It has spawned new business and industries. The perceived value of core strength has become big business. For instance, our corroded reflexes might, over time, make workouts more difficult and unpleasant, chipping away at our enthusiasm.
Although there’s no evidence that this is connected to the kinds of consequences that seem obvious, like back pain, it’s surely not entirely healthy. The reflexes that keep us upright can degenerate, and the core stability muscles gradually atrophy. Similarly, after decades of living on flat and stable surfaces, most people probably do not have good balance or healthy postural muscles. When submarine sailors are released from duty after a long time at sea, they are not allowed to drive for several days: their long-distance vision has atrophied, because they haven’t looked at anything further away than a few meters for weeks. It’s just light exercise.Ĭhoosing to use a wobble cushion requires some commitment to the idea of exercising while you sit. So … why the heck not? I still think it’s a good idea, just not a terribly important one. Using wobble cushions still makes sense to me, but only in a precautionary variety-is-the-spice-of-life way. See The Trouble with Chairs for more information about the risks of sitting and sedentariness. And while a lack of exercise may be unhealthy, a wobble cushion is not going to put much of a dent in that problem. Sitting a lot is actually not a risk factor for back pain, as I eventually learned (see Chen et al), and posture in general is over-rated as a musculoskeletal demon. Over the years, my enthusiasm for wobble cushions has wavered. Of course it can also be used as an exercise tool during microbreaks - frequent but tiny breaks taken throughout the day - and exercise is generally good medicine. The idea was to keep their back muscles frisky and postural reflexes stimulated, and I hoped this would treat and prevent back pain. I hope to introduce some movement and stimulation into the stagnant postures of my many chair-bound clients. I was a Registered Massage Therapist from 2000–2010, and I started prescribing wobble cushions early in that career.
Exercise balls can be used for sitting, but not as conveniently as wobble cushions. Wobble cushions are closely related to balance boards, but you don’t sit on those. Stability cushions are also known as exercise discs, balance cushions, wobble cushions, or stability discs. There are plenty more generic or weakly branded ones as well. Some of the name brand stability cushions are Disc ‘O’ Sit, Sissel SitFit, Vive wobble cushion, and the STOTT Pilates stability cushion. They are now a fixture in gyms, a basic functional training tool, like balance boards, but this article is focused on using them as an accessory for your office chair. They are unstable, but they are called “stability” cushions because they are mostly intended to help you achieve stability, as in “core stability.” They challenge your stability … for whatever it’s worth. I m always conflicted about that last part.A stability cushion is a sturdy air-filled rubber disc, about the size of a flattened beach ball, strong enough to sit or stand on. These include print, blisssymbols, photos or line drawings representing abstract concepts, including the popular board maker symbols for MORE (picture of ASL), the YES flower, some thought and feeling concepts.
Typically developing children use concrete symbols in conjunction with gestures and words, generally between 12 and 24 months of age, but not as a separate stage.Ībstract 2D symbols to not visually look like what they represent. For some individuals concrete symbols may be the only type of symbol that makes sense to them for others they may serve as a bridge to using abstract symbols. Most individuals skip this stage and go directly to Level VI. "iconic" gestures (such as patting a chair to say "sit down"), This is your pantomimeĪnd sounds (such as making a buzzing sound to mean “bee”). Objects (such as a shoelace to represent "shoe"), This is your Object sybol Concrete symbols look like, feel like, move like, or sound like what they represent.Ĭoncrete symbols include pictures, this is your 2D, photo or line drawing (when it visually looks like what it represents) “Concrete" symbols that physically resemble what they represent, are used to communicate.