Usually the reason for back pain (other than serious injury or medical reasons like yours, Linda) is bad posture. I don't know about everyone else, but I know I start off sitting straight in my chair, then within minutes I'm slouching and crooked, etc. Every now and then I re-adjust, but it takes quite a bit of concentration to stay straight!
One thing that helps back pain is working out your abs. (again, aside from injury or other medical reasons) Why? the abs are your backs support system. Most think it's easy to just workout your abs. You can lie on the floor and do a few sit ups or buy a gadget to help you. There are a few problems with both of these situations and easy solutions for them.
On the floor, most people pull up with their heads and stain their necks. This is easily fixed with stretching your arms on either side of your knees, as though you are holding a bar at your knees level. If this is too hard or your back hurts, lift your feet off the floor, knees bent @ 90 degrees and roll up. It's common that some have trouble rolling up at first, so do it backwards; lay on your back feet towards the ceiling and push your feet upwards.
Now this is something to watch for when you buy a gadget or when you do sit ups yourself. What are you working? Think of where your abs are and see if that is what is being "curled". Your stomach area is what should be folding inwards, not your hips.
With that said, if you are looking to work your abs, the inversion chair seems to be working the hips. Leaning back and coming forward again puts your hips into action. Depending on the range of motion, your abs might come in at some point of the movement, but it is not the primary target. If you're like Linda, and have a few back issues, your first concern is your back and second is how hard your abs are working. For ab exercises, your best bet is one of those swiss balls. There are hundreds of exercises you can do with them and over time, you can increase the level of difficulty with it.
When looking at office chairs and exercise equipment another question you should ask yourself is, "is my body doing the work or is the gadget/equipment leading the way and my body simply following the motion?"
I went from a physical job to sitting at a computer all day and my body is definitely not happy. I started looking at different chairs and came across this ball chair. Seeing as you are not on a flat surface, your stablizing muscles are put to work to keep you steady. Now this isn't a heavy workout or a painful one and seeing as you control the amount of air in the ball you control how hard your muscles work.
I ordered my chair on Friday and should be getting it this week.
Check it out:
I'll let you know how it goes!
Sorry for writing a sort of short story on this.
