Yoga Ball Chair: Purpose, Benefits, and Safety Tips

Should you swap your chair for an exercise ball?

Marley Hall is a writer and fact checker who is certified in clinical and translational research. Her work has been published in medical journals in the field of surgery, and she has received numerous awards for publication in education.

Yoga ball chairs are all the rage. Countless websites looking to sell them tout the benefits of using a yoga ball (also called an exercise ball or fit ball) as an office chair. And some manufacturers have put out office chairs that hold a yoga ball.

But are they really good for your core and back, as some claim? The jury is still out on that one. In this article, you'll learn some things to keep in mind when considering a yoga ball as your desk chair.

If you're uninjured or you've been discharged from treatment and have been doing back-strengthening exercises for a while, a yoga ball may prove to be a time-saving way to work your core. Core strengthening is used in physical therapy clinics to help relieve back pain due to muscle weakness and muscle imbalance. It is also used to help people with back pain increase their ability to perform daily activities.

However, if you have a back condition or are still recovering from an injury, using an exercise ball as a full-time office chair probably isn't for you.

A number of credentialed experts are not so quick to jump on the yoga-ball-as-office-chair bandwagon.

One study found no evidence that using an exercise ball as an office chair helps to strengthen the trunk or posture, even when participants first went through an "accommodation" program.

Any kind of sitting increases compression on your spine. Remember, the ball does not support your back muscles—it only challenges them. Compression combined with a lack of support may irritate any injury, condition, or muscle imbalance you may have, and will likely increase your pain if used for too long.

But if you've been doing your back exercises faithfully for some time, and a healthcare provider or physical therapist has given you the okay to work with a yoga ball, you may find that using it as an office chair in a limited way makes a good adjunct to your home program.

Performing trunk strengtheners while sitting on the unstable surface the exercise ball provides may even help you take your back exercise routine to the next level. Again, get your healthcare provider's approval before trying this. If possible, ask your physical therapist for some things you can do on the ball.

Jackson JA, Banerjee-Guénette P, Gregory DE, Callaghan JP. Should we be more on the ball? The efficacy of accommodation training on lumbar spine posture, muscle activity, and perceived discomfort during stability ball sitting. Hum Factors. 2013;55(6):1064‐1076. doi:10.1177/0018720813482326

By Anne Asher, CPTAnne Asher, ACE-certified personal trainer, health coach, and orthopedic exercise specialist, is a back and neck pain expert.