Keep away from masks and chemicals! There's a better way to clean your ergonomic chair. (Image: The U.S. National Archives/flickr.com)

We regularly hear from customers who have held onto their ergonomic chairs for over a decade and expect to keep them for many years to come. With the excellent construction, comfort, and warranties that come with these chairs, it’s no wonder! Over years of use, however, you’re bound to spill your coffee or lunch at least a time or two as you work away at your desk. One question we hear a lot is, “What is the best way to clean my chair?”

Standard store-bought cleaners are OK, but they can leave a strong, harsh smell, which can be quite unpleasant to breathe in all day. Many people are sensitive to these chemical smells, and many others simply want a more natural way to keep their chairs looking new. After all, total health is many-faceted, and includes not just what we eat or how we work, but our general environment as well. Trying to get your work done while inhaling a headache-inducing chemical odor is quite a challenge. Try these effective natural cleaners instead; they’re inexpensive, and you can easily make them at home. Be sure to spot-test an inconspicuous area on your chair and wait 24 hours before proceeding with the actual clean-up.

For fabric upholstery, try this simple cleaner: combine a quarter cup of white vinegar, three-quarters of a cup of lukewarm water, and half a tablespoon of any natural liquid soap, such as Dr. Bronner’s. Add a few drops of lemon juice if you like. Shake all the ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake hard. Lightly spray the dirty area and use a soft, clean cloth to blot in a circular motion. You’ll want to be sure to work the cleaner well into the fabric. Continue this process until the stain comes up, moistening the cloth with lukewarm, clean water when it gets dirty. You have the option of spritzing some club soda here, as the fizz can help lift stains. Once the stain is out, repeat the circular scrubbing with a warm, wet cloth to remove any excess soap. Finally, blot the area with a clean, dry cloth.

If your chair is covered with a synthetic fabric such as plastic, nylon, or faux leather, combine half a cup of white vinegar with one cup of warm water in a spray bottle. For particularly stubborn stains, you can add half a tablespoon of natural liquid soap, but the water and vinegar by themselves should be fine for most stains. Shake the bottle hard, lightly and completely spray the dirty area, and scrub in a circular motion with a soft, lint-free cloth. Lightly wipe with a clean, dry cloth.

You don’t want to use any water on real leather; instead, mix a quarter cup of white vinegar with half a cup of olive or almond oil and shake hard. Instead of pouring it on your salad, lightly spray the surface of the leather and rub with a soft cloth. This is an excellent way to remove fingerprints and skin oils from your chair. Use a clean, dry cloth to buff the chair, ensuring that the oil has been absorbed evenly into the leather.

That’s all there is to it! These cleaners won’t necessarily remove every stain–very old stains, for example, may not easily come up. And it’s true that vinegar does have a strong smell of its own, but it dissipates quickly and is a vast improvement over lingering, artificial smells. It’s certainly worth a try before resorting to an eye-watering standard cleaner that will leave you feeling sick.

For more information on staying healthy at work or at your home office, visit TheHumanSolution.com

When I wake up in the morning I check the weather outside with my face still buried in my pillow. I disarm my house alarm while inside my bathroom. I pour my coffee in my travel mug and grab a cereal bar to eat on-the-go as I drive to work. Sitting in traffic, I download my favorite podcast on my phone and plug it into my car’s speaker system. Before I hit the roughest patch of my commute, I quickly (and safely) come to a stop and check my work email from my phone to prepare myself for the day and begin to prioritize.

Surely, this can’t only be me.

It seems like as fast paced as our society is and as much as we already crave instant gratification, we just aren’t satisfied. Businesses, especially small businesses, are demanding more versatility and flexibility from their employees in order to be as successful as possible in a down economy. How is this achieved? We’ve got to be able to think and act on-the-fly. Just like my morning routine, everything has become mobile.

Steelcase introduced the Steelcase Buoy, an aptly named ergonomic stool, with the modern, ever-hectic lifestyle in mind.

Buoy is on-the-go

Pick it up and take it to your co-worker’s cubicle, whether they’re your next-door neighbor or across the office. It’s lightweight and easy to carry.

Buoy is active

The Buoy is an active seating ergonomic stool that allows for up to twelve degrees of tilt as you balance on the rounded base. The movement engages your core and is a great choice for alternative seating throughout your day to combat the health risks associated with sedentary sitting.

Spice up your life with a Chile colored Steelcase Buoy!

Buoy has personality

Show your style with lots of color combinations. With fabric choices like “Chile” and “Wasabi,” you can feed your appetite for style. Exercise your creativity with “Picasso” and show your adventurous side with “Arctic White.”

Buoy is collaborative

Meetings can be tiring. Studying can be boring. A roomful of Buoy’s can change that. It’s hard, if not impossible, to doze off while on a stool that is designed to keep you moving. The Buoy is perfect for a library, conference room, study area or any application that encourages collaboration and brainstorming. Keeping your body active helps keep your mind active.

Buoy is for everyone

With an 18” diameter seat an integrated pneumatic seat height adjustment lever built into the handle of the Buoy it can adjust from 17 1/4” – 22 3/4” H to fit a wide range of people.

Find Buoy and other active seating options at TheHumanSolution.com.

Meryl Streep ruminates on how great she feels after a day's work at her treadmill desk, reprising her role as Susan Orlean in my proposed sequel to "Adaption." (Photo: Cinema-Fanatic.com)

Earlier this week, New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean went on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to talk about her latest piece entitled “The Walking Alive,” in which she goes over her struggles to find the right workstation setup and how it led her to a desk treadmill. During this entertaining and enlightening interview, she touches on many issues you’ve seen us write about here at The Human Solution blog – how her energy level and focus has improved, how easy it is to walk and still work efficiently, and how several studies have revealed the health risks associated with inactivity.

The actual Susan Orlean at her treadmill desk. (Photo: New Yorker)

Callers share their stories as well, including one caller who tells how standing the whole day has both eliminated the “mid-afternoon slump” and cut down on back pain issues, and another who has found her work as a radiologist has even been improved by walking on a treadmill while reviewing images. Her anecdote is especially compelling – after reading a Mayo Clinic study that showed an improved detection of pulmonary nodules when reading a chest CT while on a treadmill, she switched to a treadmill desk. While she’s seen minor resistance from older colleagues who find it unprofessional due to a perceived negative effect on accuracy, her peer reviews have shown this to be unfounded.

Orlean’s article is essential reading for anyone still on the fence due to misconceptions like these about treadmill desks. Her passion for hers (she likens it to the early days of cell phones, when people mostly talked about how cool it was they were talking on a cell phone) will hopefully be so contagious that, much like cell phones, the treadmill desk will soon become ubiquitous and no longer perceived as a niche or luxury item.

And who knows, maybe her article can be adapted by Charlie Kaufman into another brilliant meta film that somehow uses treadmill desks as fodder for a standard Hollywood action flick. Of course, he may not want to write it on a treadmill desk if he doesn’t want to rid himself of the angst-ridden writer’s block that fueled his previous, ahem, Adaptation. As Orlean points out after writing two articles on her treadmill desk:

“Both of them I found very easy to write. I was just relaxed. I felt like my thoughts came flowing very easily, and I didn’t get that nervous tension that you get sitting at a desk, trying to think of a lead.”

So maybe Kaufman should stick to a cramped desk in an uncomfortable chair (I have no proof this is his setup, but this is how I picture him writing). As for everyone else, whether they are writing for the New Yorker, writing code or even blogging, a treadmill desk may just be the solution to get the creative juices flowing.

Learn more about treadmill desks at TheHumanSolution.com.

Your relaxing image of the day. (Photo: Holistic Healing NY)

Typing “de-stress” into my search bar, Google automatically fills in “at work” and yields 117 million results. Not surprisingly, most of the tips found in these articles focus on calming and invigorating both body and mind:

• Practice deep-breathing (quietly!)
• Strike a yoga pose or two
• Give your eyes a rest from the computer screen
• Keep aromatherapy and essential oils on your clean, organized desk. Your desk is clean and organized, right?
• Take a quick walk outside for some sun and fresh air
• Leverage social media: Search for positive tags on sites like Tumblr and Twitter (#lovemyjob, anyone?)

I’ll keep this simple, because today has actually been quite stressful and busy!  These tips all work, but my absolute favorite is Calm.com. Choose between a 2, 10, or 20-minute guided relaxation with your choice of meditative nature background.

Yes. You’re welcome. Have a wonderful week, everyone and stay stress-free!

Can a standing desk or an ergonomic chair help you stress less? Yes! Learn more at TheHumanSolution.com.

Photo: Nathan Lambrecht/The Monitor

I talk to a lot of people who are upgrading to an adjustable height desk in their workplace or home office, and they are usually pretty excited about the prospects of burning more calories and improving their focus and productivity. They have usually arrived at this point because they are already experiencing issues related to sitting all day – weight gain, low energy, lack of focus, back problems and poor circulation. But why not start earlier, and use sit-to-stand workstations in a preventative manner?

The McAllen Independent School District in south Texas has decided to do just that by recently introducing “stand-biased” desks into one of their fourth-grade classrooms, made possible through a partnership with the Health Science Center at Texas A&M University. In part, the move is intended to combat childhood obesity. The desks are adjustable from 26 to 34 inches high, so they can be used for kindergarteners all the way up to fourth-graders. The school children are also provided a tall stool so they can sit down if they tire of standing, as well as a standing desk footrest.

Not surprisingly, according to the article in the local newspaper, The Monitor, teachers reported an increase in focus and a more collaborative environment. One result that surprised me a bit was when the teacher said there were fewer breaks for the restroom. When she questioned the students, they explained that the frequent breaks were “because we really just want to stretch our legs.”

Maybe you didn’t have a stand-biased desk in school, but it’s never too late to start! Just standing for 15 minutes on the hour can make a huge difference.

For more information on sit-to-stand workstations, visit us at TheHumanSolution.com.

In this video, Shannon walks you through some of the similarities and differences between two of our most popular keyboards: the Goldtouch V2 Ergonomic Keyboard and the Kinesis Freestyle2 Ergonomic Keyboard. While we have blogged in greater detail about these keyboards before, in Goldtouch Keyboard vs. Kinesis 2: Electric Boogaloo, it’s really helpful to be able to see the different adjustments in person.

To sum it up, both keyboards have a lot of the same features. The main difference is that the Goldtouch V2 is an all-in-one solution that will tent and splay without the use of accessories. The Freestyle2 requires additional accessories to tent, but has more flexibility because of that. The V3 accessory will allow you to tent the keyboard at 5, 10, or 15 degrees, and the Ascent kit will allow you go to all  the way up to a 90 degree angle if that’s what you need.

Learn more about ergonomic keyboards at TheHumanSolution.com

Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night"

Feeling tired? Maybe that’s because you’re not getting enough exercise. This information was revealed in the National Sleep Foundation’s 2013 Sleep in America Poll in March. The study discovered that the more you exercise, the better you sleep.

“We also found a step-wise increase in how vigorous the quality [of sleep] is, in terms of how much you exercise,” Max Hirshkowitz, a sleep researcher, told Reuters. “So, if you say you exercise a lot, we found better sleep quality. For people who don’t exercise at all, we found more sleep problems.”

The study defined exercise as doing as little as 10 minutes of physical activity a day, including walking. This is especially good news for people who are using a treadmill at work, as the time spent at a treadmill desk is paying off in other ways besides helping you burn calories.

Every desk at The Human Solution has a treadmill, and I can tell you that people with treadmill desks use them more than ten minutes a day. That means we all must be sleeping well at night.

Take a look at the news report about the sleep study below:

Learn more about ergonomic office products that can help you exercise at work and sleep better at home at TheHumanSolution.com

Jamie Hyneman of 'MythBusters' uses the EyeTech VT2 to control a camera in a rocket-powered car. (Photo: Discovery)

Busting myths is hard work. Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, and the rest of the MythBusters crew are celebrating ten years on the air by revisiting the very first myth they ever tried to bust — the urban legend of the JATO Rocket Car, in which a solid fuel rocket strapped to a Chevy Impala briefly gave it flight before crashing spectacularly into a cliff face.

Replicating the event required quite a bit of the MythBusters’ expertise in building a custom mockup of the car that would be safe to test. In addition to attaching plenty of rockets to the back of the car, adjusting its center of balance, and building a ramp for it to launch off of, a remote control system had to be constructed to guide the car during the test. After all, who wants to drive a rocket-powered car when the last one exploded?

The solution came in the form of an EyeTech VT2 eye tracker.

This incredible sensor was set up in Jamie’s rolling bunker, “The Beast,” and connected to the car’s remote control system, providing a safe yet intuitive way to maintain situational awareness from the driver’s seat of the doomed vehicle. By tracking Jamie’s pupils, the EyeTech VT2 let him keep his eyes on the road with natural motions, all while staying well clear of the ensuing crash and somersault.

It might seem like something out of science fiction, but EyeTech has been providing eye tracking technology to the public since the mid-’90s. If you’re like Jamie and want to keep an eye on your handiwork but don’t want to take a hands on approach, the EyeTech EyeOn and EyeTech EyeOn Mini Hands Free Mouse offer a unique new way to interact with your computer using just your pupils. A mouse that tracks your eyes might seem like an urban legend, but this technology is most certainly real.

Learn more about hands-free mouse alternatives at TheHumanSolution.com.

Chronic back pain is cited as one of the most common reasons for lost work days, adversely affecting both employees and employers. (Photo: IAATPA)

One of the most common issues we see from customers here at the Human Solution is chronic back pain. In a recent blog entry for the Huffington Post, sports medicine specialist Dr. Vijay Vad refers to it as an “epidemic,” and the numbers he cites certainly reflect this. He lists it as one of the most common reasons for lost work days, which means individuals, companies and the economy in general all suffer from its effects. And he agrees with what we’ve been saying on our own blog for some time now, that sitting all day is to blame.

As Dr. Vad points out, while it seems instinctual that sitting may be relief for back pain, it actually has the adverse effect. According to Dr. Vad, “it maximizes pressures on the discs that are the shock absorbers in your spine and minimizes nutrition to the disc,” adding that this “puts a kind of chokehold on the disc, cutting off the blood supply it needs.”

So while it seems counter-intuitive that sitting down doesn’t relieve back pain and instead aggravates it, study after study has proven this to be the case, and it’s great to see the science of it laid out that simply.

Dr. Vad’s first two solutions for addressing chronic back pain? Exercise and ergonomics. Luckily, these are two things we can help with. His two simple exercise suggestions are standing every 30 minutes and walking or biking. Our exercise desks pair a bike or treadmill with an electric sit-to-stand desk, letting you stand, bike or walk without ever leaving your workstation.

He also lists a good ergonomic chair as important to fighting chronic back pain, though he also points out that, even with a good chair, you should still periodically stand.

As a Council for Disability Awareness study that Dr. Vad cites points out, almost a third of long-term disability is due to musculoskeletal system problems, and half of these are related to back pain. These are certainly epidemic proportions, but ones that can be easily addressed by an ergonomic workstation. You’ll soon find that sitting is not the relief you’re looking for – it’s standing and exercising.

Find ergonomic office products to help you fight back pain at TheHumanSolution.com

The Four Points of Contact. (Image: Humantech)

Setting up an ergonomic workstation may seem complex and overwhelming. Unless you’re an ergonomist, it can be hard to know which products are best for your needs, and how to put them all together for workplace health. Luckily, our friends at the ergonomic consulting firm Humantech have provided a simple way to assess your ergonomic requirements and help you determine how to meet them. They call it the four points of contact.

1. Eyes to source. This means that your monitor should be at least an arm’s length away from your eyes, and it should be positioned so that the top of the display is at or just below eye level. You might need this a bit lower if you wear bifocals or transition lenses. If glare is a problem, tilt the monitor forward slightly.

2. Hands to input device. The keyboard should be positioned so that your upper arms hang comfortably from your shoulders and your forearms are horizontal. Elbows should be at about 90°. Depending on your current work setup, this can be achieved by using a keyboard tray. A keyboard tray should be height adjustable, provide space for a mouse, have a thigh clearance of at least 7″, and allow the user to lock the tray into position. Whether you use a keyboard tray or not, make sure you are close enough to your workstation to avoid reaching. Keep your mouse next to and at the same level as your keyboard. Don’t let your wrists or palms rest on anything as you type or mouse. Your hands should “float” instead.

3. Body to chair. Knees should be at about a 90° angle. Allow two fingers to a closed fist size of space between the back of your knees and the seat edge. Adjust the seat back so that the lumbar support fits into your lumbar curve, and ensure your entire back is supported by the chair. In choosing a chair, make sure it has the following features: pneumatic height adjustment, lumbar support, adjustable back recline, height and width adjustable armrests, a rounded or waterfall seat edge, and a five-leg base on casters.

4. Feet to floor. Feet should be flat on the floor or on a footrest. Do not sit on your legs or prop them on chair legs.

Those are a few basics to get you started. It’s also important to remember that just because you have a good ergonomic set-up, you shouldn’t stay put all day. Get up regularly to take breaks from sitting, or consider a sit-stand workstation for more flexibility. To take care of your eyes, follow the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. You should also change work activities in order to give yourself a break from repetitive tasks, like making a few phone calls to take a break from typing. Finally, be sure to take stretch breaks to give your weary muscles some TLC. Your doctor can recommend some stretches that are suited to your particular musculoskeletal issues.

Give us a call at 800-531-3746 if you need recommendations on staying healthy at work. We love talking about this stuff!

Learn more about ergonomic office products at TheHumanSolution.com