Calling All Carpenters

Ideas Worth Spreading

Did you know that 80% of Americans have back pain? But what if we didn’t have to?

I first learned about Osler Turner from a fellow Feldenkrais practitioner in Vermont, Uwe Mester. Along with a strong team, they designed a chair that allows your pelvis to be free while sitting. I got to try it at a training and immediately thought of people who work on the computer for a living and thought, “How useful! People need to know about this!”

Sitting on a surface where the pelvis is free to move is pretty important. Sitting is considered the “next smoking” when it comes to harm to the body. First, most people don’t know how to really use their bodies in ways that their spine is supported. So the chairs get build to provide that support. The problem with that is no two people have the same mechanics and nervous system and so we have these generic surfaces that don’t really match our body shapes. Sit-stand desks have been a great evolution, but they are not available to everyone and especially not available in schools.

Youth like moving and to sit still in a typical desk chair can be very challenging. Therapy balls have been brought into some classrooms, but they can become problematic with too much movement. Imagine my delight when I saw Osler’s latest creation on TEDx. With this invention, progress is being made. Osler talks about it eloquently from the TED stage. Take a listen!

And then learn more about button chairs at their website buttonchairs.org.