Once upon a time in 2020, lived a princess who had spent her days in an office.
Her Herman Miller chair brought her so much glee,
as did the wonderful machine with free coffee.
Life as we knew it would completely change
with evil COVID 19, making things quite strange.
Those who worked from home soon realized that the Home Office needed to be revised.
After several months of a kitchen counter as a desk.
Her posture and body a total mess.
The princess got herself a standing desk.
You can see my review, our review on the channel, not Covid.
She heard about fatigue mats, but had already spent
quite a bit of cash, a carpet and indoor running shoes.
Surely that would do?
with so much choice which to buy.
Would there be one that would satisfy?
Did our princess choose the right route?
How about we find out?
Thank you, narrator.
I am Princess Jess.
I'm here to talk to you about the Ergodriven Topo Mini in Obsidian Gray.
Fany color name with a fancy intro like and comment.
If you like that intro, I work really hard on it. That would be much appreciated.
So as my interest stated, I was using shoes and carpet for the longest time.
And I mean, it worked. But here's the thing.
Shoes are designed to be used in movement. Go figure.
I'm not sure how great they are for spending all the time
and anyway, Just standing all the time isn't really great for your body either.
OK, so why would you get an anti Fatigue mat?
Well, if you're standing all the time, either
if you're at a standing desk or you're just standing for your job,
that's obviously going to help with fatigue.
It's going to be softer on your joints,
especially if you're on a hardwood floor or cement or something like that.
I've even seen some that say they can use that wood shoes.
I don't know why I want to call this all terrain.
But if you want to get a terrain, relief, what's the word in English?
A, if you were to get an ergonomic mat,
having shoes would kind of be pointless.
So I wouldn't get this type if you were going with shoes.
But if you're going with socks or bare feet, this would be what I'd get
but I'm going to get into that a little bit later.
So once you start doing research for an anti fatigue.
How do you choose the right one for you?
You're going to notice that there's a lot of choice out there
and that they range from about 35 to 200$s in that price range.
And so if you start looking at the reviews, what you will notice
some of them mention is this issue of off gassing.
So who knows what chemicals are using or quality control.
But that was an issue.
This doesn't have off gassing, by the way,
it didn't smell like anything, which is pretty much what you want.
You'll notice that a lot of them and most of them
come in this rectangular format that's kind of like a standard
anti fatigue method, generally, 18 by 30, give or take them.
You'll notice different colors.
There's even a fun beach,
one that I saw that I was very close to pulling the trigger
just because I really miss being on the beach and being on vacation.
So that was something I almost pulled the trigger on, but completely
not my esthetic or style, although it would have been cute
to have your toes dipped in the sand, but also a little bit sad.
You can use it at your tiny desk you use in your kitchen.
If you're constantly like cooking
and something that you want to consider as you don't want it to be too soft.
So think about your whole weight is going to be on this.
You want to have some good padding, comfortable.
It's not like a memory foam mattress here.
This is this is just two feet taking up your whole body.
Sometimes one, if you're just kind of doing like the flamingo stance.
Form factor, colors, all these things that you're considering.
And then, of course, how much padding there is.
And I guess there is a certain level of what's comfortable for most people,
but I think that could be also a subjective thing.
You will also notice that there's two different types of mat that you come
across. There is the flat one, and then there is the ergonomic one
with like terrain and whatever you want to call these ridges,
the flat one is pretty self-explanatory.
You'll want to look for one that has like little bubble edge with bubble edges
just over here so you don't end up really tripping over it, although
if you're not paying attention, you will.
This is definitely a tripping hazard in that warranty card that it came with
the mat made sure to highlight the fact many, many times that like be careful
that you don't trip on this. So just, you know, I'm going to mention it.
Be careful that you don't trip on this thing.
You're going to want to look
for a little bit of texture as well, because if you're barefoot or with socks,
you want a little bit of that texture and you can see some on here.
I've never felt like I was about to slip on it.
Why did I end up going with the Topo Mini?
Well, it's a proper brand. It has its own website.
It seemed like a reputable company, had good reviews.
I like the form factor.
So this is the Mini. There's a regular size.
That's a little bit bigger, but the mini is not that many.
As you can tell next to me, it's bigger than my torso.
But for a A.. anti fatigue mat, this is considered small,
but visually could look a bit more bulky because of all the ridges.
If that's something that's important to you. I'm going to mention it, but
to me, ergonomics is more important, and I like the way it looks
and it does suggest that this would be good for people that are 5'4" and under.
In some reviews, I saw some people with the Mini
and they were 5'10", and they were very happy with it.
And then I've seen reviews of people that were like 5'2", and they had the mini
and they had the regular and they preferred the regular
just because they can move around on it more.
So it really depends on what you want.
I would say that the more important thing is not necessarily height, but more
how wide your stance is, how much you want to move around on it
and budget, since this is cheaper, this is 99 Canadian, 69USD.
It also depends on the space that you're putting in.
If you have more space, then maybe you would get the bigger one.
But I didn't want it to take up much room.
And honestly, I'm very happy with the meaning.
My stance can be pretty wide if I go really at the widest.
It's pretty uncomfortable, to be honest.
For me, the ridges are a little bit differently shaped and stuff
on the bigger one, but I don't feel like you're missing out on any of them.
Also, I wouldn't know if I haven't tried it.
I'm used to this. I like it.
I can get enough of stretches and massaging in using all the different
things and moving it around, moving it up, moving it down, moving on my feet go.
I've discovered different ways of using it in different stretches.
I'm constantly fidgeting anyway, naturally.
So this allows me to fidget with purpose
and actually massage my arges, massage my feet, stretch my calves.
So it feels really good.
Those were my deciding factors also with the Topo.
It comes with different colors,
although I've seen the blue and the purple be sold out quite a bit.
I went with the gray just because it fits my color palette. I like gray.
Black was a little bit too dark.
So gray looks cute on my floors and it's a nice mid tone color,
matches my sofa as well. I like the simplicity of it.
I like the uniformity of it.
I've seen other ergonomic mats that had little like knobs
and massage things,
and I kind of wanted that initially on this
and thought I was missing out if I didn't have it.
But I don't feel like I need it.
I also do have this. Hold on, let me get it.
I also do have this foot roller that kind of looks like a bambam
type of Flintstone babam type of club.
I use it sometimes. I don't really need that on my fatigue mat.
And I like the cleanliness of this.
At first I was like, oh, it's going to be a little bit of a visual eyesore.
I just leave it out there with my standing desk because it's
not in a high traffic area for me.
I'm also not going to be tripping over it.
This is made out of a 100% high quality polyurethane foam.
It's got nice padding to it, and it seems like very rigid.
But when you're standing on it, it's good enough support at the thin points.
It's about three quarters of an inch thick,
which is what you'll see a lot of anti fatigue mats
being in the three quarter to one inch thick range.
Obviously, these sticking out components are going to be a lot thicker than that.
I found it's been fine for me.
I don't know if the bigger one is actually a bit thicker.
I don't know what happens if you're heavier.
I don't know if it'll be less comfortable.
Working on this has
made it a lot easier to stand at my desk for several hours of time.
And it really promotes movement, which is the whole point of this ergonomic.
I personally would not go for a flat one.
Now that I have this one,
I've never had a flat one, but my brother in law has a flat one, and
I just wouldn't, a flat one is it's kind of boring.
I love using this thing I've used.
I don't even have a preference for which part I like using the most
because it's so so comfy.
I love love stretching my calves on this.
I play with this and all sorts of ways.
I've figured out a few years ago that I had pronation
by looking at my shoelaces and noticing that they weren't really parallel anyway.
Just very detail oriented things.
Got it confirmed, got orthotics.
But because I haven't been wearing my shoes
very much regularly at home all the time, other than wearing my shoes
when I play V.R., I don't really use my orthotics.
So it's really nice to be able to massage my foot arches. Feels great.
Also, just having my foot on each end like this.
I kind of just push in my feet a little bit like this
by gripping them on here.
And I don't know if it will help or not.
I feel my muscles working the outer muscles and my glutes
and all the muscles that were weakened because I have pronation
and feels like that's helping because I'm not really doing
any of the exercises that I could be doing to reinforce
my weakened on unawakened muscles.
But doing this kind of help.
So I wouldn't say get this mat to help with pronation exercises,
but I'm just bringing that up.
I'm pretty sure everyone has pronation resignation.
Don't quote me on that. I'm not a diet.
Nobody's anatomy is absolutely perfect.
Honestly, feels like a playground for my feet.
Just playing around with all this stuff.
And on stretching your calves, it feels so good.
Sometimes I'll actually just go up to my mat
and just use it to stretch my calves.
Like at the end of the day that I'm
not even when I'm at my standing desk just because it feels so great to use it.
And when you're using these other parts, it's rigid, but it's still soft enough.
It gives you just enough of the support and bounce back in.
I'm not sure how it will fare in the long term, but they do have a seven year
warranty, seven year warranty covers, manufacture defects, it doesn't
cover damage due to abuse from you misuse or improper usage on their card.
They specify the usages are the recommended use is standing desk, sit
stand desk, usually with stable low heels or flat shoes.
I would just advise
not to use it with shoes, you don't get any of the advantages.
Well, I mean, you could use this with a shoe on and still get the angle.
But like this and this, you're not really taking advantage
of any of that if you're in shoes.
I mean, it's really just very general
obvious usages. So
I'm assuming that if it does give out after a few years,
that they will cover it.
But I don't know
if anyone has an experience with the warranty comment below.
I guess I'll know with time if I have anything to update either.
I didn't the description below an update or make another video if it warrants one.
So stay tuned for that.
Couple of tips. I would say that you should clean it once in a while.
I would say clean it with like Lysol White, which we all have
a bunch of levels, clean it with or like a little bit of my old dish soap
with water, clean it, give it a nice, especially if you're barefoot.
Might want to give it a little bit of a pat down.
Want to prevent it from getting really close, especially in the textured part.
You that could maybe accumulate a little bit of dead skin gunk.
I said it, but you know that's a reality.
Humans shed dead skin all the time
using a stunning death, even with the anti anti fatigue mat.
I'm only going to do maybe two or three hours.
It's really just in general, it's good to move around.
So sometimes I'll sit on my sofa, use a lot, does sometimes I'll use my standing
does this and then I'll move around or just constantly move.
I'm not really sure if you could do eight hours on a standing desk anyway,
and I'm not sure that's really good for your body as well.
But when I do use this and I feel like I'm going to stand for
maybe a little bit more time or sometimes pair
the anti fatigue mat with compression socks just to really prevent
the blood from just going down to my feet and not moving too much.
That was my review of the Topo.
the Ergodriven Topo Mini.
I really like it. Like comment, share.
You have any questions?
Let me know below. If you have one. Let me know how you like it.
Let me know if you're planning on getting it, which color
you're planning on getting in, which size you're planning on getting it.
I'm kind of curious to see what other people get.
And I will see you on the next video pick.
Editing my review of the anti fatigue man, what a flattering still of myself.