Meet Muvman

We are excited to welcome a new German visitor to our showroom! Muvman, by Aeris, is a brand-new sit-stand chair. Stylish, ergonomic, and affordable only begin to describe the chair.

The design team behind the popular Swopper chair is behind the fun and functional Muvman sit-stand stool. Movement is the center of the design, and so far the Muvman does not disappoint. The pneumatic lift is one of the most versatile we’ve worked with. It’s springy, supports you as you move 360°, and is truly fun to use. In our office, we range from 5’7"-6’3” and the standard pneumatic lift works well for all of us. The tall fellas would recommend the high lift if your inseam was 34” or more.

We’ll have a detailed Muvman chair review coming soon. For now, we can assure you that it’s one of the sleekest designs we’ve seen, and we’re excited to pair it with our adjustable-height desks.

HAG Capisco Puls Video Review

For those of you who can't make it into our Portland showroom to check out the brandnew Capisco Puls, we've put together a quick video review of the new chair.

If you missed our post on our first-hand experience with the Puls, you can check it out here. If you'd like more specific product information (pricing, colors, etc) you can visit our Capisco Puls product page.

Are you as excited as we are about HAG's newest chair?

HAG Capisco Puls Review

HAG Puls, waiting patiently for me

I walked back into our showroom from lunch, and the chair we’d been waiting nearly a year to get our hands on was casually waiting behind my desk.

The heir to the throne, Capisco Puls has been one of the most highly anticipated chairs since its announcement. Fans of Peter Opsvik’s original design looked forward to a sleeker, simpler version of the incredibly iconic chair, and he delivered. The lightweight molded polyurethane seat and back add a refreshed feel to the design.

The Puls’ ability to make one of the most innovative and modern chairs on the market look somewhat dated was one of the first areas where it impressed. After spending a month with the chair in our office, we are confident that fans of the original Capisco, plus new admirers, will be thrilled with the newest addition to the Capisco family.

Having enjoyed the original Capisco daily for the last year and a half, Puls had some big shoes to fill. All of us spent a significant amount of time in the Puls before forming our opinions on the chair.

We love it.

That’s not to say I’d immediately toss out my original Capisco in favor of the Puls, but we will definitely give it a look when it comes time to replace our chairs. And we certainly have no reservations recommending it to any of our active sitting clients.

The key difference is in the materials. Few people would choose to sit on plastic in favor of foam during their work day – me included. HAG understands this, which is why instead of making the entire seat polyurethane, they included foam padding where you need it most. The strip of foam on the seat makes a difference when you’re sitting in the chair for more than an hour at a time.

That brings us to what we feel is the most appropriate way to use the Capisco Puls. We advocate active sitting, and Puls is great for active sitters. We all use quick-adjusting height adjustable desks, and the ability to sit and stand for an hour at a time is perfect for the Puls. If you do significantly more sitting than standing, the extra cushion on the original Capisco might be better suited to your work habits.

All of the same benefits you find in other saddle seats are standard features on the Puls, including cutouts in the seat pan for your legs to hang down, allowing you to more evenly distribute your weight. The cutouts of course also facilitate proper pelvic position (tilted slightly forward) which allow your back to form a natural S-shape curve. If you’d like more specific information on saddle seats, try this.

Another difference is the base and color options. The Puls is available in five sleek shell colors, and a new nylon base option. Featuring the same style and shape as the standard Capisco, the nylon options are exclusive to the Puls.

Other than the optional nylon base, the Puls and the original are identical from the seat down. The patented balanced movement mechanism delivers all of the features that has made the Capisco one of the most versatile chairs on the market for decades. Puls is of course available with three different pneumatic lifts, the same lifts as used on the original Capisco. The tall, 265mm pneumatic lift is ideal for working at a sit-stand desk.

As you can tell, we're definitely excited about the Puls. If you have any questions, please drop us an email or leave a comment below.

Why An Anti Fatigue Mat Is A Great Addition For Sit Stand Desk Users

So, you love your new sit stand desk, but it’s reminding you why you spent so much time in your chair to begin with: standing is hard on your feet. We found out the hard way, after standing on our poured concrete showroom floors for hours at a time. Once we came across anti-fatigue mats, it was a no-brainer; we were able to stand for longer periods without experiencing pain in our feet and calves.

When you invest in a height adjustable desk it’s well worth adding an anti fatigue mat to your new set up. The good news is you’re likely only looking at an investment of $60. It especially makes sense if you've spent many years sitting in an office chair, because your body will need to get used to a new way of working. Think of it as an inexpensive chair for your feet.

Standing to work means rarely used muscles in your feet, calves and even upper legs suddenly have to support your body’s weight. While this isn't normally a major problem, an anti fatigue mat will help to cushion the load.

You might think it won’t make much difference. Most offices are carpeted, so wouldn’t that be enough support? Office carpets and carpet tiles typically don't have much give in them and are actually firmer to stand on for long periods than you might imagine.

Adding extra support in the form of a plush anti-fatigue mat makes sense, even before knowing the specific benefits.

What are the benefits of an anti-fatigue mat?

When you stand to work, particularly when you haven't done so regularly, it’s surprising how quickly your feet and calves tire. The connection between body and floor is pretty firm meaning that your feet and leg muscles suddenly have to do a lot more to support you. A good quality anti-fatigue mat forms a cushion between you and the floor and helps take the harshness out of standing.

A properly designed mat will offer comfortable resilience and remove the hard connection. And it’s not a good idea to just pick any old mat or area rug for sit stand working.

What should you look for in an anti-fatigue mat?

It’s easy to think that all that’s needed is a slab of foam rubber, surely that will do? There’s a bit more to it than that. The core of an anti-fatigue mat will indeed be foam rubber based, but not just any old rubber. When you use cheap foams they just flatten and bottom out meaning you gain no benefit. What’s needed is a durable closed cell sponge which is designed to be resilient and retain its springiness so you really do get a proper cushioning effect.

Other types of mats should be avoided too. Many of these have been designed for use in manufacturing and are intended to form a gasket between workers and cold concrete floors. These sorts of mats are usually rigid and firm and don’t have any give in them. Let’s look at what’s needed for the office.

What makes a good choice of anti-fatigue mat for the office?

As we have have already seen, the core of the mat should be made from high quality, closed cell sponge. When this level of foam is used it’s possible to get good comfort with a sponge thickness between 3/8” to 3/4” thick.

Just a minute, isn't there a chance you will trip over the mat? With a well designed mat the sponge core is generally encapsulated in high quality plastic. Not only that the edges should be chamfered all round to avoid being a trip hazard. Carefully taking these points into consideration will help you select the right mat.

In our experience, the anti-fatigue mat is a simple addition to your sit-stand routine. In our showroom, when we aren’t using the mat, we simply slide it under the desk and hop back in a chair for a spell. In fact, take a look at the image next to this post. I snapped a photo while writing to give you a sense of how we work. After a year and a half of daily use on our anti-fatigue mats, they still hold their shape well and are thankfully very easy to clean.

Summary:

Let’s quickly summarize the main points we've covered here:

• An anti-fatigue mat is a great low cost addition to a height adjustable desk
• It helps cushion your feet and calves when you start standing to work
• Standing on firm surfaces can be quite tiring
• A good anti-fatigue mat will have a high quality closed cell sponge core
• Industrial or rigid mats aren't suitable for sit stand working
• Chamfered edges all round minimize any trip hazard

The perfect mat for your adjustable height desk
 
We’ve carefully researched suitable mats and recommend the Rhino anti-fatigue range of mats. You can find out what’s available here.

And the experts agree...

Two years ago the New York Times published a roundtable discussion of professional ergonomists along with other experts in the field on whether sitting is really that bad for you. Their answers? A collection of resounding "Yes!" responses.

How to deal with the inevitability of sitting for eight+ hours per day, on the other hand, was not as cut and dried. The thread tying the responses together was the idea that we all need to move more throughout our day. Of course, if you've visited our blog before you won't be surprised to learn that we totally agree.

If you haven't already, check out the article here. Or, if you prefer the CliffsNotes, a couple of highlights are below.

Galen Cranz, UC Berkeley:

...some postures are better than others. The neutral body posture, as NASA calls it, is half way between sitting and standing; it balances our musculature between front and back...Also called the perch position, it requires a higher than currently conventional desk, not a standing desk, but definitely higher than 28 inches.

Jack Dennerlein, Harvard School of Public Health:

Get up and move frequently.

Peter T. Katzmarzyk, Pennington Biomedical Research Center:

The take-home message should be that the more time we spend out of the chair, the healthier we are likely to be.