Exercise Ball as Office Chair?
First Published: April 28, 2019 Last Edited: January 6, 2025
When it comes to workstation wellness, the question I'm asked most frequently is:
Can I use an exercise ball as an office chair?
Yoga ball, gym ball, exercise ball or fit ball - they all refer to the same thing. Here's the answer.
Let’s face it, a yoga ball is not an ergonomic chair. Most lack backrests (or have backrests that are woefully minimal.) Plus, the seat can’t be adjusted, and generally, there are no arm rests to speak of.
It’s only logical then, that even in the office, the purpose of a yoga ball is just that – a tool for core workouts, sitting yoga, back exercises and the like.
But it’s not an office chair.
Should You Use a Gym Ball in the Office At All?
In this post, I'm going to talk about how you can get the most out of your yoga ball or gym ball in an office setting.
First, let’s get a couple of things straight.
1. If you’re not struggling with any kind of joint or muscle injury, an exercise or yoga ball may prove itself a time-efficient way to develop core and trunk muscles during your designated work break times. (Specifics at the end of this post.)
2. If you do have a condition, disease or joint pain, or you're nursing an injury, it’s important to coordinate with the medical (i.e., M.D., physical therapist, chiropractor and/or other licensed specialist as you see fit) to get the right exercises for you.
Taking this approach will likely enable you to progress safely.
Save the ball planks and ab crunches for when the pain has abated and you're doing well in therapy. Your medical professional will let you know when it's time to progress to seated exercise, which is usually more challenging.
(A gym ball routine would come later, even after the introduction to seated exercise.)
What Makes a Yoga Ball Special?
Because a yoga ball is round, sitting on it challenges one's ability to keep the trunk upright. This is called dynamic stability.
Dynamic stability is about the capacity to stay put – in this case on the ball – with your trunk in well-aligned position as you attempt to keep your balance.
The curved shape of the ball, variations in your position and added movement challenges can make a fit ball exercise easy, medium or intense.
Your current level of core muscle strength should be your guide as you choose the level of challenge of any gym ball exercise you do.
Stability Comes Before Dynamic Stability
Skills and movement useful for alleviating pain tend to be the first thing physical therapists teach their back patients - well before dynamic stability is introduced. This may include breathing techniques, simple exercises and information on how to protect joints and muscles from further damage.
In other words, for people with injuries and other conditions, and those who are just learning about posture and alignment for the first time, mastering the basics comes first - well before dynamic stability.
The basics are not easily cultivated while sitting on a rounded surface.
Instead, therapists and corrective exercise trainers start their patients or clients on their back. Over time, they progress the exercises to include more positions - all 4s, sitting, kneeling, standing and in-motion.
This is one big reason why using an exercise ball as an office chair is not necessarily safe if you deal with pain, injury or other medical conditions, and not necessarily productive for beginners.
Good Posture Through Dynamic Stability
Let's say you're pain-, injury-, condition- and disease-free and you're in reasonable physical shape, too.
In this case, you may find your biggest challenge when sitting on a exercise ball is controlling the thing.
This is good!
It’s a prime example of using an exercise ball to challenge dynamic stability (discussed above) and to strengthen core posture muscles.
The circular nature of the ball may tempt you into movement; your job is to use your muscles to keep the trunk upright, thereby fast-tracking core strength development.
More advanced yoga ball exercises include positions and movements designed to throw you off-balance; the challenge here is to maintain your alignment throughout. keep good alignment the entire time.
5 Evidence-Based Tips for Using a Gym Ball in an Office Setting
Again, if you don’t have pain or an injury or other condition that requires special instructions from the medical world, a gym ball has potential as an office companion.
The key to success is knowing how to employ the ball safely so that you can progress towards improved posture and freedom from office-related aches and pains. So if you're injury and pain free, let's get going!
1. Use the gym ball in predetermined time slots, rather than all day long.
Truthfully, just a few minutes of skillful ball use once or twice per day may be all you need for core strength benefits.
2. Treat your time on the ball as a full-on exercise session, and not as an appendage to what you’re already tasked with doing.
In other words, don’t engage in movement on the ball while also focusing on your work.
As with any type of corrective or healing exercise, it's critical to give it your full focus in order to stay safe from injury and to get benefits from the effort you're making.
This is especially true when you're challenging your balance, as you are when you're on a gym ball.
3. Stop if you have pain.
A painful exercise session is usually a counterproductive one. If you notice pain, pins & needles, burning or electrical sensations and/or numbness down an arm or leg, see your doctor. These are signs of nerve root damage, which is often caused by herniated disc and/or other serious spinal conditions.
For other types of pain symptoms, ease up on the intensity, move on to an exercise that doesn't hurt or stop and rest.
4. Initiate spinal motion from the pelvis.
The spine gets foundational support from the pelvic bone. With the pelvis and trunk as home to the all-powerful core muscles, starting with seated tilts is an effective way to develop core strength on an exercise ball.
5. Get better quality ab work by keeping your feet flat and relaxed on the floor, toes pointed forward.
Keeping your feet flat on the floor with toes pointed forward as you do exercise movement will help "get" the abs to work in a balanced way. Balance is what you're after if you're trying to release your back pain.
Feet flat and pointed forward also helps avoid strain in the joints of the lower body - hip, knee, ankle - because it encourages ideal alignment in these areas.
Sources:
Jackson, et. al., Should we be more on the ball? The efficacy of accommodation training on lumbar spine posture, muscle activity, and perceived discomfort. Human Factors. December 2013. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
McGill, et.al. Sitting on a chair or an exercise ball: various perspectives to guide decision making, Clinical Biomechanics. May 2006. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
