Exercise your core muscles

Fifteen healthy people sat still on the Backapp for 1 hour watching a video with the ball in the medium challenge position. Then they sat for 1 hour on an ordinary office chair with a backrest and armrests. Energy expenditure increased significantly (p=0,001) while they were using the Backapp. The average increase was 19%. Even though the sitting position was neutral when sitting on the Backapp, which requires less energy, the muscles worked more and burned 19% more energy. The reason for this is that the body uses energy to maintain balance.

Papers

Manual Therapy (Volume 17, Issue 6) Pages 566-571

"Can we reduce the effort of maintaining a neutral sitting posture? A pilot study". Kieran O'Sullivan, Raymond McCarthy, Alison White, Leonard O'Sullivan & Wim Dankaerts 2012.

Ergonomics (Volume 55, Issue 12) pages 1586-1595

"Lumbar posture and trunk muscle activation during a typing task when sitting on a novel dynamic ergonomic chair". Kieran O'Sullivan, Raymond McCarthy, Alison White, Leonard O'Sullivan & Wim Dankaerts 2012.