By Carol Sowers
The Arizona Republic.
Employees at NetPro, a freewheeling computer company in Scottsdale, have rolled the cranky old office chairs out of cubicles and rolled in PostureBalls.
Businesses are not wheeling out fleets of office chairs en masse, but the PostureBalls are on a roll, gradually becoming more popular nationwide.
Deby Harper, a fitness expert in Scottsdale who sells the balls, said she has placed them in 300 companies around the country, and 25 in the valley.
One of her clients is Times-Mirror Co., parent company of the Los Angeles Times, which recently bought the balls for a leadership seminar.
"They were the hit of the week," said Mitsy Wilson, leadership director for Times-Mirror.
Wilson has abandoned her traditional desk chair for the ball and says other employees are jumping up and down to get them.
"They are very invigorating," she said.
Fitness and rehabilitation experts for years have draped clients over the PostureBalls to stretch and strengthen back and stomach muscles. And the balls have long been credited with improving balance, posture and abdominal strength.
Harper, owner of the Fitness Co., has used them for 20 years in her exercise classes but said she believes she is the first to introduce them to office workers and local schools.
At NetPro, one of Harper's newest clients, employees bounce lightly up and down as they talk on the phone, tap away at their computers, or roll into another office.
"I love it," Watson said, bouncing gently as she talked.
Watson has to be careful not to pop up above the wall of her cubicle.
"Oops," she said.
Harper said companies are spending $800 "on desk chairs that drain your energy" but would be kinder to their bottom line and their employees if they spent $45 on the balls.
People are not designed for chairs, she said, which allow the body to slouch, twist the spine out of alignment, impair respiration, aggravate the back and weaken abdominal muscles.
"Just sitting on the ball is exercise," she said.
As workers bounce -- and who could
resist? -- they work their leg muscles, ease stress, and just as important,
have fun, Harper said.