The spine moves in three ways: flexion-extension, side-bending and rotation. Almost any reclining chair covers flexion-extension, but the rotation and side-bending in Muuv™ by Align1 Solutions™ are different. When the spine performs the twisting motion, it looks like a spiral staircase. It’s important to understand that as you twist, if you only twist from the bottom at waist level at one level of your spine, that level will get worn out, cause problems, cause pain. You want equal movement.
Your spine has 20+ different vertebrae for a reason, otherwise you have pain issues. That’s one of the reasons why those pads twist individually (3 separate segment of the spine = 3 separate pads). Those pads not only twist, but are buffered 360 degrees, you can go up down every different way, at different angles. We want the chair to maintain contact with your body throughout all the exercise in it. If you separate from the chair, your alignment is breaking down in some area, and your spine is compensating. We want the chair to stay with you. If you need to reach behind you to pick something up off the floor, we want the chair to stay with you and support you, in a way no other chair can do.
So many times I hear people tell me, ” I wasn’t doing anything, no idea how I threw my disc out, just picking up paper, reaching behind car seat and injured myself”. They work out, play tennis, basketball, but can throw back out just from reaching for newspaper, but it’s because in that moment and movement, they weren’t properly supported while doing it. Not engaging core. Most people do not have strong core, unless they do yoga, pilates or just work out all the time. So, we want a chair that will support you, teach you to use your core in the right way. It will give you the proper support so you don’t get hurt. Of all the movements, rotation puts the most pressure on the discs. Flexion-extension, side-bending and rotation cause the most pressure, most torque for disc, leads to injury. Having that support is really important.
It’s pretty well known in athletic community these days, there’s a big push for using your own body’s weight as resistance. Even if you still lift weights, you combine with body weight for total overall resistance. That shaped the direction taken on resistance component. When you do a crunch in the Muuv™, the more resistance you put on the chair, the easier the exercise is, so it’s an inverse relationship. The chair will actually help you do that crunch. If you have a lot of spring in the chair, it will help you come up from the crunch. If it’s more free flow, then there’s no assistance coming up. So the actual flexion-extension part of the chair while doing the crunch is an interesting relationship. People that exercise will understand easily. Many people who don’t will have to experience it for themselves or have it explained very clearly. The more the chair helps you come up, the easier it is to do the crunch, and that’s what the Muuv™ does with resistance component. For your more advanced person exerciser, they will crank it all the way down to where the chair is barely helping them at all.
The benefits are limitless. Fresh blood, fresh oxygen, getting to all points of your body. This is a big part of claims we’re making about decreasing fatigue, decreasing co-morbidities. Lack of oxygen circulation can lead to disease, the most dramatic cases being something like cancer or as minimal as something orthopedic such as carpal tunnel or sciatica… different levels of diseases and problems.
The main thing that promotes circulation is movement. If you remain stagnant, the blood doesn’t circulate as well. The second thing is there anything inhibiting circulation, aside from staying static. If your body is out of alignment, you can be physically obstructing that circulation. So for instance the seat wedge opens up the hip angle, creating more room for blood and nerves. Waterfall edge at front of seat prevents blocking of circulation behind knees. There are also bony prominences. Old people get bed sores from lack of movement, being confined to bed, bony provenances start dying, skin, muscle, tissue. There are two at the tailbone, called the sit bones. There’s also another one at base of spine, at sacrum. We vary the foam densities to relieve pressure in those areas, the bony parts. This is something unique that many others do not do. We want the circulation to the legs, very important to keeping the circulation of the legs.
Wedge seats on those who drive for a living, for example, truck drivers. So many vehicles have bucket seats, with people positioned to lounge back, and it’s really not the right way to be sitting.
As you can see, we’re taking a whole new approach to the way people should be sitting.