CategoriesBack pain
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Hey ChatGPT, why is an active chair a good idea?

The BeneSit chair is an example of an active chair. Shop it here

An active chair is a good idea because it can provide several benefits for your health and well-being. Unlike traditional chairs, active chairs are designed to promote movement, which can help improve your posture, strengthen your core muscles, and reduce the risk of back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders.

Active chairs typically feature a rounded or slightly unstable base, which forces you to engage your core muscles to maintain your balance. This constant movement can help improve circulation and prevent stiffness and discomfort that can occur from sitting in the same position for an extended period of time.

In addition to the physical benefits, active chairs can also help improve your focus and concentration. The constant movement and engagement of your core muscles can help increase blood flow to the brain, which can help improve cognitive function and productivity.

Overall, incorporating an active chair into your daily routine can be a great way to promote a healthier lifestyle and reduce the negative effects of prolonged sitting.

Source: OpenAI

We fully agree with ChatGPT on the above benefits of using an active chair and are impressed that both the physical and mental benefits are mentioned.

What do you think?

CategoriesBack pain Design Working from home
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A holistic approach and the revolutionary table

A BeneSit chair in size L used at a high kitchen table

Many people might think that a good sitting position requires a good chair. And we don’t disagree with that. But it definitely also requires a good table!

In BeneSit, we are often in dialogue with customers who want to use the BeneSit chair in a work situation. Then we ask about their work setup, as it is important for us to get a holistic picture of what it looks like when they are working. 

Through our collaboration with an occupational therapist, statements from experts and from our own experience, we have found that sitting tall with your knees below hip height and having an open hip is essential for a good posture.

To achieve this good sitting position, many people will find that the usual fixed office desks and dining tables are too low. The height-adjustable desk has made it possible to do personal adjustments and actually made it possible for office workers to choose the right chair for themselves, rather than choosing the right chair for the table.

We therefore always recommend using a height-adjustable desk, but also know that many people don’t have access to it in a home working situation. In this context, we want to inspire you to think a little “out of the box” and raise the computer to the ideal height (for example, by using a thick book or similar) in order to still be able to choose the chair that fits you.

Read more about the BeneSit chair and back pain here.

CategoriesBack pain
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New report from The Danish Health Authority

Picture from The Danish Health Authority report

The Danish Health Authority has recently published an updated report on the burden of disease in Denmark.

It contains interesting results and focuses on 15 selected diseases that are significant in terms of prevalence, hospitalizations, contacts with the hospital and practice sector, early retirement, long-term sick leave, economic consequences, etc. Moreover, they have a certain prevention potential.

In particular, lower back and neck pain have an incredibly high prevalence in Denmark. In Denmark, more than 1.6 million people were living with lower back and neck pain in 2017. This, of course, has a major impact on our well-being and health, but it also has major economic consequences for society.

Overall, lower back and neck pain is the cause of 25.5% of all sick days and accounts for almost DKK 39,000 million annually in lost production due to absence from the labor market and early death. 

In BeneSit, we want to help reduce these figures through our alternative office chair. The BeneSit chair strengthens and activates the back and abdominal muscles and helps to create a healthier and more upright sitting position.

Read more about back pain and the BeneSit chair here.

CategoriesBack pain Entrepreneurship
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Behind the scenes of BeneSit – university, strength training and back pain

CEO and co-founder of BeneSit, Caroline, in 2020 with the newly launched BeneSit chair

Today we invite you behind the scenes of BeneSit, where we will share a personal story of how a personal need evolved into the development of the BeneSit chair. 

In 2019, one of the BeneSit founders, Caroline, was studying to be a design engineer at DTU. Here, much of her time consisted of sitting during lectures and working in project groups or individually at home or at the university. 

The seated position became a large part of her everyday life and as a counterbalance to this she spent much of her free time in the gym. This was intended to minimise the low back pain she was experiencing, but unfortunately ended up having the opposite effect. The switch from a completely sedentary everyday life to heavy strength training was not what her body needed.

Rethinking rather than compensating

Together with Peter, the other founder of BeneSit (and her father), the development of BeneSit began. Rather than compensating for all those sedentary hours with exercise, for example, they wanted to rethink the way we sit. 

It became clear to Caroline that the key is not necessarily what you do AFTER sitting still for many hours, but how you can incorporate different initiatives to AVOID sitting still in the same way for many hours. 

In early 2020, Peter and Caroline introduced the BeneSit chair, which, in addition to being a design furniture, creates the opportunity to have an active and varied day in front of the computer.
If you also want to create more variety in your working posture, you can buy your own BeneSit chair here.

CategoriesBack pain
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The correct posture at work is a myth!

Maybe this work posture isn’t that bad after all? As long as it is mixed up with other positions!

We have come across an interesting article from the National Research Centre for Working Environment written by Head of Research Andreas Holtermann.

In the article, Andreas debunks the myth that there is one correct working posture when sitting in front of a desk. He explains that far too much time is spent talking about the correct posture and position in the workplace.

Instead, there should be more focus on listening to the body’s sensory system, which tells us what we need. And in this context, the working environment must be designed to allow us to act on the signals our bodies send.

We, at BeneSit, find these points enormously interesting as they challenge many of the dogmas that exist around the good working environment today. 

We believe, like Andreas, that it is ideal if the workplace accommodates different working positions – relaxed, active, standing, sitting, varied. This is one of the reasons why we never recommend our customers to use the BeneSit chair all day. Rather, we encourage its use as a complement to another office chair while frequently varying the working posture.

Read more about the BeneSit chair and back pain here.

Do you follow exact “rules” to obtain the correct sitting position or do you listen to your body?

CategoriesBack pain Design
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Design of children’s furniture

When discussing work space design, sitting positions and back pain we often think of adults. However, children also spend much of their time sitting down.

Today, we want to share some inspirational points from the article “Children’s behaviour and the design of school furniture” by Knight & Noyes. They explain that furniture is used extensively during childhood, which is a vital period of human physical development. A study even shows that children aged 13-16 were seated for 78.7% of their time in the classroom.

This illustrates the importance of well-designed school furniture. To ensure this we must consider the tasks children carry out at school to be able to identify the functions that are needed from the furniture. 

School furniture should support the children’s tasks

The article explains how the school furniture should support the two major tasks of school children; attending to the teacher and writing/drawing at the working surface. Furthermore the furniture should ensure that the children stay in one place (to not distract each other) as well as facilitate learning through a comfortable and stress-free workstation. 

Knight & Noyes explain how it is generally accepted that school furniture should be designed to accommodate movement while sitting. They present this as a paradox as they have just established that school furniture also should ensure that children stay in the same place.

We find this “paradox” very interesting and believe that this is exactly what we try to solve with the BeneSit chair. We do agree that school furniture should minimize distracting interactions and accommodate movement, but we do not agree that one excludes the other. 

The BeneSit chair creates a workstation which – through small movements – makes the child concentrate for longer and thereby also minimizes the distraction of other children. “Staying in the same place” and “movement” should not be seen as a paradox but rather two coexisting elements which create the basis for great children’s furniture.

Our BeneSit chair in the size Small is primarily developed for children who need higher movement freedom when carrying out seated work. You can read more about the BeneSit chair here.

CategoriesBack pain Tips & Tricks
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Movement that benefits body and creativity

Sedentary work can cause back pain, if movement is not incorporated throughout the working day.

Studies show that just a little movement during the working day has great benefits. This is both in regards to avoiding lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, but also shoulder, back and neck pain.

There can be many reasons for not incorporating movement into the working day. Therefore, we encourage you to think about how movement can be incorporated in a way that does not “work against” your daily tasks. Perhaps it can even improve the quality of work, support creativity and boost energy? 

Here are some ideas for bringing movement into the working day.

  • Plan an internal meeting with a colleague as a “walk and talk”. Often, seeing something else than the four walls of the meeting room while talking can bring new ideas and perspectives.
  • Use the adjustable table to vary your sitting position. Stand up and sit down – preferably on different chairs.
  • Finish your lunch break with a walk around the building. It brings you fresh air and aids digestion.
  • Use the BeneSit chair to activate your back muscles while sitting. The rounded bottom keeps you moving, even though the movements are barely visible. Read more here
  • Get in a few extra steps by using a toilet that’s a little further away.
  • Do a few stretches while waiting at the coffee machine. Even a few neck rolls also makes a difference

How do you incorporate movement into your workday in a way that also benefits your work?

CategoriesBack pain Working from home
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Ideal table height adjustment

Illustration of correct table height adjustment

We’ve been getting questions lately about how to find the ideal table height. One of the questions came from a customer who had just purchased a BeneSit chair and therefore wanted to adjust the table correctly when using the BeneSit chair.

The Danish Working Environment Authority advises that the table should be adjusted so that the hands are at about elbow height. We can also refer to this video, where physiotherapist Pernille Andersen shares her recommendations for finding the correct table height. She explains that the table should be adjusted so that there is no space under the forearms when using the keyboard or mouse. The arms should be supported by the table and the shoulders should feel relaxed.

The way you set up your desk can vary from person to person, so we can’t provide specific measurements. Please follow the points below and feel free to contact us if you have any questions. You can read more about the BeneSit chair and back pain here.

Summary:

  • Hands should be around elbow height
  • There must be no space under the forearms
  • The arms must be supported by the table
  • The shoulders should feel relaxed

Were you aware of how to adjust up your table in an ideal way?

CategoriesBack pain
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Movement is important for back pain relief

Article about back pain

We have come across an interesting article by FysioDanmark Bagsværd in the local magazine Vores Bagsværd, which we will share here. 

The article explores the issue of back pain and describes it as “…a common condition that many of us have experienced at least once in our lives” – in fact, as many as 85% of us!

As the physiotherapists point out in the article, back pain can be complex and what “treatment” is needed can vary greatly from person to person. Some may need acute relief through treatment (e.g. with a physiotherapist) and others may want to prevent pain and stiffness through exercise.

An interesting point in the article is the following:

“What we know about back pain, both acute and persistent and recurrent, today is that the exercise and movement you can do yourself is probably one of the most important elements in achieving relief.”

The quote from the article illustrates how important movement is in the fight against back pain. We have the feeling that many people believe that back pain can only be alleviated through the help of a therapist. Of course, we always recommend that you seek advice on what type of treatment is needed for the specific situation you are facing. But in fact, you can often go a long way with the movement and exercise you can incorporate into your everyday life. Read more about how the BeneSit chair can help you to be more active in your everyday life.

Thanks to FysioDanmark Bagsværd for an interesting article!

CategoriesBack pain Tips & Tricks
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A little physical activity makes a difference

Denmark is the country in Europe where we sit down the most hours a day. In the long term, this can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It may seem overwhelming to minimise sedentary work in an office.

But experts* say that just a little activity can reduce the negative effects of sitting inactively for long periods.

With our back-stimulating chair, we strive to reconcile the two needs; sitting down to work and keeping your body active. Read more on our back pain page.

* https://lnkd.in/eKpBuKWp

Image from the Home & Garden Fair, 2022