When you, like many of us, sit in one place for a very long time (watching TV, reading, visiting the Halfbakery...), lactic acid builds up in our inactive muscles, making them sore as hell when (or if) you decide to get up. This couch would work rather like a massage chair, but more utilitarian. Every 15 minutes or so, sensors would activate the nerve centers along your spine, causing your muscles to twitch so you look like you're having a mild seizure. However, that is just not true. These random spasms keep lactic acid from buliding up, keeping us comfortable the rare times we decide to move.
-- igirl, Mar 17 2003

electric muscle stimulation http://inch-aweigh.com/electric_abs.htm
Erm... perhaps we won't end up with over developed buttocks after all... [Jinbish, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) This is what I thought the effect would be like.. http://shop.store.y.../musclebuilder.html
But last link reckons otherwise. [Jinbish, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Funniest idea I've read for a long time.
-- hippo, Mar 17 2003


Wouldn't this effect end up developing the muscles (due to the work done). So I could sit down on my fat ass one day and get up the next with an over-developed, over sized buttocks? (link pending)
-- Jinbish, Mar 17 2003


i don't know -- when i was getting acupuncture, the needles alone weren't too bad. but when they hooked up the electrodes it went decidedly south. maybe just an egg timer that makes you get up?
-- MacBellend, Mar 17 2003


Excellent idea - I'm fed up of my joints and muscles snap, cracking and popping everytime I get out of my seat. It's clunk, click every trip these days...

By the way, is lactic acid the same stuff that builds up in your muscles when you excercise as well? Seems like we just can't win, no matter what we do.
-- lostdog, Mar 17 2003


I rather enjoy cracking my joints. Maybe you should try it. Course, it is rather nasty when the joint is stiff...
-- galukalock, Mar 18 2003


[igirl] are you a doctor, cause i get that spaz stuff going every time I see Ted Koppel with that dead animal on his head. What's up with that?
-- roby, Mar 18 2003


necrophobia?
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 18 2003


Um. How would you (safely) get those electrical signals into your spine? And who would clean up the mess when the chair activated the spinal node for your bladder?

I'll stick to the Sharper Image non-invasive version, thank you.
-- DrCurry, Mar 18 2003


Well, not your spine, just your nerve endings. The sensors activate the nerve endings, which send a message to the nerve centers, which activates your muscles to spaz. [RayfordSteele] Not necrophobia, just a very real and considerate fear that Ted Koppel will get rabies.
-- igirl, Mar 18 2003


I just use an automobile battery, jumper cables, a meat thermometer, and gravy.
-- 1kester, Mar 18 2003


I get up in the morning at around 10.30 am.
I go to bed at around 1.30 am.
All but 5 hours of this is spent sitting on my computer chair, the rest is spent eating, running errands or tinkering with said chair.
This is a good idea, but i would risk zapping myself when i wanted to replace the bearings and/or lube my chair (like i did today).
-- andrew1, Sep 28 2005



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