The profound difference between sitting and ‘active resting’
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Note: Although I’m an academic researcher, because I too suffered from back pain for quite some time, so I’m hardly a disinterested researcher. I went so far as to invent a mechanism to allow sitting to be active, and I’m the CEO of a company (QOR360) created to popularize and sell chairs that encourage active sitting. This conflict of interest disquiets me (Richard Feynman observed: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest to fool.”), but seems unavoidable.
An article with the startling title “Changing the Way You…
The field of ergonomics hasn’t changed their approach and recommendations for chairs in many, many years, even while the rate of Americans with back pain stubbornly persists at 80%. With that sort of track record, we find it puzzling that ergonomics teams still continue to insist that chairs must have backs with lumbar support, and seem unwilling to think differently about how people should sit. …
We’re given a lot of advice over our lives, especially as children. And, because this advice comes from people we trust who want the best for us, this advice becomes the basis for how we live our lives. With so much advice coming hard fast, there really isn’t time to check it all out, and besides, you’re a kid. So, life goes on, and usually, it goes on well enough.
But what if most of this advice is wrong?
To fix ideas, here’s an example that vexes me still. When I was a kid it was a bedrock fact that…
Turner Osler
Dr. Osler is a surgeon, and researcher. Now an emeritus professor, teacher, inventor, and CEO of QOR360, he studies the harm caused by passive sitting.
