What is the problem with sitting, exactly?
The problem is immobility. Biology is a use-it-or-lose-it business. Everything works on feedback. Nothing works without a stimulus. The first consequence of immobility is soft-tissue stagnancy, the worst manifestation of which is the “bed sore.” A bed sore is literally a rotting patch of tissue, starving to death, and is a real and serious problem for anyone who actually can’t move. This is how Christopher Reeve died in 2004: an infected bed sore.

When you actually can move, but don’t move much — like a lot of office workers — you are basically suffering from sub-clinical bed sores. Your muscles start to scream for the physical and neurological stimulation they need to survive and thrive, and you only move just enough and just in time to stop tissue from actually starting to become necrotic (dead). But they certainly get sick, especially in the shoulders, back and hips — which tend to remain relatively immobile even when we get up and go to the water cooler.

Is stretching the answer?
No. Although it’s better than nothing, getting out of the chair to stretch is simply the wrong tool for the job. A little static elongation of muscle tissue does not constitute adequate stimulation to be an antidote for four hours of sitting per day, let alone eight or twelve.

What you need is a concept I call “mobilizations”: repeated, rhythmic elongation and contraction of muscle tissue (see Mobilizing!). For instance, when most people get up from a long sit, they will instinctively stretch their arms backwards, opening up the chest, and a few will then close the chest as well, flexing the same muscles they just stretched.

That’s the perfect thing, but you need to do more of it. Doing it once pulls your chest and upper back muscles away from the brink. Do it ten times in a row a few times a day is mobilizing, and effective preventative health care.

 Should I get an expensive chair?
The importance of extremely comfy and ergonomically dazzling chairs is generally exaggerated. There is simply no such thing as a perfect chair: your body isn’t comfortable with any position for hours at a time. The problem isn’t the position that your body is in, but the lack of motion and variety of stimulation.

Therefore, the best chair is two or three quite different chairs used in rotation, including or used in conjunction with an destabilizing cushion, such as a Disc-O-Sit or Sissel Sit, or a fitness ball.

In my office, I have a standard office chair and a stool, both of which I use in combination with a Disc-O-Sit for plenty of variety. Because I have a home office, there are plenty of other places I can sit to work. All of this variety is more important than having one fancy chair.

 What if I still want to get a good chair?
If you’ve got the cash, by all means — get yourself a fancy chair. If you’re going to do this, I recommend that you go “all out,” and get yourself a Herman Miller “Aeron” chair for about $1200CDN: they are unambiguously the best widely available ergonomic chair. (There are probably even better chairs out there, but they are even more expensive and I don’t think another several hundred clams gets you that much more.) The Herman Miller Aerons come in three sizes, which is a simple and effective solution to the most significant chair problem for many larger and smaller people: anyone large or small uses up the adjustability of their chair just getting it to fit.

What’s your famous “ergnomics schmergonomics” rant?
It’s not actually famous. I just made that up. But here it is anyway:

Ergonomics “professionals” all over the world are busily working on the wrong thing, trying to get people into good positions so that their workstations are as efficient as possible and require as little movement as possible. The goal of this kind of ergonomics is to turn people into cyborg-like extensions of their cubicles. The goal is also damage control: how to minimize the consequences of an insane amount of sitting, while still actually keeping people in their chairs.

The goal of this kind of ergonomics is to turn people into cyborg-like extensions of their cubicles.

And it’s all a sinister plot, obviously. Modern workplace ergonomics is a classic, Dilbert-esque piece of corporate manipulation. It fails to solve an obvious problem in an obvious way. The obvious problem is sitting, and obvious solution is getting up and moving around regularly — what more progressive ergonomics professionals call “micro-breaking.”

This is not to say that conventional ergonomics is useless or trivial — even if you get up fifty times a day, a bad mouse position is still going to torment you. But let’s get it in perspective!


This perfectly illustrates what I’m trying to say: that conventional ergonomics solutions may be missing the point, and often get out of hand.
Isn’t it good enough that I get up regularly for meetings, faxes, etc?
Yes and no. Any kind of getting up is so much better than being glued to your seat that I am always reluctant to criticize it. It really is better than nothing. But it really isn’t enough, either.

The key point that usually gets overlooked is that walking around the office does not — and I know this will come as a big shock — actually give your back muscles all that much to do. Photocopying isn’t really a big musculoskeletal challenge. Going the bathroom isn’t exercise.

How much mobilizing is enough?
Actually, it doesn’t take all that much. An adequate antidote for an hour of sitting is approximately five minutes of mobilizing.

How can that be enough? Simple: sitting wouldn’t be particularly stressful, except that we do so much of it. It’s not hard to counteract the effects of an hour of sitting with a few well-chosen exercises. If you make a point of flexing and using the muscles that are most needful, it really doesn’t take much to undo the damage.

Getting up and bending over to touch your toes thirty times every half hour may seem forced, contrived or arbitrary — but it’s the only cure for a forced, contrived and arbitrary amount of sitting.

What are the three most common office ergonomics disasters?
In my experience, the worst ergonomics offenses are: no micro-breaks, high monitors, and holding the phone to your ear. Always get on your feet for at least one minute in twenty, even if you don’t do any exercises, even if you just stand at your keyboard. Never look up at your monitor — it is a complete mystery to me why monitors have elevated stands at all. And never talk with a phone pinched between your head and shoulder, unless you just happen to enjoy stubborn headaches and neck cricks.

Should I consider standing on the job?
Standing on the job may be more of an option than I realized. According to business blog evolvingexcellence.com, several Japanese companies have ditched desks entirely. Everyone stands to do their office work!

Was it a tough change?  Yes.  The first month, or even two, is apparently quite difficult as the body adjusts.  But then you begin to feel healthier, perhaps lose a few pounds due to the activity resulting from constant balancing, and you realize you are more productive.