By Ruth Richman
Chicago Tribune
When Pat Vancil first replaced her desk chair with a large ball, one co-worker asked her if she had hemorrhoids.
"Other people would walk by my office and just fall on the floor laughing," she recalls. But since then, about 20 other employees at HealthPartners HealthPlan, an insurance company in Scottsdale, Ariz., have "gotten on the ball," says Vancil, the company's customer service manager.
The ball is the Posture Ball, a 27-inch-in-diameter chair alternative marketed by Deby Harper, a fitness consultant an owner of The Fitness Co. in Scottsdale. She and others who use the ball swear it is comfortable, fun and does everything from reducing on-the-job tension to stimulating creative thinking to improving posture-related problems.
Large, inflated balls have been used as therapeutic aids since the beginning of the century, but Harper says she is the first to see their benefits for every-day use. The ball encourages "active sitting," she says, which means you use several sets of muscles to keep your perch-the same muscles needed for good posture. And this, she asserts, leads to the release of serotonin, that feel-good chemical the body produces.
It comes in "executive colors," pearl and black, so you won't look like you're bringing a Romper Room accessory to the office.
It costs $45. To order call 480-443-9611.