We can’t say it enough, movement is everything. We haven’t yet found a back problem that isn’t improved by it (except a few during the very early recovery stages) and your body struggles to function without it.
“I move, therefore I am.”
- Haruki Murakami,
Movement is not just about what you do outside of work, it can completely transform your work environment - furniture should enhance your movement rather than getting in your way or hold oyu in one spot. Your office chair is like a life partner, and you’ll probably spend more time with your chair than almost anyone or anything else in your life.
The key to all good chairs is movement, forwards-and-backwards, side-to-side, up-and-down, the more movement the better. We call this active sitting. Once you achieve active sitting your core muscles will become stronger and you will find your posture will improve overnight, joints will be less stiff, and you will become more focused and have higher concentration levels.
"My theory about sitting is simple: if we are allowed to move, we move"
- Peter Opsvik.
When you tilt a little forwards on your seat (or sit on a saddle) you balance the spine over the pelvis – i.e. good posture! – On the best chairs, the rock of the chair is exceptionally good at helping you to keep good posture, even when you are tired.
A little (or a lot) forwards tilt can work immediately to improve posture, stimulate movement, and keep joints and muscles active while sitting.
“People are sitting down at work, then sitting in the car and then sitting down in front of the television. Your metabolic rate crashes to an absolute minimum. It isn't natural. Humans are design to stand up and keep moving.”
- Dr John Buckley.
And one of the possible solutions to this is to increase your metobolic burn while sitting, by sitting actively.
Adopting this approach many years ago with our own teams has seen us reduce back pain related sick leave to less than 0.1% (10 years average) the normal UK average is 40%.
There is not much in life that is more tiring than doing absolutely nothing. It’s a sure fire way to guarantee feeling lethargic and restless.
Movement and activity is the life blood of everything we do as humans, it’s keeps us sane, active, healthy, vital, helps our heart stay healthy, our energy levels stay high and helps our brain to process better.
The thing we often forget is that that movement is just as important when we are sitting. Chairs without movement are depriving your body of the very thing that makes it work.
