The major cause of lower back pain is poor sitting habits. Regular use of mobile devices has made the situation worse as people now assume even a worse posture while using their devices. Some important guidelines on how to sit properly to avoid back pain have been enumerated below.
You need to sit for as short as possible. You need to sit only if you have to. And if possible, you should not sit longer that fifteen minutes, at least not all the time.
Secondly, you need to sit with the back support always. This means that you have rest your back on sitting supports each time you sit. In doing this, your full back has to rest. In other words, there should not be any space between the support and your lower back. Your back should be parallel to the support and there should be no space.
You have to keep your knees and hips at ninety degrees. While doing this, your legs should not be crossed. Rather, each of them should stand on its own with both feet flat on the floor.
In reality, it is not every sit that has a back support. Besides, it is not every time that you will have the liberty to select where you want to sit. When you face a situation where you have to sit on a chair without a back support, here are the tips to avoid back pain.
You need to sit at the very end of the chair. This means that your buttocks will cover every part of the chair. You have to slouch completely in your chair. You have to sit in such a way that the curves of your back are well accentuated. You stay like that for about ten seconds before you tilt forward slightly.
Always select a high-back firm chair with strong arm rests as sitting in a soft sofa rounds your back up. It won’t give you a firm and upright support since it is likely to sink in. A soft chair won’t withstand your weight without sinking in.
When sitting at work, you have to adjust your chair’s height so you can sit up and work without bending slightly forward to work. This position will keep your shoulders relaxed. If your chair is a swivel chair that rolls, form the habit of not turning from your waist. That means you should not turn your upper body alone. Instead, you should endeavor to always turn all your body at the same time.
Every time you need to stand up from a sitting, you don’t have to bend forward first. Instead, raise your waist up without bending forward. You may need to apply some pressure on both armrests to be able to thrust yourself upward. Gradually make this your standing habit. It will be difficult at first. But soon, you will get so used to it that you will be standing up like that even absent-mindedly.
Whenever you are driving you need to rest your back on the back rest and make sure your neck rests on the lumbar roll. Your knees should not be lower than your hips. They should be on the same level or higher than your hips.
Secondly, you have to move your seat a little closer to the steering wheel so that you can rest your back while driving. It should be close enough to allow you bend your knees and still reach the pedal at the same time.
For more information call Fulham Chiropractic today.