Best Practice or Poor Practice: Stability (exercise/fitness) Balls As Chairs in the Office

The office setting has seen gradual changes over the past 5-10 years as more focus has been given to comfort, productivity and wellness at work.  One of the trends has been the use of a stability ball, aka exercise/fitness ball, as a chair.  My recommendation has always been to avoid stability balls in the office—for three reasons:

1. They offer no support to the user and therefore the user will fatigue and posture will actually be worse compared to sitting in a chair
2. The height of the ball inevitably doesn’t fit the user and the user’s desk height resulting in poor body mechanics and postures
3. The risk for injury from a user “falling off” a ball and/or a ball bursting (I’ve known both to happen to employers along with the resultant work comp claim!)

All three reasons add up to a greater chance for discomfort and musculoskeletal disorders at work than if they didn’t use a ball.

Another reason I have not been supportive of people using balls in the office is the false belief by the users that by doing so they will automatically improve their core/abdominals and burn more calories.  When sitting on a ball doing work, the user is focused on the work and not on their core and therefore can’t possibly be contracting/holding their core muscles—at least not properly. 

A recent study from the Journal of Health Promotion, Unstable Sitting in the Workplace—Are There Physical Activity Benefits?, backs this up and goes on the further state that there are no proven health benefits for sitting on a stability ball.   The study stated that “published studies and best evidence to date call into question even the theoretical basis for this practice (using stability balls as a seating surface) and do not suggest significant health benefits. First, biomechanical studies do not confirm the intended trunk muscle activation. Second, energy expenditure studies show a small (if any) increase in metabolic demand that is unlikely to be effective in combating sedentary work risk factors. Until studies demonstrate more conclusive benefits, the practice of stability ball sitting should be viewed skeptically as a general workplace recommendation in the interest of health or wellness.” (emphasis mine)

Given the above, employers should take seriously the ramifications of allowing employees to use stability balls as a means of improving comfort and wellness at work.  The facts simply do not support their use in this manner.  In addition, employers are increasing their exposure and risk to employee injury if they do allow stability balls.  Taken together employers would be wise to prohibit stability balls as a seating option in the workplace.  There are much better seating options than balls that would improve employee comfort and health, and therefore productivity without any risk factors. 

Contact us for more information on best practice to counter sedentary office posture (“sitting disease”) or how to improve the productivity and wellness of your office employees