I originally wrote this for the magazine but a demographic shift means it's no longer usable.....
Recently, my friend and I were discussing how uncomfortable we find the chairs we sit on for most of the day, every day, so we decided to get a little creative and think of things that might substitute for those chairs. Our not-so-great ideas included a tree stump (think of the splinter hazards), a stack of old textbooks, and no chair at all. But I’d have to say our best idea was the exercise ball….and here’s why:
- It’s colorful. Most desk chairs offer you the wide color selection of black, or gray, or brown, or black. If a store is particularly daring, they may carry some shade of navy blue that is so dark it may as well be black. In contrast, the exercise ball comes in bright colors like yellow, red, and blue—the primaries. What an eye-catching way to add a little pop to your desk space.
- It’s round. I don’t know why I find this fact so appealing other than that chairs don’t really have a shape. They’re chair-shaped. But an exercise ball, it’s spherical. It’s the best shape because it has no edges. If you hit your knee on it because you misjudged a corner—oh wait! Impossible. There is no corner.
- It’s playful. I like to see how long I can balance on an exercise ball without touching the floor and have minor competitions with others or with myself. The game is not quite so challenging when you’re seated on a chair with four legs. I’ve tried it. It’s rather dull.
- It’s unique. Do you know anyone who has an exercise ball-chair? I don’t.
- It’s bouncy. I have been known to have some difficulty sitting still. And if you can get me to sit still, it probably isn’t in the proper way to sit in a normal chair. I’ll sit with in Indian-style, with my feet folded under my legs and nothing hanging down (let alone placed firmly on the ground). I’ll even sit with my feet both up on the chair, my knees bent, and my chin resting on my knees—let me tell you, this is a general no-no in the professional world. If I’m going to sit primly and properly all day long, my desk chair at home better offer me something different. The exercise ball is an interactive chair. It’s not quite so serious. And you know what bouncy, bouncy, bouncy means….
- It’s fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
There are, of course, negative aspects to the exercise ball-chair. For instance, how would you slide it under the desk for a nice, neat effect? It would just roll right out again. I can’t say I know of much back support that it offers—although, that may instead require you to work on your posture, which would, in turn, be a positive aspect of the ball-chair. The most obvious negative for the exercise ball desk chair is, of course, that with all the colorfulness, roundness, playfulness, individuality, bounciness, and fun, you’d never look at anything on the actual desk. This possibility somewhat defeats the point of the desk itself. In which case, we could remove the desk and simply play with the exercise ball in an empty room…..only when would any work get done?
Oooh, dilemma.
