Ergonomics, Posture, and Tips for Back Health

If you happen to look at a large majority of people sitting on chairs, you are going to see that they are either slouching, lounging or just leaning back, relaxing in a manner which does no good to their spinal cord.

There are many meditations and special things that you can do to help relieve pain. However, most of these different things you can do, will do absolutely nothing to help your posture , spinal cord, back, neck, or your stomach. Where the pain usually starts is from someone having a bad posture and putting strain on the spine, and the only way to correct it, is to correct your posture.

Many of us have a 9-to-5 job, and find ourselves slouching in front of a computer, definitely not bothered about the chair we are sitting in, or our posture. Our job is to leer away at the monitor, not being bothered much about the effect that slouch has upon our shoulders, neck, back and stomach. And then we go complaining to our doctor about neck problems.  We worry about carpal tunnel, and other issues.  But when it comes to ergonomics, posture is neglected.

To make sure that we never find ourselves in such a state — when our once firm stomach muscles have reached the consistency of watery jelly, our shoulders show the body language state of “dejected, disheartened and dismayed” — we have to look at the ergonomics — the best way — of sitting in chairs or a sofa.

Forget about those deep cushioned chairs which make you sink down and do nothing to your spinal cord. Your chair seat needs to be tilted a bit forward, so that the lower back is curved naturally and falls into place the moment you sit down. The front has to be a bit lower than the back portion of your chair seat.

Do not put all of your body weight upon your hip bones. Some weight has to be placed upon the portion of your body, which can support it, your feet. Make sure that your feet are touching something solid. This is the easiest way to get a good posture.

Imagine that you are sitting for an interview; what do you do under such circumstances? You sit with your back straight, head held high. But the moment you get the job, you go back to your slouch couch potato position, not bothering about your posture at all! Make sure that you are not sitting on your tailbone. That can only be done by tilting your pelvic region forward, so that some of your body weight is placed upon your seat bones.

Office jobs are the worse for these things because you do not realize that if you computer isn’t eye level then you are putting strain on your body. Having a computer screen that is set up above, or below eye level will cause you to have to look up or down for long periods of time. Doing this puts strain on your spinal cord and causes you to have a tremendous amount of back pain because of it. So look at how your computer screen is set up and if you are putting strain on yourself doing it, and if you are, adjust it so that its at eye level.

Consider doing a posture exercise program to strengthen, stretch, and relax your posture muscles. This will help you sit up straight for longer periods of time without getting tired or the pain of strain.

Many of us are going to find it extremely difficult to get into the habit of sitting up straight on a chair, especially as our back muscles and stomach muscles fall into slouch position the moment we sit down. Continuous practice is going to help us here to improve posture.