Pros and Cons of Using Balls as Chair in the Office
As an ergonomist, one of the most common questions I get asked is what do I think about using exercise balls as chair. There are definite pros and cons of using an exercise ball. Let’s first discuss this issue from an employer perspective.
An employer is responsible to provide a safe and healthy work environment. The use of balls may be considered a way to promote and encourage health and wellness. However, the use of balls as a replacement for the office chair brings about liability issues. The employer has to factor in the possibility of what happens to their employee if the ball should fail (burst) or if the employee accidentally slips off the ball. In either case, the employee would be at risk for injury which could result in a workers’ compensation claim. I know of a case where this actually happened. An employee was sitting on a ball when it burst and the employee fell to the floor. The employee sustained a lower back injury which became a costly workers’ comp claim. Is this case rare? Yes, but it can (and did) happen. Employers have to ask themselves if that want to take on this liability risk.
On the opposite spectrum, employers might gain a happier and therefore more productive employee if that employee finds sitting on a ball to be much more comfortable and rewarding compared to the standard office chair.
From an ergonomics perspective, the use of balls presents certain challenges. Balls come in standard sizes of 55cm and 65cm. The height of the ball is fixed and it may not place the employee at the correct height for his workstation. A ball also does not provide any back support and lacks armrests. There are ball chair platforms in which the ball sits in the middle of the round platform so it can’t move out from under the person. It has a very small and low height back support. Whether this can even be considered a back support is questionable. The other challenge relates to the lack of back support is in regards to the capability of the employee to maintain proper posture while sitting on the ball for an extended period of time. The ball does encourage movement and activation of “posture” muscles along the spine and abdominals. The employee relies on those “posture” muscles to stay engaged for hours. This is quite a different demand compared to using a ball for core stabilization exercises which are done typically done in one exercise session for a total of minutes at a day—far less than sitting and working all day long. Most likely, the muscles will fatigue and the employee will assume some sort of slouched posture.
For some people a ball can feel much more comfortable than an office chair. They like that it offers them some relative movement. Others use them for the fitness aspects, i.e. because it helps them “tone” and get their posture muscles in shape.
If had to choose strictly yes or no on whether using balls as a replacement for a good, adjustable office chair my answer would be no. In my opinion balls created more ergonomic risk factors than they solve. That being said, I do see the benefit in using them for brief periods of time during the work day as they provide a variation in posture (assuming the height of the ball places the employee at the correct workstation height). I would recommend using a ball for about 20 minutes at a time and then go back to using the office chair for a while. This rotation would provide a variation in posture and allow the posture muscle to be “exercised” for short periods at one time.
What is your opinion on balls as a replacement or addition to a good office chair in the workplace?