So I've been seeing suggestions from fitness folks lately to swap out your office chair for a stability ball in order to burn extra calories and strengthen your core. I think it's a sign of how far I've gone down this road (or as one of my friends says, 'drank the koolaid') that I'm actually considering doing this.

My question is, would this be considered too insane by my coworkers? And does anyone know if the effects would be worth the switch? Has anyone actually tried this?

TIA!

We have a stabilty ball in the office and we all fight over who gets to sit on it! We all love that ball!

good question! i heard the same thing on the Biggest Loser and have been wanting to try it but didn't want to look completely nerdy! haha. i look forward to hearing if anyone got results from this method.

I had one in high school that I would sit at while doing homework. It helps with that ache that you can get from sitting too long...but for a while, it hurt too, cause you have to sit up so straight (wow, poorly worded sentence ftw).

I think its worth it.

I have one in my cube. I use it every so often but it often turns into my extra chair when people come to talk to about stuff. It really helped my back when I was pregnant, and now I stretch my back out every so often...

It's a lot tougher than it looks to sit on the ball for a long time. But, I bet it would be good for you.

Much better than a ball: Standing at your desk. Sitting of any type does not burn substantially more calories, but standing does. I stand at my desk 6 to 7 hours per day as I work (I didn't start out doing that much, I worked my way up). You can burn several hundred extra calories per day by standing (it burns about twice as many calories as sitting does). You'll never burn that much extra sitting.

My coworkers think I'm crazy, but in a "wow I admire you" kind of way

I'd say go for it, but don't get rid of the chair completely. Test it out for a couple days and see how it goes, or try it out at home for eating meals/watching tv/everything else you do sitting.
If you can feel the difference, then take it to work and try it there

Thanks for your responses! It's good to feel like I'm not a total wingnut for considering this.

It's actually the core strengthening that interests me more than the calorie burn, since as WarMaiden said, I imagine it can't be THAT much since you're still sitting.

But WM, how do you manage to stand all day? At my height and the desk height, I'd be bending or hunching over all day to type or look at the computer, which I would imagine would hurt my back pretty quick. Are you standing up straight?

I work in a library so I'm not sitting at my desk all day, and I do try to move around quite a bit, whether I'm shelving, helping customers, etc. so rather than 8 hours of sitting, it's probably more like 6. Not great but better than nothing.

GIrl!!! do what u gotta do. If u want to sit on that ball then who cares what the others think.lol. I would sit on one

A plain old exercise ball, not the chair-modded ones, are best for back and core strengthening, as it is entirely your body maintaining the stability and posture. I sit on them now while pregnant because it is much easier on my lower back and the pelvic tilt I maintain while doing it is MUCH better for proper anterior position of my son than the tilt I get whole sitting in a normal chair (which is a tucked pelvis, very bad!).

It's comfortable after you get used to it, moreso than a normal chair.

I have a platform thing that's 6 inches or so high which I put my keyboard and mouse on, and I tilt my computer screen up. So I'm not hunched at all. And I'm very attentive to my posture while standing.

I used one for a bit a couple summers ago, but when my living area got renovated it disappeared. I'm sure my dad packed it away somewhere, but the storage area looks like a bomb went off in it. It was a lot more comfortable than the chair for long sitting, but yes you do feel it in your abs. I may have to go on a hunt for it in the next few days, this chair has been making my tailbone sore.

It would be way too low for my workstation (also at a library). My DS sits on mine when he's playing video games, though. LOL