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Is an Ergonomic Chair better than a Swiss Ball?

 "Hi, I have a question. Is it better to sit on an ergonomic chair or a gym swiss ball if you have back pain? – Wee K"

Dear Wee,

Source: Flickr Frames-of-Mind

1. Sitting on a swiss ball requires a lot of muscle control to sit properly, otherwise you may still slump into a poor posture – hence aggravating your back pain.
2. Sitting on a swiss ball for a prolonged period of time with poor muscle control also means that those postural muscles may not be ready for that amount of activity and control, again leading to back pain.

If you want to sit on a swiss ball, I suggest that you build it up gradually, i.e 10 mins every hour for the 1st week , then gradually building it up to 15 mins the second and so on. 3. you haven’t determined the source of your pain.  Usually people with back pain has some sort of muscle imbalance in their abdominal and back muscles.  By sitting on the swiss ball poorly, you can potentially aggravate this imbalance by continually strenghtening the already excessively strong muscle without retraining the weak ones.