The Top Five Health Benefits of a Balance Board for Your Standing Desk
Have you heard the news that as many as 80% of adults experience lower back pain at one point or another in their lives?
Well, this isn’t some random, baseless statistic.
The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) says that up to 31 million people in the U.S. suffer from such problems at any given time.
What’s more, low back pain costs almost $500,000 in excess healthcare treatments and lost productivity for every 1,000 employees in the country.
Scary statistics, right?
The good news is that the many benefits of a balance board can help minimize or prevent back pain episodes. If you pair it with a standing desk, and you can enjoy more health benefits.
But what exactly is a balance board? How can it help you?
Continue reading to learn the top ten balance board benefits!
What A Balance Board Is
To really benefit from balancing boards, you first need to understand how balance boards work.
Balance boards, also known as wobble boards, look like a skateboard at first glance. Some resemble a large bathroom scale.
Appearance aside, they consist of a flat platform. Underneath are half-spheres or rounded bottoms. As such, standing on the board requires constant use of various muscle groups so that you can “keep your balance”.
Think of it like riding a bicycle. To keep yourself – and your bike – upright, you’d have to keep pedaling, right?
The same concept of constant movement applies when using a balance board. In other words, you need to keep moving many different muscles to keep yourself aligned.
It takes effort and may seem difficult at first, but you’ll reap great rewards from the exercise! We’ll discuss them in more detail below, but to give you a sneak peek, here’s a few:
- Reduced risks of back pain
- Make you less prone to injuries
- Stronger, more toned muscles
- Enhanced core muscle health
- Slim down and shape up
- Make work more fun
So, without further ado, here are the top wobble board benefits (that will also make you love your standing desk even more).
1. Reduced Risks of Back Pain
Sitting for long periods of time (like your typical office day) can lead to low back pain. It can also make your existing back problems worse. Why so?
Because this static position puts more pressure on the muscles and spinal discs on your back. It also puts more stress on your neck, shoulders, arms, and legs. Problems with the legs can also lead to foot pain.
To make matters worse, prolonged sitting also increases your susceptibility to poor posture. Poor posture, according to health experts, contributes to the rising cases of low back and neck pain. These two conditions, by the way, cost the U.S. $88 billion a year.
All these make the benefit of standing (and standing desks) more apparent. The simple act of standing straight can already help you release those added stress and pressure from your muscles and nerves.
But why not take things to the next level? Hit two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.
With a balance board, you reap the low back pain-reducing benefits of standing. At the same time, you also work out various muscle groups.
2. Lower Odds of Sustaining Injuries
People who have poor balance and bad coordination are injuries waiting to happen. You may dismiss these as being a klutz, but this “clumsiness” increases your odds of accidents and even concussions.
Using the standing desk balance board combination, you can boost your spatial awareness. This makes it easier for you to “autocorrect” the way you hold your body. In case of a possible accident, it’s easier to assume a danger-preventing body position, such as regaining your balance before you fall.
3. Minimized Chances of Falls
Expounding on falls, did you know that these accidents lead to the hospitalization of more than 800,000 people in the U.S. every year? While not all are due to poor balance, many of them are, especially amongst the elderly.
The good news is that balance training has proven helpful in this area. One study found that balance-centered exercise programs can reduce risks of falls by more than one-third.
This should also tell you that if older people can accomplish balance training, then so can you. So long as you keep at it, you’ll master your balance board in no time at all. What’s more important though is that you’ll worry less about the consequences of concussion-inducing falls.
4. Stronger, More Toned Muscles
As mentioned above, you need to keep certain muscles moving to maintain your balance on your board while working on your standing desk. The longer you use your board, the stronger, more toned your muscles become.
Who wouldn’t want to have good-looking legs? Best of all, as you improve your muscles’ strength and appearance, you also get work done.
5. Stronger Core, Better Shape
Losing weight without starving yourself on a rigorous diet is possible. But of course, you need to be more physical.
All that time you spend sitting behind a desk doesn’t help. Why spend your day sitting if you can turn it into an all-day gentle, yet effective exercise?
A balance board with your standing desk gives you this opportunity. All those tiny movements you’ll make on the board, combined with the muscles you use to keep upright, improve your core, legs, back, and glute muscles.
Start shaping up and slimming down with a balance board that’ll make you remember muscles you forgot were part of your body.
Make Work More Fun with These Benefits of a Balance Board
These are only a few benefits of a balance board. They should be enough to make you realize that work will be more fun if you have one paired with your standing desk. Besides, you’d want to make better use of your time than just hunched over your computer, wouldn’t you?
So, as early as now, make your balance work for and not against you. Get a top-quality balance board ASAP.
For more self-improvement tips like this, feel free to check our blog’s self-improvement and motivation section!