ROVO CHAIR | Ergonomics

The Spine

Body / Muscles

The Ergonomics Concept

The interverebal discs - our shock absorbers

In a balanced posture (spine in double-S shape) pressure is evenly distributed.

The intervertebral discs cannot absorb fluid when under strain.

Intervertebral discs receive fluid by diffusion and not via blood vessels and start to dehydrate when under strain.

1. Standing up, sitting upright or sitting in a hunched position puts excessive pressure on the discs. They are unable to absorb fluid and start to dehydrate.

2. Relaxed intervertebral discs can absorb fluid. Sitting "dynamically" or lying down relieves the strain on the discs, enabling them to absorb fluid. This allows the outer fibre rings to withstand the pressure exerted by the inner nucleus, thus preventing a slipped disc.

1 Fibre rings
2 Disc nucleus

Modern ergonomics is based on the principle that adopting a more dynamic way of sitting - i.e. sitting with the chair rather than on it - makes you less fatigued and more efficient. ROVO office chairs promote a good working posture and keep your muscles active by encouraging you to change position frequently while your're sitting down.

Causes of back pain
43 % Strainded muscles
28 % Excessive strain and bone erosion
20 % Unevenly distributed strain, lifting and carrying heavy loads
18 % Bad posture

Good chairs pay for themselves

Personnel costs account for 80% of administrative expenditure - and the hours lost because of illness can prove equally expensive. So healthy employees are now every company's most important asset. The most frequent cause of illness among employees is not infection or accidents at work but back problems, which account for 30% of sick leave. In Germany, the treatment of back problems alone costs around € 10 million a year (estimated by the German health insurance institutes in 1996), not to mention the costs companies incur as a result of lost man-hours.

(Statistics from the German Association of Company Health Funds)