Sitting Properly - It's a HUGE deal for your back
| Please don't underestimate the power of the little things you do or don't do on a daily basis. I learned the hard way how these can harm you. So I'm in my 20's and I need another car. Being young, and what I thought was hip, I find a Mazda RX-7 with the nice suspension, cornering capabilities and Bucket Seats that wrap around you and hold you tightly in the seat. I loved that car and I made many trips from school to home which was a six hour round trip. Problem...Car seats often hold you in more of a fetal position than anything. The seats in planes are even worse. Most people don't notice their car seats much because their backs are messed up and since the seats were designed by people that had messed up backs everyone seems to win and you fit nicely into the seat. However, this harms you because it takes you incrementaly closer to developing the old person posture. All this is happening whether you have back pain or not. Take for example a recliner. When you sit down you sink in and you're like, ah, this feels great. These are absolutely the worst chairs you can have. I don't care how ergonomically designed or what massage features they have. Chiropractors and Orthopedic Surgeons should buy stock in these companies and promote these chairs because it could bring in millions of dolloars in extra business. And I'm a chiropractor!!! Couches are no better. Your butt sinks down and tilts backwards and you get folded up and engulfed in the couch. In fact, most chairs are not good for your body. Now you're probably asking, "What's the best type of chair?" Good Question. Lets cover some basics first. Sitting is very different then standing. Yes, I'm good at explaining the obvious thank you. But seriously, in terms of your body mechanics standing is much better for you then sitting and here's why. While standing you can use your legs to help compensate for all the little twists and turns that your spine has developed over the years. When sitting you take the legs out of the equation so you can't compensate as well and you have to use your back muscles to compensate for you. What needs to happen is to make sitting as close as humanly possible to standing. You see when you stand you can twist a leg out a little or have a slightly different bend in the knee or your muscles can be tighter on one side. These all help you compensate for a tiltlet or twisted pelvis. But when you sit down, ah, you can't use those mechanisms to compensate anymore so the trick is to make the seat do it for you. Light bulbs are hopefully turning on over your head right now!!!! You have to balance two axis of motion. A side to side imbalance in your pelvis and a front to back tilt of your pelvis. When you get both of these perfect you'll be extremely happy sitting for even long periods of time. There's also dealing with back support and how high the chair should be but that's a different story. To figure out the side to side tilt you have to figure out which buttucks, your left or your right, needs a little bit of support when you sit down. Sitting Self TestPart 1:Find a hard chair with little to no padding. Kitchen chairs usually work well because they are made of wood and are flat from front to back and side to side. Get a thin magazine. Start by putting the magazine on the left side of the chair so when you sit down it is only under your left buttock then sit down and relax. You will notice it pushes you slightly to the right. Part 2: Stand up and put the magazine on the right side of the chair so when you sit down it is only under your right buttock then sit down and relax. You will notice it pushes you slightly to the left. You might be thinking it will feel the same on either side but there WILL be a difference. Having the magazine on one side will make you feel more balanced (i.e. less tippy) then the other. This is your weak side and the side which needs support. Part 3: The next thing to figure out is the thickness of the magazine support. What you are trying to achieve is sitting with perfect balance from side to side. It will take a few seconds to get used to the changes. A general rule of thumb is your awareness of the magazine should disappear within 30 seconds. If you still notice it after 30 seconds OR you feel off balance it is too high. Either tear out some pages or open the magazine and let half the magazine hang off the side of the chair while you sit on the other half and adjust the height that way. The purpose of this support is to allow your body to relax significantly by supporting your weak side. This is something you should do whenever you sit. You will notice the support when you sit on a stiff chair; it will not give you much benefit on a soft cushion or couch. Now that you've balanced left/right pelvic tilts you have to balance front/back tilts. This is simple for you to test to improve your understanding of this. Stand up and notice that your lower back curves inward but when you sit down and let your body relax it reverses directions and curves outward. This is bad and it takes a lot of work from your muscles to "Sit Up Straight". Clearly you can't maintain this position on your own without getting a back ache so use a wedge to do the work for you.  You can purchase a seat wedge by visiting EZ Posture Products The pelvis always needs to be tipped forward. Never backwards. The height and angle of the wedge handle most peoples body mechanics really well and whenever I demo this on people in my office they are shocked at how well it works and it's such an easy concept. Don't get suckered by imitations like I did many years back. I found foam wedges for $10 but when you sat on them they contributed to the problem not to the solution because they weren't stiff enough. These seat wedges are made of a special material called EVA and last for a very long time. I've been using the one in my car for years and works just as well as when I first purchased it. The other thing to consider is the back support. Look at the photo above on the right and notice that there's no way to lean back and touch the back support. Are you getting the impression that most chairs are terrible for us? Anyway the trick is to bring the back support to you by using something else to fill the gap. Thick bath towels do the trick nicely if you drap them over the back support. Use enough of them to fill the space and you'll have a great chair. Together with the wedge taking care of tilting the pelvis forward and the magazine (or a towel) taking care of your side to side imbalance you can find the ideal sitting situation to be used in your car, at the office or at home. |
