Day 26
I’m having a ball. Well, I’m not having a ball as much as I’m sitting on one! Yes – I have a new office chair. I finally caved and bought myself a BalanceBall Chair (from Gaiam … www.gaiam.com). It looks kind of sci-fi (ish) with its black chair back and rounded open base – where the gigantic air-puffed ball sits atop – and where I “balance”.
So far, so good. At least I haven’t fallen off of it – yet (as I’ve been known to do off a too-fast treadmill and the oh-so-elusive-can’t-get-the-hang-of-it-and-I-don’t-know-why elliptical)! But the day is young and I’ve only had it a week.
Anyway … I like the look of it. Sturdy black, molded plastic – so it is lightweight. It’s on casters (but they don’t roll as easily as my last office chair) and, for obvious reasons, it’s bouncy. So bouncy that I don’t feel like I’m sitting … sitting and bothering my lower back – the site of fractures and infinite, stupid, on-going, annoying and sometimes debilitating pain.
I’m rather liking this new chair!
The chair is noted to: relieve stress on the spine (yes!), help prevent back discomfort and repetitive motion disorders (yes!), help prevent issues related to poor posture (not my problem as I’ve been told I have a “dancer’s back”) and is said to help develop flexibility, balance, and strength if I work out with it (we’ll see)!
The chair (on sale – now!) came with a workout DVD (yeah, like that’ll even get out of the plastic packaging!), a stretchy workout band (I’m more likely to use that as a pony tail holder for my 2″ long pony tail), a stretchy resistance cord thing that looks so cool I might have to give it a try and 2 (two!) books – a workout guidebook and a desktop guide book (stretches and exercises I can do while sitting at my desk!). Amazing! All for under $100 and free shipping!
The ball is removable from the base – so if I want to use it somewhere else – or use it as an exercise ball, I can. Yeah, again, like that’s going to happen!
But it’s pretty. I got a bronze ball … my choices were something like sage green, charcoal, dusty purple, sea blue, and bronze. I chose the bronze one. It makes my office look really hip – even though I may not be!
The BalanceBall chair was developed by a chiropractor, Dr. Randy Weinzoff (out of Santa Monica, CA for all you Californians!) … and was based on his philosophy of “Vitality through total alignment of the whole being.”
Wow … way to go Dr. Randy … sounds good to me! I’ve seen a few chiros in my time and well, I’m a believer in their practices and the benefits they bring. So, seeing this in (one of the many) catalogs that I receive, I decided to give it a try. Why not?
I’m almost to the place where if someone told me that to feel better while working at my desk I should wear antennae and surround myself with frogs … I might just do it. Seriously.
But for now I’m giving the BalanceBall a go of it. It’s stable and supportive … a gigantic bronze shock absorber of sorts and supposedly it’ll help the core muscles and ergonomically align me.
As far as I’m concerned they had me at bouncy!