Prolonged sitting on a chair during office hours is not an easy thing. As per a recent study, it has been proved that 75% of people suffer from lower back pain due to long stretches of sitting on an office chair. And within that 75%, at least 25% of people have reported sciatica nerve pain.
If you feel immense discomfort from sciatica nerve pain and have no option except to continue your desk job, which involves long tenures of sitting on a chair, you need to know how to sit with proper posture.
Here, in this article, we try to elaborate on a few ways of sitting that can help you control sciatica pain. But, before you dive into the solution for this ailment, you must have a clear concept about this annoying nerve ache condition.
What is Sciatica?
Sciatica is a particular pain on the lower back and the buttocks of the human body, and it is caused due to some irritation on the sciatic nerve root. The sciatica nerves cover the entire area from the lumbar to the toes of both legs. When these nerves’ roots get compressed, the sciatica pain occurs, affecting almost the entire lower anterior portion of the body, including the legs. You can feel a buckling sensation in the affected areas of the lower part of your body.
Ways to relief from Sciatica Pain
By following a few tips on sitting and self-care practices, you can alleviate the serious impact of this irritating nerve pain. In major cases, it has been seen that poor sitting habit and incorrect body posture raises the chances of developing sciatica nerve ailment. Thus, here some ways to avoid such discomfort, at the time of sitting for prolonged tenures on a chair for office work, are illustrated.
- The first and foremost requirement is that you should start using a good quality ergonomic office chair for sciatica. A high-quality ergonomic feature based executive chair helps to control sciatic pain and, in some cases, it also helps to cure the condition.
- Always try to sit on chair without crossing your legs, as it hinders smooth flow of blood throughout your lower part of body.
- While you are sitting on a chair, make sure that your posture should be straight by keeping shoulders and hips in one straight line. This posture helps to reduce pressure on your back, neck and chest areas.
- You have to ensure that both of your feet must remain flat on the floor as it is also help to curtail the amount of pressure on your lower back.
- To avoid sciatica pain, try to use lumbar pillow or roll up towel while sitting on a chair for extended shifts. With lumbar support like this if you keep your back part straight, it will help to maintain accurate posture of neural spine.
- Always try to sit deep inside the chair against the backrest, because this posture evenly distributes the entire body weight across the bottom part.
- If you want to stay away from this irritating nerve pain, then taking frequent breaks is a great solution. Try to take a break in every 45-60 minutes and walk for a few minutes. It actually enhances blood circulation in your entire body and keeps your back free from continuous excessive pressure.
- Stretching is a great way to alleviate sciatic pain especially if you have to sit for lengthy work hours. Body stretching in the midst of work keep your sciatic nerve, neural spine away from undue stress.
- Apart from stretching in the middle of office work, there are few basic exercises which can help you to get rid of sciatica ailment. Sciatica sit-up, piriform stretch and few exercises on a daily basis can keep your entire body, nerves healthy and ensure proper blood circulation. In fact, such exercises take very small amount of time but investing this much time keeps your body free from orthopaedic and neural disorders caused by sedentary work culture.
- It is essential to get up from chair in proper posture, because it will also help you to keep all nerves pressure free. Always use your arms, legs to push yourself up and also come in front of the seat by staying straight at the time of getting up from the chair, instead of bending your lower back.
- Make sure to have proper massages by consulting a certified physiotherapist at least once in a week. Correct massage actually enhances flexibility of various body parts, heals nerve pain, increases proper blood flow along with elevating hormones i.e., dopamine, serotonin, endorphins etc., which keep your mind happy and calm.
- Cold and heat therapy is another way to keep sciatica pain moderate at the time of sitting. It has been advised that for the first few days, it will be better to use ice-pack wrapping in a towel on the lower back part and after few days take heat therapy to the same body area while sitting for long-tenures.
- Chiropractic: misaligned bones and joints can cause or exacerbate sciatica symptoms, and getting these corrected can bring immediate relief. Chiropractors can also typically advise on particular postural exercises or lifestyle adjustments that will put in you in better shape for the long term.
Final Words
These are a few ways by following which you can get relief from the inflammatory nerve pain disorder. We have made an effort to discuss almost every possible sitting posture and required the solution to eliminate the sciatic ailment.
If you are already suffering from this irritating nerve and lower back issue, then by taking action as per these instructions mentioned above, you can control the pain.
Apart from all these solutions, you must also consult with an orthopedic specialist to know much more about this problem and follow their given treatment. So, after going through the entire article, we hope that you will get a clear idea of how to sit and what to do to fight off this annoying nerve pain called sciatica.