How to sit correctly without back pain

Specialists from the multidisciplinary medical center KIT say: most people do not know how to sit correctly, which is why they experience back pain, discomfort in the spine, and suffer from various diseases and pathologies.

We spend a lot of time sitting: at work, at home, in transport, outside in the park. We sit on a sofa, a chair, an armchair, or a bench. The lumbar spine experiences enormous stress, and it is this area of the back that is considered the most vulnerable. Incorrect body position, incorrect posture, in which a person stands for a long time at a computer, book, or business papers, will inevitably lead to back pain and the development of various diseases:

internal organs and systems will cease to function normally;
visual acuity will decrease, headaches will appear;
due to physical inactivity, it will be more difficult for a person to cope with physical activity;
stoop will appear, the paravertebral muscles will be under constant strain;
the spine will begin to bend to the side, which will lead to the development of postural disorders and scoliosis;
the patient will experience discomfort or pain in the lower back, neck, thoracic, coccygeal region;
Osteochondrosis, a degenerative-dystrophic process in the spine, will actively develop.

How not to sit

Often we don’t notice how we change our posture to a more comfortable one, causing harm to our back. The first signal that your posture is incorrect should be the appearance of discomfort. This may be numbness of the limbs, tingling caused by impaired blood circulation, headaches.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the most common poses that KIT clinic specialists call uncomfortable and unhealthy for the back when held in them for a long time:

Sitting in which the legs (feet, hips) are tense.
A leg crossed over the other leg.
Hands hanging in the air without strong support.
Elbows pulled back.
Reading reclining on the sofa.
Using a chair without a back or a stool for long periods of sitting.
The location of the screen or monitor is too close or far away, causing you to lean forward or lean back.
Indirect direction of gaze (to the side, up).

Particular attention should be paid to the posture of children and adolescents. During puberty, children develop bones; any deviations can lead to problems with the spine in the future. Therefore, it is important for parents to teach children to sit correctly and regularly stop attempts to take one of the incorrect positions listed above, do not allow them to sit for a long time at the computer without moving, or read while lying in bed.

Back – straight

Having once heard that you need to sit with your muscles as relaxed as possible, some people, overjoyed, curl into the letter “C” and expect relief from back pain. In fact, this is the most “difficult” position for the back muscles, vertebrae and joints of the arms and legs. Relaxing your lower back muscles does not necessarily mean plopping down in a computer chair or hunching over a stool with a laptop on your lap. The whole point of the problem is that in reality the back of a sitting person is in the most natural position, precisely when it is straight. After all, modern people walk straight, and not bending back or leaning forward. And walking, as already noted, is the most natural activity for humans from a physiological point of view. This is the only way to preserve the natural S-shaped curve of the spine, in which the intervertebral discs are not compressed, and the main weight of the body falls on the base of the pelvis.

There is a statement that the body experiences the least load when a person sits, leaning back at 135 degrees. This is a so-called relaxation pose and typing on the keyboard in this position is certainly not possible. Indeed, the back rests in the indicated position and it is possible (even necessary) to lean back in the chair during those periods of work when the PC operator, say, reads or views documents from the monitor. Again, you will need to increase the font size first to avoid eye strain.

How you can and should sit

The correct position of the back means adopting a posture in which the lower back is as relaxed as possible and relieved of heavy loads. Here are some rules to follow.

Avoid chairs and armchairs with straight designs . If you work sitting and spend a lot of time at a desk, give preference to furniture with an ergonomic backrest. It should be identical to the physiological curves of the spine.
If you do not have the opportunity to purchase a chair with an orthopedic back, buy a special bolster and place it under your lower back. Before purchasing, it is advisable to conduct several experiments and understand approximately what shape and thickness of the roller will suit you. To do this, at the initial stage, instead of a roller, you can use an ordinary towel folded several times.
Adjust the height of the table or choose a new table to suit your height. Your forearms should not hang in the air, but lie on the surface of the table or rest against a special stand or chair armrests.
Also take care to adjust the height of the chair . The correct position of the legs should be as follows: the thighs are parallel and the shins are perpendicular to the floor. If an armchair or stool is too high for you, purchase an adjustable footrest or use things like reams of office paper instead.
If you have to sit on a chair for a long time, then doctors recommend doing a warm-up at least once an hour . In this case, it is not necessary to do any special exercises; it will be enough to simply change the position of the body. You can go pour some tea, wash the dishes, do pull-ups, walk to the store, or walk around the room a little.
For activities related to writing, drawing or sketching, it is advisable to use a table with an inclined surface towards the person sitting. These are the desks that modern schools and kindergartens now offer their students.
When sitting at the table, do not lean forward too much . The permissible tilt angle is 2 degrees. Otherwise, you will multiply the load on your spine and by the end of the working day you will feel severe fatigue (or even pain) in your back.
If you feel pain or discomfort in your back, immediately change your position . In general, remember that changing your position frequently is one of the main keys to a healthy back. Try changing your body position several times during the working day. For example, work 2 hours while sitting, 2 hours while standing, and 2 hours while lying on the couch. If you frequently change your body position, then there will be no such thing as “wrong position” for you at all.

Neck – not extended forward

The desire to stretch your head forward most often arises due to the inability to see the image on the monitor while maintaining a straight neck position. Meanwhile, veins and arteries pass through the cervical spine, through which the brain is fed and excess fluid is drained from it. Sitting for a long time with his neck stretched forward, a person will very soon and inevitably begin to notice:

pain, burning, discomfort in the neck;
dizziness due to poor circulation;
headaches due to increased intracranial pressure;
memory impairment, inhibition of thought processes, etc.

To avoid having to reach forward when working at the computer, you need to take care of the selection of glasses (if you have vision problems), normal lighting in the work area, optimal font and image sizes, which can be changed using the “Settings” section in the software.

It is important to know: the optimal distance from the eyes to the surface of the monitor is 50 cm. If a person feels that he cannot work like this, there is a reason to go to the doctor and have his eyesight checked. Otherwise, it turns out to be a vicious circle: the closer your eyes are to the screen, the worse your vision and the stronger the glasses lenses you have to order.

Exercises to relieve back pain

You can perform these exercises right at your workplace; they will help eliminate pain in the neck and back.

Tilt your head to one shoulder, then to the other, lower your head forward, tilt it back.
Slowly lower your chin to your chest, tense your neck muscles, make several semicircles with your head from one shoulder to the other and back.
With your hands on your shoulders, rotate your elbows back and forth.
Squeeze your shoulder blades together, pushing your chest forward as much as possible.
Move away from the table, tilt your body to the left, right, forward, bend back.
Close your fingers and pull them upward with force.
Get up and walk around for a couple of minutes. If possible, do some squats.

Please note that such exercises are only a warm-up for long-term sedentary work. To maintain a healthy back, you should exercise regularly or perform an effective set of exercises. The most useful are crunches, push-ups, squats, and abdominal strengthening. Every day you should stretch your spine; to do this, hanging on the horizontal bar for 1-2 minutes is enough. Strength training, yoga, swimming, amateur sports and even regular walking - all can bring some benefits and help maintain posture and a healthy spine.

Right Angle Rule

Since the human body is an interconnected system, it would be wrong to expect comfortable sensations in the back if the arms and legs of the person sitting are in the wrong position.

Elbows and knees should ideally be bent at an angle of 90 degrees while sitting. Any deviations lead to the same overstrain of the back muscles and increased fatigue in general. That is why the seat of any chair designed for working at a PC is adjustable in height from the floor and inclination of the surface.

Correct posture when sitting

Please read the recommendations carefully and try to follow them in the future. The correct posture for a sitting person is:

Straight spine, back resting on the back of the chair.
Head erect, chin slightly raised.
Shoulders back, slight arch in the lower back.
Feet placed on the floor or stand shoulder-width apart at a 90-degree angle (hips touching the bottom of the chair seat).
Elbows slightly apart, resting freely on the table surface.
Hands and forearms located on the same line.
Gaze directed forward or slightly lower (top edge of the monitor at eye level, documents, books on the table in front of the person sitting). The distance to the monitor should correspond to the distance of an outstretched arm.

This pose is the most correct and comfortable for a person, but it should still be changed every 30-60 minutes or a warm-up should be done. Remember that even a super ergonomic workplace will not save you. An office chair purchased for several tens of thousands of rubles, approved three times by orthopedists, will not make your back healthy. He'll just kill her more slowly, but he'll still kill her if you don't try.

If you experience frequent back pain or discomfort in the lower back, we recommend that you consult an orthopedic doctor or neurologist. Specialists from the KIT multidisciplinary medical center will give recommendations that will help you get rid of unpleasant sensations, tell you how to maintain your posture, select an exercise program and, if necessary, prescribe physical therapy. In case of severe pain, a thorough examination will be required to clarify the diagnosis and prescribe treatment.

“Three pillars” of lumbar pain

Pain itself, as a phenomenon, is a “watchdog mechanism” that protects a person from disease. It is the body’s pain signal about a health hazard that is most understandable to a person. After receiving it, the brain activates its defenses, and the patient, thanks to the timely received signal, goes to the doctor, who identifies the pathology at a stage at which it can be cured. Therefore, pain in the lower back (as well as in other parts of the body) cannot be ignored, but it is necessary to draw the attention of professional doctors to it.

Your doctor can determine the cause of lower back pain.

The causes of pain of spinal etiology are considered to be three main medical problems.

Osteochondrosis is the cause of lumbar pain

More than thirty percent of patients who complain of lumbar pain are caused by dystrophic pathological changes in the spine, united by the medical term “osteochondrosis.” What it is?

Important! Osteochondrosis is a complex change that occurs in the bone and ligamentous vertebral segments and is caused by degenerative lesions of the discs connecting the vertebrae. The meaning of the term also includes the formation of osteophytic growths that disturb the nerves and cause a pain reaction.

What happens to the intervertebral disc when affected by osteochondrosis. Since this is a biconvex lens, which fits with both convexes into the corresponding recesses of the connected vertebrae, any damage to it, in the form of a crack or a growth that appears on it, makes the vertebra more mobile.

The structure of the intervertebral disc

As soon as it moves, the canal lumen narrows, pinching the nerve root running along it.

Osteochondrosis

By the way. Patients with osteochondrosis are subjected to quite severe pain, since, together with irritation of the nerves, rupture of the membranes and intervertebral septa occurs. This releases substances that cause additional irritation to pain receptors.

The cause of osteochondrosis is not unique, but doctors say the main cause is impaired fat-salt metabolism. It can also, in rarer cases, be a congenital anomaly. Contributing factors include drafts, muscle strain, infections and mechanical injuries.

Reasons for the development of osteochondrosis

Intervertebral hernia as a stage of osteochondrosis

When osteochondrosis lesions enter an advanced stage without proper treatment, the disc protrudes and forms an intervertebral hernia. Most often, this process occurs in old age, and at the level of the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae, as well as after the fifth, at its connection with the sacral vertebral area. There is an explanation for this - the canal in this segment is the narrowest, but the nerve roots are as massive as in the rest of the canal.

Intervertebral hernia

Important! Intervertebral hernia is very dangerous. It severely pinches the roots, producing severe pain, and at the same time puts pressure on a certain area of the spinal cord. This may result in paralysis or complete disruption of genitourinary function.

Protrusion of the hernia into the spinal canal contributes to compression of the spinal cord, thereby causing numbness or paralysis of the limbs

The visual symptoms of intervertebral hernia are known to many older people:

when getting up from a sitting position, the patient is forced to lean on something with his hand;
when lying on your stomach, the pain subsides only when something is placed under your stomach (a rolled up blanket, a pillow);
if you need to lift something, the patient will not be able to bend over and will have to sit down.

A lumbar disc hernia is accompanied by pain in the lower back, which radiates to the leg or buttock

Radiculitis is a manifestation of osteochondrosis

Osteochondrosis in the form of its manifestation is associated with another popular ailment - lumbar radiculitis. The pain with this diagnosis is of a different nature, it can be either sharp or dull, and can radiate to the buttocks and legs to the level of the shin. Pain increases when the spatial position of the body changes, as well as during coughing, sneezing and any effort that requires straining.

Radiculitis

By the way. Pain from radiculitis may be accompanied by numbness and burning, tingling and itching. Muscles may ache and the skin may become hypersensitive.

Visually, the symptoms are expressed as follows:

posture “breaks”, the patient begins to stoop;
gait changes, becomes shuffling;
the torso moves forward while walking or in the direction where there is less pain;
the leg to which the pain radiates remains in a half-bent position and does not fully unbend;
spinal muscles are in constant tension;
The lower back is practically immobilized.

Lower back pain due to radiculitis

Advice. If you notice these symptoms, you should not diagnose yourself and rush to the conclusion that you have sciatica. Another disease, panniculitis, can have exactly the same symptoms, when the metabolic movements of subcutaneous fats are disrupted and the fatty tissue becomes inflamed. The symptoms of joint damage are also similar.

Panniculitis

It’s impossible to talk about radiculitis without mentioning lumbago, or popularly known as lumbago. It may well be a manifestation of radiculitis. Most often it occurs in physically working patients, or in those who have become hypothermic after being in a draft. Occasionally, lumbago is caused by an infection. The onset of the disease is characterized by severe pain, which occurs suddenly, is difficult to relieve and can last from several days to a couple of weeks.

If you want to find out in more detail what causes nagging pain in the lower back, and also consider the pathologies, you can read an article about this on our portal.

Shot in the lower back

“Occupational” diseases of office workers

“Every day of a modern person, unfortunately, goes according to a given pattern: first at his desk, then in the car, then at home on his favorite sofa,” says Khamurzova.
“The development of many diseases is associated with a sedentary lifestyle, but the most serious problem is “occupational” diseases of the spine: scoliosis (curvatures), osteochondrosis, and so on.” How to do it right

The head of the exercise therapy department at the Center for Restorative Medicine and Rehabilitation of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia, Marina Makarova, tells: - how to sit correctly in the office, - how to do exercises in the office, - how to remain a healthy car enthusiast, - what the right shoes should be.

Even if you purchased a special ergonomic chair and adjusted it correctly in height, keep in mind that the resulting load on the spine
in a sitting position is 40 percent higher
than in a standing position. The minor inconveniences of sitting may not seem very important, but they affect the spine constantly, while you are not even aware of it.

Why does the spine suffer?

Working in a sitting position is characterized by narrow specialization and monotony of movements. This is also a certain kind of overload. If you sit at work almost all the time, and even spend 2-3 hours at home in a chair, then you can talk about a sedentary lifestyle. “It seems like a rest for the spine, and that’s all,” notes Khamurzova, “but in reality we are dealing with chronic overload.” Spinal overload
is a consequence of the constant, subtle, but extremely monotonous static effect of gravity.