StretchPro 1.0, a fitness application introduced by the woman-owned business enterprise Fountainhead International Group LLC, is specially designed to ease the work associated pains from head to toe with stretches. This application for video-guided stretching is designed for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. StretchPro is developed by Appiction and includes 20 video demonstrations that show the proper way to exercise the shoulder, wrists, chest, eyes, fingers, neck, back, and legs. With this application, you can either focus on one particular area of your body or play the complete video in shuffle mode. It is a great way to avoid the strain of sitting for the whole day in an office chair.

The fitness gurus from all the across the world prescribe stretching as an important part of your daily exercise routine. It not only increases flexibility and blood circulation, but also helps to reduce stress and promote better concentration power. And StretchPro 1.0 also includes breathing exercises to improve your lifestyle. In addition, this iPhone application provides fitness tips throughout the day to help you to stay healthy.

Fountainhead is well known for providing quality ergonomic solutions to improve the office-work condition. In fact, they are considered as the industry leader for providing ergonomic furniture and other office equipment. StretchPro, like all the other ergonomic furniture provided by Fountainhead, will hold your attention with its highest technical quality. The studio produced videos are shot with a gorgeous female model. An elegant white background has been used so as to enhance your ability to comply with these instructions. In addition, side views are available for certain exercises in order to ensure their proper execution.

Better yet, you don’t have to feel frustrated while navigating through its menus. The task has been made easier with its simple touch screen interface. Whenever you touch the graphic of the female model, it produces animated waves that invite you to watch the videos related to the particular part of the body. Instructions are given in voiceover by a female and are very easy to understand. Apart from video demonstration, you can avail all these instruction in text form. 

The animated corporate logo of StretchPro 1.0 comes with the tag “style meets ergonomics”. And this tagline truly justifies the iPhone application. It will not only support the iPhone OS 4, you can even schedule push reminders in your new gadget in order to take a stretch break. In fact, this is considered as one of the top features of this application.

While summing up, the StretchPro 1.0 of Fountainhead comes with a number of advantages. As already mentioned, it provides balanced stretching programs for all the major areas of your body. These programs are specially designed so as to benefit people of all ages and are helpful enough to prevent injuries and relieve your stress. Since the instructions are available in both video and text format, you can use them anywhere without interrupting others. So if you are one of those who spend most of the part of their time seated, get the StretchPro 1.0 and take your stretch break for staying healthy. 

Fountainhead International Group LLC, the industry leader for providing ergonomic solutions, offers ergonomic laptop station that can reduce the strain on the neck and increase productivity. An ergonomic laptop station is a notebook stand that allows you to use external keyboard/ mouse. A study was conducted in 2002 to determine the benefits of using ergonomic products. Karin Hendriksson-Larsén, Anna Lindblad Berkhout, and Paulien Bongers, Umeå University, Sweden, 2002, and TNO Work and Employment, The Netherlands, conducted the study to confirm whether or not using laptop station can help to reduce the mechanical load on the neck. This study also helped to assess how laptop station can increases productivity of an individual. The effect of using ergonomic laptop station was compared to the effects of using a simple laptop PC to verify the differences between these two test conditions.

This study was conducted on 10 healthy male students at the Umeå University, Sweden. Each one of them had worked on PC for around 10 years and had laptop PC work experience of 18 months on an average. The research was divided into two parts. They had to work at the ErgoQ laptop station for 4 hours as well as at a conventional laptop PC for another 4 hours. This research was scheduled on two consecutive days. The subjects used same sitting position for both the tests and were allowed to tilt the monitor according to their preference. With a standard laptop PC the average laptop screen tilt was 27­ degree while it was only 11 degree with a laptop station. This proved that people can work more comfortably while using a laptop station.

Photographs were taken for some biomechanical analysis in order to calculate the mechanical pressure at neck. This mechanical pressure helped to examine the strain on the neck in both the test condition. And it was observed the strain was much lesser with a laptop station.

During this study difference in productivity was also measured. The subjects were asked to enter some text and numbers in Microsoft Word in both their test situations. This test was to be completed within 10 minutes and the entries must be as accurate as possible within the given timeframe. And here too, it was observed that both the speed and the rate of accuracy were higher with a laptop station.

Overall, the result of the study confirmed that by using laptop station 32% of the mechanical pressure at the neck level can be decreased. It was also proved that using a laptop holder provides 21% higher comfort score and 17% greater productivity score, which can indeed create a significant difference in a company’s overall performance. Thus, the study concluded that it is possible to improve productivity by reducing the strain on the neck with the help of a laptop station.

Fountainhead International LLC, a certified woman-owned business enterprise offers ErgoQ laptop station and other ergonomic and adjustable work tools to help to meet an individual’s need during continuous VDT work at special promotional prices. The company also offers advices from in-house certified ergonomist. This Austin, Texas based company offers ergonomic solutions in a smart way to improve your productivity. In terms of design and functionality, Fountainhead International offers the highest standards available in the market.

We know how difficult it is for a woman to strike a balance between her professional and personal life.  Both are equally demanding and, as a result, most women hardly have the time to get adequate rest and recovery.  The immense pressure at work and on the home front and the lack of proper downtime often bring about physical discomforts such as back aches, muscle soreness and even injury.  For expecting mothers, the situation only becomes more complicated.  Sitting in a particular posture for an extended period of time is not at all recommended for pregnant women as it not only contributes to added discomfort and even back injuries, but also increases pressure on the womb. For many pregnant women though, sitting or standing for prolonged periods cannot be avoided.

Varier’s Balans chair is designed to effectively address this problem. Manufacturer of the original kneeling chair, Varier recognized that sitting too long in a conventional posture is uncomfortable and unhealthy, and thus created the Balans chair which offers the best possible open body angle position. This seating concept was developed by Hans Christian Mengshoel in the late 1970s and was designed by the world famous designer Peter Opsvik.

The design of the Balans chair (Variable Balans and Wing Balans) is characterized by a lower leg support that enables the user to bend his/her knees comfortably while seated and encourages balanced movement. The open thigh-torso angle further supports the movement. The Balans chair provides less stress on your spine and back muscles and distributes your weight evenly on the knees.

The Balans chair by Varier not only encourages neutral postures, but also facilitates postural changes. The Balans chair is indeed good for women who are in their later stages of pregnancy. It places less pressure on the womb even when the angle between the thighs and trunk is increased. The Balans chair, while supporting you in the open balans ‘kneeling position’, allows your body to find its own equilibrium as well as to keep your abdominal and back muscles working. In addition, it helps to improve oxygen levels and blood circulation and enables you to work longer hours.

The Balans chair is cushioned with polyurethane foam. Some of these chairs come with a backrest option with adjustable height and depth. In general, the height of this backrest option ranges from 86-94cm. The backrest is particularly designed to supports your arms and elbows while working. In addition, the height of the leg cushions can also be adjusted in order to suit your body requirements.

Apart from pregnant women, the Balans chair is ideal for just about any health conscious individual who wants to avoid back and shoulder pain, improve blood circulation and oxygen supply, and stay energized even when seated for extended periods.

Those who are suffering from Carpal Tunnel syndrome know how painful it is to use a computer keyboard and a mouse for extended periods. To worsen the situation this syndrome often leads to weakness/numbness in your wrist and hands.

In this era of information technology it is almost impossible to rule out the necessity of working on a PC or a laptop. Therefore the question now arises whether or not there are any options that can help you to reduce the risk of Carpal Tunnel syndrome, as you continue to work on your computer for extended periods.

Considering the new age requirements, several computer parts manufacturing companies have developed ergonomic products and adjustable work tools that can help one during continuous VDT (Video Display Terminal) work. These products are designed to help to improve the workplace condition. And ergonomic keyboards are specially designed to minimize muscle strain and thus reduce risk of Carpal Tunnel syndrome. They not only lessen the stress on your wrist and hand while typing, but also make typing faster and easier.

Ergonomic keyboards focus on the natural positioning of your arms while working so as to avoid the risk and discomfort of hand and wrist injuries. This type of keyboard also allows you to place the mouse in a better ergonomic position. While considering ergonomic keyboards, you can either opt for a fixed-split keyboard which is a single board and have keys separated into 2 or 3 groups. It is much more user friendly than a typical straight keyboard and enables you to type at various different angles.

You can even opt for the adjustable split keyboard which is split into a number of independent pieces. You can easily change the angle between them and some of them also come with elevated sections at various angles. In addition there are some other ergonomic keyboards that have fixed and vertically aligned keys, while others offer a range of elevations and rotations. Apart from these, there are some ergonomic keyboards that eliminate the age old concept of the typical one key per letter. They are generally termed as keyless ergonomic keyboards. Moreover, these ergonomic keyboards include datahand due to which no wrist motion or finger extension is required while working on the keyboard.

Some of them come with editing key layout to facilitate the left-right work distribution and can be easily adjusted. The socket latch mechanism and locking ball help the keyboard to remain in position to provide you a smooth work experience. For easy thumb use, these keyboards come with large space bars. Some of these ergonomic keyboards have frequency adjustable clock so as to speed up your transaction. Keyboards like ErgoSecure SC2.0 come with smart card technology to verify user identity and provide communication and transaction security.

In general, these ergonomic keyboards are compatible with Windows XP, 2000 and Vista and are simple to adjust. And you can buy any of these adjustable keyboards depending on your individual body requirements and feel a significant difference in the increased comfort and ease of your task.