For macOS
Still sitting since 9 am?
Sitting all day raises your risk of heart disease, weight gain and high insulin.1 Chairtax locks your Mac at the interval you set, and the only way back in is to squat your way out. The camera counts every rep, on your Mac.
Meet Bearly. He squats when you do and cheers every rep.
- Energy
- Strength
- Heart
- Blood sugar
A break, in motion
The screen pauses until you do the reps
A panel covers your work. The camera counts each rep, Bearly does it with you, and the ring fills. At the target the screen comes back.
A break
How a break goes
You choose the movement, the reps per break and the interval. Chairtax starts breaks in your workday and lives in the menu bar.
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1 · THE NOTICE
A notice first
Thirty seconds before a break, a notice gives the movement and the target. If another app is using the camera or microphone, the break waits five minutes.
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2 · THE BREAK
The camera counts
The screen is covered on every display. Stand where the camera can see your head and hips, and do the reps. The camera counts from any angle.
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3 · DONE
The screen comes back
At the target the screen comes back. The break adds to your streak and your reps in total.
In the menu bar
The menu shows the time to the next break, your streak and your reps in total. Break now starts one early. Pause breaks stops them for 1, 2 or 4 hours, until morning, or until you resume.
Movements
Seven movements to choose from
Pick one in setup and change it in Settings. The camera counts six of them. Reps per break: 5, 10, 15 or 20. Interval: 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes.
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Squat
Bend your knees until your hips drop, then stand up. It works your thighs and glutes, the largest muscles in your body.
Blood sugarStrengthEnergy -
Chair stand
Stand up from your chair and sit back down. Doctors use it to test leg strength, and you can do it in work clothes.
Blood sugarStrength -
Jumping jacks
Jump your feet apart as your arms go over your head, then back. It raises your heart rate within a few reps.
HeartEnergy -
High knees
Run on the spot, bringing each knee up to hip height. Land softly and it stays quiet.
HeartStrengthEnergy -
Overhead reach
Raise both arms over your head, stretch, and lower them. It needs no floor space.
Energy -
Side bends
Lean to the left, then to the right. It stretches your sides after hours at the desk.
Energy -
Typed phrase
For when the camera can't see you
You type the sentence you signed in setup, and the break ends. It needs no camera, and it does not count toward the money-back challenge.
Ranks
Pick your rank
The higher the rank, the harder a break is to skip. You sign your rank in setup, and changing it later asks for the signature again.
Cub
A card over your work. You can dismiss it, and that ends your streak.
Brown bear
The screen is covered. A few skips a day, and you can switch apps.
Grizzly
The screen stays covered until the reps are done. No skips.
Every rank has an emergency override. Press it and the screen comes back after 60 seconds. A break ends on its own after 15 minutes, or after 30 seconds in which the camera cannot see you.
What a break does
What each break does for you
A few reps every break keeps your energy up, your legs strong, your heart working and your blood sugar steady.
Energy
Every break gets you out of the chair and moving. At a 30-minute interval that is 18 breaks in a nine-hour workday.
Strength
Squats and chair stands work your thighs and glutes. At 15 reps every 30 minutes, that is 270 reps in a nine-hour workday and 1,350 in a working week.
Heart
Jumping jacks and high knees raise your heart rate for the minute a break takes, many times a day.
Blood sugar
In a 2021 study, 15 chair stands with calf raises every 30 minutes cut the insulin rise after lunch by a quarter to a third, compared with sitting all afternoon. In adults with type 2 diabetes, three minutes of half-squats and similar moves every 30 minutes lowered blood sugar after meals.
- Gillen JB et al. Interrupting prolonged sitting with repeated chair stands or short walks reduces postprandial insulinemia in healthy adults. Journal of Applied Physiology 130(1):104–113, 2021.
- Dempsey PC et al. Benefits for type 2 diabetes of interrupting prolonged sitting with brief bouts of light walking or simple resistance activities. Diabetes Care 39(6):964–972, 2016.
- Chairtax is not a medical device and gives no medical advice. If a movement hurts, stop and choose a gentler one.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your Mac
The camera counts your reps on the Mac itself.
- Pose detection runs on your Mac with Apple's Vision framework.
- No frame is stored, uploaded or shown to anyone.
- The break screen shows a stick figure by default. Your camera picture appears only if you turn it on.
- The camera is the only permission Chairtax asks for.
- The app makes no network connections. It has no accounts and no analytics.
- Your breaks, streak and reps are kept in a file on your Mac.
Pay once, keep it forever.
- One payment of $29. Sales tax or VAT is added at checkout where it applies.
- Use it on every Mac you own.
- Nothing leaves your Mac.
Bought here, Chairtax comes as a download and a licence key, shown after checkout and sent by email. Setup runs without a key; breaks start once the key is in. On the Mac App Store you pay Apple and need no key.
Money-back challenge
Do the reps and get your $29 back
Every licence bought on this site comes with it. The 30 days start the first time you enter your key. Reps the camera counts in any break, with any camera movement, count toward it. When you have met it, email the code from each Mac you used (Show challenge code…) and your Paddle order number to [email protected] within 14 days after your 30 days end, and we refund the $29 through Paddle. You keep Chairtax.
The full terms and how to claim