A Life of Zest and Energy

Hiking in nature is healthy for both body and soul. To walk in a forest yields more exercise than walking on a flat paved road or sidewalk. You can also jog, run, bicycle or do a range of other types of exercise to help you stay healthy.

There are literally health clubs everywhere today who offer exercise programs that will work for most of us. Group aerobics and stretching, spinning, dancing and yoga can all contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Do these offer good exercise? Yes! Are they challenging to maintain in the long run? Yes!

We spend most of our waking hours at work. When I started working in an office in the late 70’s, ergonomics was an unknown science.  We sat in simple chairs at a desk that had a fixed height. After 18 years of office work, I experienced the first herniated disc and had my first lower back surgery. Seven years later I had a second herniated disc and a second surgery. When I returned home after the second surgery, I got the idea of sitting on a balance board with my feet on top of it. That was the beginning of the development of the Backapp chair. With the Backapp chair design it has become possible to exercise the muscles that supports the spinal column, while sitting. This opened up for the ability to incorporate mobility, i.e., exercise, while doing my office work. Later, we developed a balance board on the same technology so that the same benefits would be gained while standing.

Today I can declare that I am free of back pain. My back is of course weak (after two back surgeries) so I have to be careful and avoid lifting heavy things, but I am no longer bothered by back pain and rarely think about my back.

In addition to sitting on the Backapp chair and standing on the balance board, I exercise regularly. Bicycling has helped me a lot. During the cold winters, there is spinning and during the summer bicycling outside. All of these activities help my back stay healthy. I also do special exercises that help strengthen my neck and back and add walks in the forest and light yard work to round out my routine.  I have to maintain this to stay in good shape.

It is possible to get out of the pain cycle. It requires willpower, it’s a lot of work and it takes time. It’s good to know that even if I sit at work, I am exercising on Backapp.

There are professionals who can help, such as physical therapists, chiropractors, orthopedic doctors and even some drugs, however these tend to be temporary unless you change your lifestyle and actively address the underlying causes of these problems, which start out as passivity and a sedentary lifestyle. The muscles are weakened , the pain gradually develops and then you’re being robbed of necessary energy to function well.  

Ergonomics means setting up your workspace to be effectively organized so that you can maximize your productivity without developing work related diseases and discomfort such as muscle-skeletal disorders repetitive motion injuries.