How To Avoid Lower Back Pain If You Sit Long Hours In The Office

In case you already suffer from back pain, when you need to sit all day at the office, your lower back pain will aggravate. And the reason it’s pretty simple to understand. The reason why you tend to suffer from lower back pain is that you just need to spend the entire day sitting in the same position. And this increases the stress in your legs, arms, shoulders, and back. All these create an additional pressure on your spinal discs and back muscles. And this is when you start to feel lower back pain.

When you need to sit in an office chair for a long period of the day, you will tend to slouch down and over in the chair. This position will lead to a strain on the discs and other structures in the spine as well as it can also overstretch your spinal ligaments. Since most people don’t correct this bad posture, the lower back pain will only tend to aggravate over time.

So, how can you avoid lower back pain even if you need to sit in an office chair for many hours?

The first thing you need to remember is that you really need to have a good ergonomic office chair. Make sure to check out the best ergonomic chairs on the market. This kind of chair maximizes the back support and allows you to maintain a good posture while sitting. However, simply using an ergonomic office chair won’t immediately reduce your lower back pain. The reality is that the office chair needs to provide you multiple adjustments to make sure that you actually have a good posture while sitting. In the first place, you need to check the chair’s height in combination with your workstation or desk. When doing this, you need to take several factors into account:

#1: Elbow Measure:

All you need to do is to sit comfortably on your office chair as close as possible to your desk. Just position your hands on your computer keyboard or laptop and check your elbows’ angle. They should be at a 90-degree angle. In case they aren’t, you need to adjust the chair’s height up to this point.

#2: Calf Measure:

Make sure that you are sitting in your office chair with your bottom pushed against the chair back. Now, just try to pass your clenched fist between the front of the chair and the back of your calf. In case you can’t do it in an easy way, you need to adjust the backrest forward. In case your office chair doesn’t allow you to do this, you can try to use a pillow, a lumbar support cushion or a rolled up towel to give you a better low back support. Click here to check out how to choose a lumbar roll.

#3: Armrests:

In case your office chair includes armrests, you want to position them in a way where your arms are slightly lifted at the shoulders.

Make sure to check out these tips to reduce back and neck pain at the office.