Classic

This chair is fantastic and perfect for my job. I have a herniated disc at L4/L5, which I've been dealing with for 3 years. I've tried everything for pain management with no long-term success, and I'm not a candidate for surgery, so I decided to buy this chair with the hopes that it would help strengthen my back during the day. I have a desk job, but do get up at least every hour to walk around a bit. It is so incredibly comfortable and stable! I make sure to not use the backrest and sit up very straight to get the most out of the ball. I waited to write this review about a month after I purchased. The first day, because it was so comfortable, I sat on it for nearly 6 hours and came home in pain! Don't get me wrong, this is NOT a bad thing - this is a good thing! This means it works - it does what it's supposed to do - strengthens your core and those muscles along your spine. If you're unsure, think no more - YOU MUST BUY THIS CHAIR!! When you put it together, the ball will make the whole chair look really low, and I was worried it would be too short for my desk, but it was the perfect height. My desk at work is tall, and our monitors are elevated even more - I would say you're probably safe to buy this for your desk, as I believe mine is higher than typical desks. My advice to others - 1. There are only two wheels with brakes on them - if you're like me, you roll around to different parts of your desk all day. You should put those wheels on the back, so you don't accidentally put the brakes down with your heels. 2. Pump that ball up as much as it will go! You want it to be really full and firm. 3. Start off sitting in the chair for 2-3 hours per day, then slowly move up in hour increments so you build up your muscles and don't end up hurting your back like I did! Example: Monday & Tuesday, sit for 2-3 hours. Wednesday & Thursday, sit for 3-4 hours. Friday and next Monday, sit for 4-5 hours, etc. You will not regret buying this chair. I'm so happy I did!

I purchased this chair because I have lower back pain. I've had it now for about 6 months and find that at the end of the day my back feels much better. I don't use the ball for working out, I only use it as an office chair. It definitely takes a little while to get used to it. The first few days, my back was sore and I almost went back to my old chair. It was sore, but it didn't hurt. After about a week, I stopped noticing my back being sore. I'm pretty sure it is because my back had to build up the muscles to support my body. Which is exactly what I was hoping it would do. The chair doesn't allow you to lean on the back of a normal office type chair, therefore forcing you to use your back muscles. It doesn't force you to have perfect posture, but without the ability to lean on a backrest, it reminds me throughout the day to sit up right. After a couple of months, I do it naturally now. I realized how much the chair has helped with my back pain last week. One of my co-workers asked to try the chair out for a couple of days. My back hurt at the end of the day significantly more than it has in months. Pretty conclusive proof that this works for me. Be warned, you'll get a lot of funny looks when people first see it. Even the UPS guy laughed at me while delivering it. I don't care! It makes me feel better. The bottom line: Be prepared for a week or two of time to get used to it and build up the back muscles. I think afterward you'll thank yourself. ***UPDATE*** Almost 2 years now since I bought this chair and I still sit on it every day. Have not had lower back pain at the end of the day since a few weeks after I bought it. Still 5 stars for me!

This item is just as described by Amazon. Thumbs up - there is a lightweight, plastic pump in the box to blow up the ball. It is easy enough to set up that my daughter set it up in just a few minutes by herself. The fit ball is small, not the huge exercise ball that you normally see in a fitness area. It is a bit rough, not a super smooth, shiny surface. This prevents the person seated from sliding around on the ball. The main body of the chair is a very sturdy, hollow plastic. Smooth but not shiny. The back of the chair is extremely flexible. If you were a very large person this could be a problem if you prefer to lean back or sit back on the chair. The design of the chair though encourages me to sit forward and I spend very little time resting against the back of the chair. And no, this does not seem to get uncomfortable or make me sore in any way. It is quite comfortable. The wheels are plastic and a bit small, but they do move ok on both carpet and tile. If I were to have a complaint, it is that the chair sits quite low. Some sort of height adjustment piece of two to four inches would be helpful. However, being seated at the lower height, even though you look a bit like a young child sitting at a large desk, helps to keep the person sitting in a straight, upright position rather than being stooped over the top of the desk. My height is 5' 2", so if you are taller this might not be a concern for you. I have to raise my elbows just slightly to rest them on the desk. Which, by the way, also prevents my wrists from getting sore while I type on the keyboard. My arms are straight and rest on the surface of the desk. If you are much shorter than I am, you might want 1) a shorter desk, 2) a taller chair/height extenders, 3) a bigger fit ball. Overall, the quality of the chair is good and I have noticed a lot less body aches since I am not bending over the desk so much.

UPDATE: I've now been using the Gaiam ball chair for nearly four years, and I still love it. It's the only kind of chair I want at my desk. I think I may have underestimated its core-working attributes, because about two years ago, I started doing pilates workouts with a friend after a long hiatus from that kind of workout. I was able to get through really intense core exercises easily, and I am pretty sure the ball chair had something to do with it. This is a great product. I've been using the ball chair for about 8 months now. I was having terrible back pain at work, and had trouble making it through a full 8-hour day at work. The first couple of weeks took some getting used to--I had to find the right way to sit in it, and there was some slight discomfort as I started using good-posture back muscles that hadn't been well-employed for a while. After about two weeks, though, I felt so much more comfortable in the chair, and in fact I have a lot of trouble in meetings where I have to sit in a regular office chair for an hour or two. It's impossible to sit in this chair and not sit up straight. Or, at least, you'd have to work very hard. The chair doesn't do as much in terms of core work as a regular balance ball. The wheeled base provides enough extra support that the body is not doing much work to keep itself up. If it's real core work you want, I'd recommend getting a big balance ball and just using that. It's true that you can get a workout in the chair, but its not something you do while you're working; you have to stop and "do" the workout, then return to work. Which is great! But the chair won't give you amazing abs just by sitting in it. But if it's better posture you're after, if you want to train yourself to sit straighter and get away from office-chair back pain, I can't recommend this enough.

So, my work desk is a nightmare of ergonomic abnormalities and a monument to poor housekeeping skills. I probably could sue my employer (for the ergonomics) but they're almost as broke as I am. Anyhow, I saw this nifty chair concept as a way to help improve my posture and increase my core strength at work. First, I'm not a dainty wisp of a man. I clock in at about 210 lbs and stand about 5'11." I don't believe in Yoga or that men should wear clogs or crocs or anything of the sort. The mere idea of me parking my posterior on a chair like this was so preposterous, that it generated a steady stream of co-workers stopping by my cubical to inspect the acquisition. Some of these people I had never interacted with in my 5 year stint in the same cubical! It generated hours of idiotic conversation and effectively halted productivity for days. Virtually everyone wanted to sit on it. This was followed by obligatory bouncing up and down and uncontrollable giggling. Really? Yes. Really. The Good: This chair seemed surprisingly comfortable for my height and was adjustable simply by adding or reducing the air inside the inflatable ball. It was easy to assemble and made of mostly durable plastic parts. It rolls well on carpet or non-carpeted surfaces and the back rest provides minimal but adequate support for short term use. It's very light. I can move it around and with the metal "holder" in place, the inflatable ball has never come out unexpectedly. The Bad: The ball or seating area is made of thick vinyl or rubber and while it feels strong and durable, it does not promote air-flow. That's not a big deal if you only sit still for 5 minutes at a time but for a died-in-the-wool-lard-ass like me, the lack of air means you start to sweat down there. Yeah, I said it. Butt Sweat. Imagine what it's like to sit naked on a leather couch in the middle of summer in extreme humidity with no ventilation... You gettin the picture, pal? Yeah, its not pretty. So if you plan to park your bottom in one spot for an extended time, you may want to keep looking. Maybe that should be listed as a benefit? Humans weren't designed to sit around on our keesters all day. Final Thoughts: There's nothing wrong with this chair. It's a great concept and if you don't sit for long periods, it isn't a bit uncomfortable. And even with the odd looks and and sweaty pants, I can't completely dismiss the chair but (and its a big but...) I ended up taking this thing home to live in my garage for all eternity. It's holding air great but it's not seen a bottom for months. Why? It's just funky and funky is something my butt requires little of. I've got plenty of butt-funk already without this little chair. So, I think you can rationalize the expenditure but the actual benefit of using this requires dedication. That's my two scents.

I have had this ball chair for a few years. I purchased it after I was experiencing pain in my lower back, tailbone and butt from sitting too long at my desk. The ball chair fixed these issues for me. I purchased one for my office, my home office and any employee of mine who wanted one. It is super easy to roll around (much easier to navigate than just sitting on a balance ball, which is where I started). It’s the perfect height for me (I’m 5’4”) to have good ergonomics with my keyboard tray on my desk. It has the ability to get taller by inflating the ball (I had a tall employee and it worked great for her, too). It’s worth the price and I have had no issues. My one tip is to put the casters with the breaks on the BACK wheels. I have one of my chairs where they got snapped in on the front and I regularly trip the break, causing me to skid when I need to move the chair. It’s a quick and easy fix to release the break when that happens. Some people think the chair is funky, but I have no regrets!

Ordered this on Jan 6th 2017, probably got it on jan 9th or so and today May 25th 2017 it broke. The end of the metal bar that keeps the ball in place broke off. Holding the broken off threaded piece in my hand - this feels like the cheapest quality steel possible. My wife asked if it was really metal or some other pressure formed solid coated to look like steel. I have handled a lot of threaded bolts and nuts and this is the lightest "chuck" of a bolt I have ever seen. I have only ever sat on the chair. I have never tried to do any of the exercises that use the chair that are included in the instructions. The ball is properly inflated. While I will attempt to get a replacement part - I have no idea if this will be possible and if so is this a part that is going to need to be replaced every 5 months. Assuming I cannot get a replacement part for free, this will have cost more than $10 a month to use for only about 10 hours a week. Before it broke, I liked it ok, I was using it as a desk chair. Not a great desk chair but better than I though it might be. Perhaps if they used real "old fashioned" steel in the metal bar it would last longer than 5 months. This ends up being an expensive way to get an exercise ball, because it won't work as a chair for long. Yesterday I received the replacement metal bar (yes, it took essentially 3 months). The new bar does seem to be made of steel, it is substantially heavier and hopefully will actually last. The packing list shows 3 items shipped, but all I got was the metal bar - no nuts to hold it on. Packing slip Lists: 95-1198 Kit Comp: Circular Metal Piece BB Chair 1 ordered 1 shipped 95-1198BOLT Kit Comp: Circular Metal Piece Security Bo 2 ordered 2 shipped I went to the hardware store and got the necessary nuts to hold the bar on. But it does seem a little strange that a company that initially sent out a product that based upon all of the reviews of the metal bars breaking, knew was defective, while replacing the defective part would not send the nuts necessary to hold the bar on. They seem to be trying and not to have their act together. I did raise my review to 3 stars (from 2), but I would not see Gaiam on a product and purchase it thinking the quality was any good. Updated. 11/9/17 Tonight the ball started to deflate. Sitting on the chair at my desk I heard a hissing noise. At first I thought it was coming from the computer, no the hiss got louder and I figured out the ball was deflating. Nothing punctured the ball - it is just poor quality. Lowering review to 1 star. Gaiam quality control is very poor if the chair I got is at all representative.

I purchased 3 of these for my office, 1 for me and 1 each for two other co-workers. I assembled all of the chairs. The packaging is very substantial and is well packed for easy removal and assy. The assembly was straight forward and very easy to do. I found the parts to be of good quality as well. I was nervous about pumping up the balls because I read on other reviews that some folks were receiving balls that were too small. I assembled my co-workers chairs and both of their balls were the correct size and fit nicely within the chair. However, when I assembled my own chair the ball was noticeably smaller than the other chairs and i inflated it the same amount as I did the other two balls. When inflated it did not fit snugly into the chair like it is supposed to fit. Amazon was great about immediately delivering another chair to me on the very next day and they instructed me to box up my chair and leave it outside my door for pick up- easy, no charge to me and great prompt replacement. However, the second chair I recieved the same thing occured. One co-worker decided to pump up the ball extremely more than we pumped theirs. I was reluctant as I was not sure how much pressure they can hold. This solved the issue. Apparently the smaller balls are thicker in material as well and they require much more pressure to pump to the right size. I did not realize this and I hope this helps others who have had the issue with the size of the ball portion of this chair. By the way, this chair is SO comfortable and its great for your posture. I also like that I can remove it and do ball exercises during my lunch hour, office door closed of course.

I love this chair but takes some getting used to. Not the most comfortable for sitting for long periods but I guess that must be the point to get up and walk around and not sit for too long.

Tengo una semana usando la silla en mi home office, si bien no son 8 horas al día al menos si son 4 y la verdad es la silla más comoda que he sentido en casa. Hace algun tiempo intente usar solo una pelota para sentarme y no me era tan comodo porque era difícil mantener la estabilidad. En esta silla tengo los beneficios de forzar tener una buena postura y a la vez no tengo problema con la estabilidad. Me encanta

仕事中は、ずっとこの椅子です。足腰が痛くなくとても良い感じです。他の椅子に座れません。

Es súper cómoda si tienes dolor de coxis, sin embargo como el respaldo es muy bajo, no me mantiene la espalda recta. Combino el uso de esta silla con la tradicional y mi coxis dejó de doler

RECIBÍ UN BALÓN MÁS PEQUEÑO QUE EL QUE MUESTRAN LAS FOTOS DEL ANUNCIO. ASÍ QUE NO SIRVE PARA LA SILLA