Do you spend a lot of time in an office chair and have a bad back? Are you a shorter person, a little vertically challenged? I just might have a fix for you. As it turns out spending hours at a desk in an office chair might not be so good for you. For years I thought my bike riding days were over. Just about every month I would do some weird thing that would tweak my back and I’d be in pain for days. It could go out just from tying my shoes, any dumb thing would put me in pain for days. Does this sound familiar to you? I thought I was going to need surgery or something to fix this problem.
Eventually a girl at work moved on to another job and left her chair which was supposed to be good for a bad back. Well, I quickly snagged this chair and soon noticed I was no longer having back problems. I thought it was all just because it was some sort of special back chair. Eventually the chair wore out and work demanded everyone sit in the same model chair, the same chair that gave me back problems. This did not make me happy, so I tried to figure out what about the current chair was working for me. I studied all sorts of sites telling me how to properly adjust an office chair. They all talk about proper posture and lumbar support and having arms on the chair.
Eventually I figured out the key to my problems was chair height. The jerks making desks make them all the same height which I think leads shorter people to raise their chair higher than it should be. Fortunately, the good people making office chairs usually make them height adjustable. Ever since I have been making sure that my feet are well planted when sitting my back problems have gone away. So, if you experience regular back problems and spend a lot of time sitting in an office chair, look at your chair height. Can you easily sit with your feet flat on the ground? If not, try lowering your chair until they are flat on the ground. This small change worked a miracle for me, and we here at FAB are all about spreading miracles. Of course, if this does not help you, miracles aren’t easy, but we tried.
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
Same experience here! My computer chair is perfect but when I move to my other working place I now use a stiff pillow to sit on and all is fine there too.
I’m real careful about what chairs I’ll sit in for long periods.