April 16, 2002
The Midweek News

Futuristic angle chair helps to make sitting almost obsolete
 

Designs for new business chair began in 1995
Experts agree that prolonged sitting, like millions do everyday at computers, is simply unhealthy.

The National Academy of Sciences reports lower back and upper body musculoskeletal injuries lead to nearly 70 million doctor visits annually.

OSHA says each year 1.8 million U.S. workers report work-related musculoskeletal disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and back injury. New angle chair technology, now available locally, eliminates the need for long-term sitting, a factor contributing to common musculoskeletal injuries.

Angle chairs are designed for computer life. The new product category features two innovative adjustments that create numerous posture zones. First, the angle chair seat adjusts from flat to nearly upright. Second, the chair back adjusts simultaneously as the seat angle changes so lumbar support is maintained.

A leg cushion enhances and supports different postures. The result is healthy movement through many postures from neutral sitting to kneeling to recline standing.

Master's Business Interiors CEO Frank Heegaard says "Technology has us working longer and harder than ever before. Nine to five has become eight to late, and most of that time is put in on a chair. This makes our risk of injury snowball."

The literal point at which people connect to technology is their work zone. What's missing is healthy body support that promotes a physical linkage to technology at a variety of levels. "This," says Heegaard, "is what an angle chair is made to do."

Movement through a range of postures generates beneficial physical responses, which can prevent injuries resulting from static and awkward postures. Healthy movement in angle chairs eliminates static stress loads on muscles and ligaments. Motion accelerates blood and fluid flows, increasing the oxygen flow to the brain and eliminating waste products from muscle tissue.

Changing of postures redistributes gravity pressure easing numbness and pooling of blood in the arms and legs. Maintaining a forward tilt of the pelvis eliminates lumbar pressure.

It's estimated 100 million workers use computers daily in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau reports 54 million households have at least one computer. The Census classifies over 7.9 million workers as telecommuters.

"Research has concluded our need for movement through a variety of postures exists regardless of our environment," says Heegaard. "As our surroundings become more prescribed, we need to have the option to exercise personal control over our well-being through freedom of movement."

June 3, 2002
Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Sitting pretty
 

A chair from Belle Plaine-based lets users sit any way they want- and automatically adjusts with them as they change their mind.

by Deborah Caulfield Rybak; Staff Writer

Desk jockeys of the world, stand up!

Or kneel.

Or recline.

Or just sit there like you normally do, if you're feeling unadventurous.

That's the idea behind a new work chair designed by two Minnesotans that tempts users to do everything but sit still.

Designers Alan Tholkes and Jack Hockenberry say immodestly that the Stance "angle chair'' may be the most revolutionary idea in sit-down technology since the invention of the chair itself.

Normal chairs, even the most ergonomically correct ones, still force users to conform to their shape. The Stance adjusts to a variety of postures, ranging from sitting to kneeling to reclined standing. As the chair moves, the backrest adjusts automatically to support the upper and lower back. A kneepad and footrest also adjust to the different postures.

"Even in the most comfortable chair, even a La-Z-Boy, you're fidgeting after 20 minutes,'' Tholkes said during an interview "So you get up. But when you sit back down, you're in the same position.''

"In our chair, you keep your body moving and keep the right posture, too,'' Tholkes said. "We've taken the ordinary task chair and equipped it for dynamic motion.''

The Stance took five years to design, drawing on Hockenberry's background in furniture and Tholkes' designs for the physically disabled.

The 71-year-old Hockenberry is a design director and no slouch when it comes to seating.

He tested pulsating seat cushions for fighter jets during the 1970s and worked in new product design for Steelcase Furniture in the 1980s. In the 1990s he developed a "music posture chair'' for Wenger Furniture, an Owatonna company. The chair promotes a posture that opens up the diaphragm; it is a favorite with orchestras and music schools around the country.

Tholkes, CEO and president, has a similarly diverse background. Left a quadraplegic by a 1976 auto accident, Tholkes, 44, went on to found Alimate Medical Inc. in Redwood Falls, Minn., where he is still president and CEO. Alimate produces a number of devices to help the physically disabled, including the EasyStand, a hydraulic-powered device that allows people to lift themselves from a standing to a sitting position.

As Tholkes and Hockenberry see it, nobody really likes chairs. Consider Dr. J.H. Aveling, a doctor of the Civil War era, who wrote in 1879: "Of all the machines which civilization has invented for the torture of mankind . . . there are very few which perform their work more pertinaciously, widely or cruelly than the chair. It is difficult to account for the almost universal adoption, at least in this country, of such an unscientific article of furniture.''

Little has changed since then, Hockenberry and Tholkes argue, except that more people are sitting in the same kind of chairs for longer periods of time- especially since the advent of the computer.

By their estimates, desk-bound office workers spend the equivalent of four months out of every year in a seated position, which doesn't exactly do wonders for the body. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 105 million workdays are lost each year to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, neck pain and lower back disorders.

"Even though computer and desk design is changing,'' Tholkes said, "chairs really weren't.''

So the two set out to make a chair that would allow the user to move through a variety of postures and help eliminate the potential for problems created by spending long periods in the same position.

"There was a lot of trial and error,'' Hockenberry said. "We knew that the chair had to be easy to operate or people just wouldn't do it.''

After tinkering with the prototype from 1996 to 2001, they rolled out the finished product- the company's first- in December.

For now, they are marketing the chair as a therapeutic device for any of the estimated 1.8 million people each year who report an WMSD injury.

"We figure we have a base of seven million people who are potential candidates, and it's growing,'' Tholkes said.

The company is presenting the chair at trade shows and has won some sales, though Tholkes and Hockenberry won't offer sales figures or projections.

"We've been busy setting up our distribution system,'' Tholkes said. "We've sold a few, but we really haven't been trying.''

The chairs sell for about $1,800 each, making them a luxury office item. Most ergonomic office chairs sell for about $500, according to Jim Corwin, the owner of CSI Ergonomics in Minneapolis, a Stance dealer.

Corwin called the Stance "a pretty novel concept,'' especially for a U.S. company.

"Normally these ergonomic innovations come from Scandinavia or Europe,'' he said. "It's particularly well-suited for people with chronic back conditions because it provides spinal support all along any body position.''

The chairs, according to Dr. Joseph Sweere, a professor of clinical sciences at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington have "profound potential to provide a paradigm shift in seating.''

Sweere, who is chairman of the Department of Occupational Health at Northwestern's College of Chiropractic, said the shift is as dramatic as the one that took us from the horse and buggy to the automobile.

"This seating system allows people to have virtual mobility even if they're locked into a work station.''

Deborah Caulfield Rybak