Thank you for supporting this site with purchases made through links in this article. Plus I'll send you a free copy of "Your Simply Healthy Handbook." It's your #1 resource to make healthy living easy.Did you know that back pain is the second most common reason for medical visits? According to Dr. Michael Roizen, about 65 million Americans suffer from back pain. He points out that “the way the odds play out, you’re likely to have about one serious episode of back pain for every 15 years of your life.” The reasons for back pain are many: Lack of core strength, improper poster or alignment, poor habits when lifting or doing other hard labor, sedentary lifestyles. You know, the usual stuff. The problem is that I often hear of people experiencing back pain who are otherwise very fit people—the kind of people who try to “sit up tall” and understand the importance of exercise and movement. Another culprit of back pain: Your chair A couple of months ago my husband came home from work with his nice big office chair.

The company he works for was moving into a new building and getting all new chairs. The employees were told they could take home their old chair if they wanted it. Tom thought I might want it, seeing how my current office chair is an old simple wooden chair that he picked up at the thrift store before we were married. The chair he brought home was nice. It had a cushioned seat and back, lumbar support, arm rests… it could be adjusted for various heights as well as spin and roll around. Next to my old scratched up chair it looked like quite the upgrade. I moved it in front of my desk and basked in its comfy glory. While everything on the surface seemed handy-dandy, little by little I started to notice increasing intense pain and tension in my shoulders and neck. “It must be from carrying Little C, my not-so-much-like-a-baby-but-more-like-a-toddler,” I thought. Besides, I’m a movement therapist, an “expert” in all things posture related, right? Clearly I couldn’t be sitting improperly.

I sat on that chair for probably 2 – 3 weeks and each night I found myself begging my husband for a neck massage (the deep, deep tissue kind that make you cry as you beg for more.) office chair walmart black fridayI had these knots the size of Texas. wooden rocking chair for gardenAnd they just got worse each day.  white plastic chairs for hireI didn’t know what was wrong.table and chair rental palm beach gardens But that’s the thing, I knew exactly what was wrong.office chair to help hip pain (I just didn’t want to admit it.)bean bag chairs turquoise

Finally one morning, I walked into the office and moved Big Ole’ Comfy into the corner and put Good Ole’ Scratchy back in its place. As I sat down on my old, hard chair I felt a sensation that immediately reminded me of something I’ve known for a long time (I just allowed the sweet seduction of a cushiony, sleeker chair to make me believe otherwise): Why is this an important fact, and what does it have to do with back pain? Our bodies, by nature, want to feel secure. Just like a teenager in a group of peers, our body wants to feel comfortable and like it can trust its surroundings. Despite that fact that the fancy chair has all sorts of “ergonomic” features to help shape itself to my body, it’s softness is one of the biggest hazards to pain-free sitting. It does its job too well. (Not to mention the fact that the chair tends to promote slouching–another major factor in back pain). Its cushions create an unstable surface. This surface often signals our brain to “hold on” just in case there isn’t the support we need.

And before you know it, subconsciously you are tensing your muscles more than you otherwise would. You begin to literally “hold yourself up” instead of releasing down into gravity’s help. This is why our shoulders and neck seem to get the brunt of it. They are trying to protect the body. A soft chair doesn’t allow the body’s structure to connect to the spatial relationship between gravity and the tensile forces of our muscular-skeletal system. Yep, once again the “man-made” version has got in the way of back to basics living. Our bodies were designed to release into the pull of gravity. As we allow gravity to “do it’s thang,” our skeleton works in opposition (think of Newton’s third law of motion) to bring an easy aliveness to our posture. Standing or sitting tall doesn’t become a chore or something we need to remember to do. It’s built into the system… that is, until we put a big soft cushion under our bottom. Of course, in order to take advantage of that hard surface, you do need to consider your alignment and how you are sitting in it.

(Want to know more, check out this post.) So I said “goodbye” to the sleek, comfy chair (like this one) and “hello” to my old friend (like this one). We have a more trusting, comfortable relationship. I know that Good Ole’ Scratchy has got my back (or my butt). What do you look for in a chair? Do you struggle with back pain? Does your chair cause back pain? Want to learn more about posture, movement, and how both can lead toward a pain-free life? Make sure to check out my book  Live Pain Free . Get 4 FREE classes delivered straight your inbox to try for yourself.Image courtesy of tigger11th at FreeDigitalPhotos.net No – It’s actually not that simple… And it’s more important than you think. If you find that you are developing any aches or pains in your body after sitting all day at work, ! I would like to offer you some strategies that you can try to help you overcome this problem. The way you sit throughout your day determines your overall posture in ALL areas of your life.

This means the posture when you go to work, drive, exercise, walk, sleep etc will also be affected! With bad posture in your daily activities (not just whilst sitting), you are at a considerably higher risk of developing postural pain (…and if you’re reading this article, chances are you probably already have the pain). Help your body work at its optimal state by re-aligning your sitting posture! Since the majority us now pretty much live in front of the computer (yes – I’m referring to you ), we have developed strategies that have adapted and moulded our body to sit… none of which are particularly helpful in our quest to be pain free from postural pain. Over time, the brain learns your sitting habits and eventually your bad posture simply becomes a default setting for you. It becomes natural and normal. And that’s where it gets a little tricky… The brain is quite stubborn; once it learns a certain way of doing something, it will be very resistive to change.

It’s almost like me telling a right handed person to start writing with their left hand only. Before getting into the details, please download my FREE e-book: How to set up the workstation. Without a good sitting environment, it will be very difficult for you to maintain optimal postures, especially if you are there for around 8 hours a day. It also goes through the general alignment in ideal sitting. But let’s get specific…This is where all good posture starts. This is your base… your core platform… your foundation. If your pelvic position is out, your whole posture will be out. You need to get this right. I often tell my patients to think of a tall stack of bricks. If the bottom brick (your pelvis) is not aligned properly, then the rest of the stack will be unstable. There are these pointy bones at the bottom of your pelvis called the ischial tuberosities (… let’s call them your sit bones). Slide your hand underneath your bottom and see if you can locate them on yourself.

Did you find them? The trick to sitting is to get your body stacked on top of these sit bones. The problem I see evident in most of my patients is that they tend to let their tail bone tuck underneath and sit behind the sit bones (as opposed to on top of). To understand how you should position your pelvis in sitting, you first need to know the difference between tilting your pelvis forward/backwards and finding your neutral position (the “in between” position). Check out this video below for a quick explanation.Now that you  know what your neutral pelvic position is, the next step is to activate your brain whilst sitting!What does that mean? Whilst sitting, you want to consciously maintain your pelvis in a neutral and relaxed position. Remember that your brain is wired to sit the wrong way and will go back to its default setting if you let it.  Keep that brain active. Maintain this optimal pelvic position. If your hamstrings are tight, this muscle group will make it very difficult to get your pelvis in the neutral position.

As you sit down, the tight hamstrings will pull on your pelvis causing your body to sit behind your sit bones. A very general indication to tell if you are tight is that if you can’t touch your toes from a standing position.As seen in the diagrams above, hold each stretch for a minimum for 60 seconds and repeated 3-5 times per day. Remember if you can’t feel a decent stretch, then you are probably not stretching the right muscle. The main muscles responsible for rotating your pelvis into a good position are called your lower back erectors. If these muscles are weak or inhibited, it will be difficult to get your pelvis into a neutral position. Good thing we can train these muscles quite easily! Check out the exercises in the video below. Your hip socket joint plays an important role in your sitting. If you lack true flexion at the hip, your body will compensate by tilting your pelvis in a posterior direction (tailbone tucked under) resulting in sitting behind your sit bones.

Solution : Hip mobilisation Video from Generation Care Performance Centre. Hip flexors tend to become very tight in the sitting population. After all, sitting is hip flexion. These tight muscles can pull your hip joint out of good alignment making it difficult to sit properly without compensatory movements in your pelvis Solution: Hip flexor stretch. Hold this position for at least 30 seconds, and repeat 3-5 times. Similar to tight hamstrings, if you have “tight” nerves at the back of your leg, it can limit your ability to get your pelvis into the neutral position. There are several reasons as to why the connective tissue around the nerve can become tight, but we’ll leave that for another post for another day. Whilst keeping your leg as straight as possible, pull your leg (with a towel or something of the similar) as far away from the ground as possible. With the added pressure bending the ankle towards you, you should feel a firm stretch down the back of your leg.