If you are experiencing lower back pain and trying to fix it with stretches, you must note that you can’t cure your lower back pain entirely with stretches.
A few more important things should be taken care of in order. To get relief from lower back pain.
The majority of us spend most of our time sitting in a fixed spot. An inappropriate sitting posture can affect the lower back and trigger severe back pain.
If you are suffering from lower back pain, it is highly recommended to check your sitting posture, and there may be chances that you are sitting inappropriately, and that’s why your body is getting too much stress.
In this guide, we have discussed some practical techniques and ways to consider while sitting. Apart from this, you should consider an office chair designed for back pain.
Note: You must go through each of the points thoroughly to get maximum benefits and to fix your lower back at your end only.
Here is How to Sit with Lower Back Pain
1. Ideal Backrest Angle
You must have noticed blogs and YouTubers talking about the importance of having a 90-degree back angle while sitting. But that’s not what it is. You have been provided with half of the information.
As per the Nachemson and Elfstrom survey of 1970, the 90-degree angle between the back and legs while sitting isn’t the ideal position to be in.
The angle that gives the least stress to the body is 110 degrees; when the angle between the back and leg is 110 degrees, your disc experiences around 5% more pressure than it experiences in a standing position.
The 90-degree angle position triggers 40% more pressure on the disc than sitting.
You got the point right; you must not focus on the 90-degree angle; instead, you should focus more on the 110-degree angle because it is ideal.
Here, an ideal position indicates that that position triggers the least stress on the body.
2. Idea Knee Angle
The knee angle is mainly ignored because of the so-called comfort position.
We have seen people lifting their legs to put them on a footrest and increasing the Knee angle beyond 90 degrees.
This position might give temporary comfort to the body, but it’s not the ideal position to sit.
A bad Knee angle can trigger severe lower back pain in the long run. Therefore, instead of temporary comfort, you must focus on long-term benefits.
Make a note of the following points to get the Ideal Knee angle while sitting:
→ Maintain 90 degrees angle at Knee bent.
→ If necessary, use a footrest.
→ Avoid Cross legs position.
→ Avoid 180 degrees Knee Angle for a longer duration.
All these points might seem a little tough to you right now, but you’ll notice the difference after implementing these for a day or so.
3. Know your WorkSpace Zones
WorkSpace Zone is one of the most underrated aspects of sitting. The majority of people are not even aware of it.
However, the term “WorkSpace Zone” is directly related to the stretching of the body.
You must be aware that stretching is a great practice to reduce joint stress in the body, but you might not be aware that Overstretching can trigger additional joint stress.
First, let’s understand the Workspace Zones; later, we will learn how important they are daily.
The First 15-17 inches radius region of your workspace is termed the “Primary Zone.“
The next 10—12 inches radius zone is termed as the “Secondary Zone,” and anything beyond that is termed as the “Third Zone.”
Since we are aware of the workspace zones, now let’s understand why they are so important.
You must strictly place the items you need to access frequently in the primary zone. For example, your Keyboard, Mouse, and Notepad.
You might be having a few questions now, but it is a request to go through the next few paragraphs first. Most of your questions will be answered automatically.
In the secondary zone, you must keep all the items you don’t require to access frequently, such as your mobile phone, calculator, lamp, or coffee mug.
Whereas in the Third Zone, it is advised to keep all the items that won’t need to be accessed more than once or twice a day.
These Zones are essential because if you keep an item that you need to access almost every moment, such as the keyboard in the third zone, you have to put in extra effort to reach the keyboard.
Extra efforts might not be a concern occasionally, but it can be painful if it needs to be done quite often.
Overstretching the body regularly could lead to severe joint pains that include lower back pain and neck pain.
Note: You must align your chair so that your elbows can be opened to an angle of 100-110 to access the keyboard and mouse. Anything beyond the 100-110 angle range could trigger pain in the long term.
4. How Important are ArmRests
Armrests were designed to offer support to the upper body so that the upper body’s weight doesn’t affect the spine and neck.
If there is no support for the upper body, its weights fall directly on the spine and neck, which adds extra stress on those joints, and continuous stress can cause neck pain, lower back pain, or shoulder strain.
Therefore, it is important for you to use the armrest.
While using the armrests, it is advised to align them in a position to turn the elbow angle out to 90 degrees.
5. Understanding the Lumbar Support
If your chair has lumbar support, you must know why it is there. It’s not a fancy element of your chair. Instead, it’s a very effective and helpful component of the chair.
To sit appropriately, you must know how to tweak the lumbar support to reduce maximum stress from your spine.
While adjusting the lumbar support, you must ensure that your spine is not lean neither towards backward or forward. It should be in a neutral position and should maintain the angle of your backrest.
That’s easy, right? There is no rocket science in it.
Bonus: How to Stand up after a Long Sitting Session
Standing up in the wrong way could also trigger your lower back pain because, while standing, our legs play a vital role, and inappropriate posture could increase the stress on the joints.
To reduce your lower back pain, apart from the different techniques of sitting in lower back pain, you should also know about the method of standing.
Here are some of the points that you should take care of while standing up:
- Use the Armrest to distribute the weight of your body while standing up.
- Before standing up, you must lean forward a bit to support your legs so that they can lift your body easily.
- You shouldn’t bend your waist while standing up.
- Just after standing up, relax for a few seconds. Give your body some time to adjust the muscles.
- Spread your legs a bit to increase your stability.
- Move yourself to the edge of the seat before standing up.
- Move your right leg slightly forwards and left leg slightly backward to reduce the stress while standing up.
- Keep your back and spine straight. Avoid bending it.
- Avoid twisting your waist right after standing up.
That’s all; if you have to implement every point that this guide tells you, you will see a significant decrease in your lower back pain.
Final Notes
Lower back pain is not something that cannot be cured. Appropriate techniques can help you reduce your lower back pain in just a few weeks.
In this guide, all the listed techniques are based on thorough research derived from various studies performed by reputed institutes and organizations.
If you implement all the above-mentioned techniques while sitting, you will notice a difference in your lower back pain in just a few days.
It is requested to drop your experience post-implementation of the techniques down in the comments so that the community can be helped.