who plays defence for the Ottawa Senators hockey team, has a ball in his home office and uses it some days while writing back to fans, signing paperwork or typing on his computer. "It's different and you're not slouching in a chair. Sometimes it's fun to roll around," said Redden, who also uses an exercise ball for pre-game warm-ups along with his teammates.

Picknell started using her ball after suffering sports-related back troubles and said that as long as she does not move around too much, few people realize she is sitting on a large round object behind her desk. She now finds it uncomfortable sitting in a regular office chair. She does not go as far as to roll down the hall and out of the confines of her office, but has considered it after long meetings.

"I can only sit in a chair for short periods of time. The ball makes sure your knees are at a right angle to the floor," she said, adding it helps her sit upright even though she has no back support. It also works her muscles. "You have to use your core muscles to ensure you don't wobble and fall off."

Not everyone has been agile enough to adapt. Stephen D'Arcy, her company's chief financial officer, abandoned the ball after he took a nasty spill while trying to balance himself as he worked in his office. "I took a call one night and I was reaching for a file and I fell off the bloody thing. Thank God it was at night so people did not have a full view of the CFO sprawled on the floor," he said.

Joe Pelino, a chiropractor at the Fitness Institute in Toronto who is also a consultant for the Toronto Raptors basketball team and the National Hockey League Players' Association, has a number of clients using the ball. He recommends people sit on one after healing from back pain or to prevent problems relating to poor posture or stress-induced back and neck aches. He said balls are becoming accepted office equipment at many companies, although some people are worried they'll become the subject of jokes at the water cooler.

"Some people say, 'There's no way I could sit on that at my work. They'd laugh at me,' " said Pelino, who himself no longer uses a chair and trains employees how to roll without falling off and how to exercise on the ball.

Mary Beth Currie, a Toronto employment lawyer, loves her ball and said it has helped with her running injury, but her colleagues at her firm, Bennett Jones, remain skeptical of her unconventional arrangement. "It was the butt of the joke at the Christmas party," she said. Her ball became the party entertainment as colleagues rolled it from office to office while nibbling on festive snacks. "People laugh when they see you sitting on the ball. I meet clients in the boardroom so they don't see my ball," said Currie, who uses it for about half the day, seated at her computer.

Kristen Elson, who teaches ball classes at the Dovercourt Fitness Centre in Ottawa, said she knows of government workers who sit on the balls instead of their assigned chairs and has heard of employees at companies such as Nortel Networks using balls. "Once people get familiar with the ball, they want to continue using it. One way of doing that daily is to get rid of your chair," she said. Elson said not having a chair forces people to use their back muscles and does not allow their bodies to get lazy. People can only slouch on a ball for a short period because it quickly becomes uncomfortable and they have to readjust their posture, she said.

However, people sitting in chairs tend to slouch a lot and roll their backs as they lean forward with their chins sticking out, a position that causes stress on the back, shoulders and neck, she said. "If you looked in a mirror, you'd say, 'Oh God, is that how I sit?' You don't do that on a ball."



DISCLAIMER
The information on www.shapetoronto.com is for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to replace the advice or attention of health-care professionals. Please consult your physician or book a consultation with SHAPE before changing your diet or exercise program, for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses and/or injuries, for advice regarding medications, and prior to making use of any of the information within our website, articles or newsletters.