How Teeter Employees Stay Healthy

We all know that working full time and spending time with family leaves little room for eating healthy and regular exercise. Teeter team members work hard to help others to feel, move, and live better – but how do they do the same?

At Teeter, we strive to give our team opportunities to take care of their health, even while at work. This is why we offer onsite fitness classes by a certified trainer so our team members can more easily fit workouts into their daily routine.

Certified Trainer Jase Veltkamp

“We started offering the classes because we felt it was important to offer our team a way to improve their overall health,” CEO and co-owner Rylie Teeter-Leier said. “We all work so hard every day and it’s tough to get up in the morning – or stay up late at night to fit in a workout.”

Certified trainer Jase Veltkamp has worked with Teeter for the past year, offering employees coaching in both strength training and circuit training. Veltkamp agrees that movement, especially in the office environment, is crucial to maintaining health. “Our bodies are meant to move and if we don’t train it to move, then we’re essentially training it NOT to move,” Veltkamp said. “Your body always adapts to what you’re doing.”

Offering onsite fitness training makes it easier for employees to fit a workout into their busy schedules. Veltkamp continues, “It’s often the busiest people who work out the most because they schedule it and make exercise a priority.”

He says attendance is consistent but it usually depends on what’s going on in the company. “The accounting department tends to get busier at the end of the month, so they’re less likely to show up,” he said, laughing.

The fitness classes have another benefit: a more stress-free work environment. According to ADAA, physical activity produces endorphins – chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers and reduce stress. Low endorphin levels (which stem from sitting for long periods of time) are often associated with chronic pain and can be debilitating in the workplace. Not only does the movement prevent physical pain, but the change of focus brings mental clarity as well. That sharpness has promoted success and improved efficiency throughout the team.

“It’s clear that working out helps your body in a lot of ways – but I think what people enjoy the most is the extra energy and the improved mental focus that results from pushing all your attention to the task at hand…lifting the weights,” Teeter-Leier said. “The rest of the day, you just have better mental acuity.”

“There is a lively energy that comes from working out,” Teeter-Leier said. “I think that when the team works out together they bond, they joke and they engage better throughout the day. It’s a big team builder.”

Even when classes aren’t offered, the gym is always open to employees to use throughout the workweek whenever suits them.

Sit-Stand Desk & The Office Environment

Teeter products aren’t just designed for better health at home, but better health at the office as well. It’s incredibly straining on the body to sit at a desk for the majority of the day.

“Most people slouch when they sit at their desks, this causes a ton of pressure on the discs in the spine. Over time, an injury is going to happen and it is very difficult to repair the discs,” Teeter-Leier explains.

According to UCLA’s Ergonomics Program, “The body works harder when standing than when sitting. However, work production studies indicate that workers are more efficient when they stand to work.”

The program compared sitting vs standing while at work and concluded that the ideal situation is alternating between the two postures. Teeter saw this as an opportunity to improve health in the workplace and introduced the Sit-Stand Desk, now a favorite throughout Teeter’s offices.

The Teeter Sit-Stand Desk offers an adjustable workstation where you can easily alternate between sitting and standing.

• Swivel

The stool comes with a padded cushion and can be adjusted to swivel out of the way when using the desk in a standing position.

• Tilt

Four (4) settings allow the Desktop to tilt between 0-45 degrees to accommodate drawing, drafting, writing, a laptop or tablet. You can also adjust the stool to suit your desired seated posture. Three (3) settings angle the Stool between 0-30 degrees to ensure comfort while seated.

• Lift

The desktop raises to a standing position between 40-46” and you can adjust the stool height between 22-28″.

• Move

The compact design is light enough to be portable, yet durable enough to hold 150 lb on the desktop.

“The key to the Sit-Stand Desk is to offer people a cost-effective, quality alternative to sitting all day at work,” Teeter-Leier said. “If you can move to a standing position every few hours, your discs will thank you in the long run. Popping up and standing for a while or using the stool on the Sit-Stand Desk breaks up the hours of pressure that your spine is normally under.”

“I use the Sit-Stand Desk for work, and then I adjust it to make a standing art desk for my son by lowering it and tilting the surface!” Teeter-Leier laughs, “It’s a family experience.”