Your Chair as a Movement Tool

Chairs have been with us for a long time. First they were only for nobles and royalty, but gradually chairs have become more and more common. In the 19th century, with trains and coaches, sitting became more common, but it is really in the 20th century that we could say we have an ‘inactivity crisis’. Even in the 1950’s, when I went to grade school, we were placed within a metal chair and desk, and told not to move away from it. This has only got more circumscribed since then – with all periods of physical activity being reduced in school – less music, less dance, less art – even less recess! At least I was able to run around in a random fashion at lunchtime. Nowadays, moving too much in school can get your drugged. What about people who need to move to learn?

Being jacked into a chair has become our predominant body position for work in the computer age, where more and more ‘blue collar’ jobs (read: move around jobs) have been replaced by ‘white collar’ jobs (read: stuck in a chair). The problems with prolonged chair sitting, including prolonged periods of driving, are well-documented (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-health-issues-sitting-long-avoid). But short periods of keeping yourself moving can obviate many of these problems – just a minute per hour can make a big difference.

Keeping your pelvis mobile in the chair and not sitting on your tailbone are the simplest pieces of advice to avoid the worst problems. But staying active within the chair is an even better idea – and that’s what we’re going for in our updated Chair webinar. Besides all the tips and tricks we have in there, we have methods of getting in and out of chairs that will keep your hips healthy. If you don’t want that, get up and walk around your chair a few times every 15 minutes. You don’t have to be an exercise freak or raise the attention of your office-mates to negate many of the detriments of sitting – you can be a mover and still stay chained to your email.

No mistake: We live in a world where our ability to be inactive outstrips the emperors of previous centuries. That’s good – we have a lot of ‘energy slaves’ who light our rooms, heat our water, and make life easier and more productive. But from the ‘Paleo’ point-of-view, our bodies have been downgraded from essential to peripheral, and we’re not the healthier for it.

‘Virtual reality’ devices might get us out of our chairs in future decades, and we can only applaud the wonderful kids doing parkour and fabulous extreme sports never seen on this planet. At the same time, the inactivity crisis is attacking us and our children in this generation, and this webinar in one way we can do something about it.