Are You Sitting Properly?

If you are an office worker you probably spend at least six or seven hours a day sitting on the job. Add more time sitting in the car, at dinner and lounging with some late night TV and the total hours of sitting rockets up to somewhere around ten hours.

When is the last time you thought about how you sit?

Probably never or a long, long time ago.

Promise yourself that you'll take a critical look at how you sit after you read this article. If you are sitting and reading this online, go ahead and freeze right now and really think about how you are sitting. Compare your sitting position to this checklist:

Proper Sitting Posture Checklist

   • Sit with your legs uncrossed with ankles in front of the knees.

   • Place both feet firmly on the floor. Get yourself a footrest if your feet don't reach.

   • Your knees should be lower than your hips and the back of your knees should not touch the seat.

   • If your chair has an adjustable backrest, move it to support the arch in your low back. If you don't have a backrest, ask your employer about getting one or invest in it yourself.

   • Get up and move around every hour. Take a break from sitting even if you cannot stop working. Make a phone call standing up or close your office door and lie down for a few minutes on your stomach. At the very least, shift your sitting position occasionally.

Why Sitting Posture is Important

Good posture is important for long term health and disease prevention just like daily tooth brushing. And, similar to tooth brushing, habits are formed early and can be hard to break later in life.

Good sitting posture reduces the stress and strain on ligaments. Ligaments are responsible for holding the joints together, so ligament stresses can make you prone to joint injuries. Proper posture also reduces muscle fatigue. When muscles are able to work efficiently they use less energy and don't get tired as easily. Abnormal motions or positions that are repeated over and over again on a daily basis are contributors to degenerative arthritis and joint pain.

Most adults would readily agree that posture is important

Most of that group would also admit that they don't actively think about posture — it just happens. For the next 30 days, make an effort to really think about your posture and pause a couple times per day to compare your current position to the checklist provided above. It takes about 30 days of focus to break an old habit or develop a new one, so if you concentrate on your sitting posture for 30 days, you'll be well on your way to a lifetime of better musculo-skeletal health.

As always, if you need a recommendation for a good chair or back rest, ask any member of our team.

Some Surprising Statistics About Back Pain

Suffering from Back Pain? 

You are not alone. Back pain relief is just one component of chiropractic care, but it is often a patient's first introduction. Back pain is horribly debilitating affecting all aspects of work and personal life.

Surprising Facts about Back Pain:

     • Back pain is the number one disability for those under age 45.

     • In the United States of America alone, there is an expected 31 million people with lower back pain at any given time.

     • Back pain runs second, after only the common cold, as the top reason for visiting a healthcare provider in the United States.

     • Experts place the likelihood of any person to experience some type of back problem in their lifetime at about 80%. That's four out of every five people!

     • Over 50 billion dollars are spent per year in the pursuit of clearing up cases of back pain.

     • Around 30 to 40 percent of all workplace absences are due to back pain.

     • Approximately one quarter of U.S. adults reported having low back pain lasting at least one whole day in the past three months, and 7.6 percent reported at least one episode of severe acute low back pain within a one-year period.

     • One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.

     • Approximately 2 percent of the U.S. work force is compensated for back injuries each year.

     • Lower back pain accounts for two thirds of all back pain-related cases.

     • More than two-thirds of back strains are caused by lifting and other exertions like pulling and pushing.

     • Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic — meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.

The key to proper treatment of back pain is to understand the cause. Remember, pain is always a sign that something else is wrong and if continually ignored may lead to more serious harm. Chiropractors are experts in assessing the root cause of your back pain and putting you on the right course to recovery.

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