Sitting Posture Tips to Reduce Back Pain & Neck Pain

Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and foot rest Remi, and today I'm going to show you the best sitting position posture to reduce neck pain and back pain. Step one, don't use your dog as a foot rest. So correct sitting posture is really important, especially if you sit all day. If you're working at a desk all day, if you're gaming all day, if you're not in the right position, a good neutral position, you're often going to have neck pain and back pain and really tight muscles. So I'm going to give you some tips and talk about really how to get your chair in a good position for the best posture. Today I'm going to use the anthros chair because it has a lot of features that really help you get into that good position. So the first one is you really want to have low back support. Back support in general, but really starting off with the low back. If you are getting your pelvis into a good neutral position, that's going to help get your spine into a good neutral position. And I'm not talking about lumbar support. A lot of times you'll hear chairs talk about lumbar support and they have that little kind of push out where the lumbar area is. And really all that does is that just fills up the space. It doesn't really help get you in a good neutral position. So it's really important to have moving parts on the back part of the chair to help get that spine in neutral position. And so pelvis support is really important. So here you can see on the anthros chair that you actually can move the lower piece to get your pelvis in a good position. And once you get your pelvis in a good neutral position, you can see if I'm sitting like this, if I push my pelvis up into a neutral position, my whole body shifts into a nice good proper position. So that's really important to have in a chair to get that pelvis into a nice neutral position. The next one is really also making sure that your neck is in a good neutral position. I see people all the time, I used to do it all the time, I'd be working on the computer and I'd start doing this. So you really want a chair that's going to be able to help get you in that upright position or any kind of seat. You know some people like to sit on a swiss ball where you're getting that upright position where you're opening up your chest area and you're bringing your head back. So again having a kind of two piece back system instead of just one piece, you can get the lower part in a nice neutral position. And then here then you can move that upper back or that thoracic area to help give you that support as well. Because you want to be in a position you don't want to have to force yourself into that position the whole time. You want to be able to get yourself in that comfortable position if you're going to be sitting for a long time. It's always good to stand up about every hour and move around, but sometimes we know that just doesn't happen. So again having that that two-piece system to move to help the lower part and upper part to get your low back, your mid back, and your neck is really important. The next one is going to be having good cushion support in your chair. A lot of times I'll hear people talk about having you know the sit pain or they'll have nerve pain running down their leg, kind of that sciatica from a piriformis syndrome, just because the cushion isn't really supporting them. A lot of times when we sit for a long time, we end up getting pressure points especially on our sit bones for those ischial tuberosity. So having a cushion in the chair that really kind of makes that space where the sit bones are maybe a little bit less firm so it can get some pressure taken off of it is really important. I have a lot of people say, oh well I'll just put another cushion in it, but then what happens is then it brings your whole body up. And so if your back support is stable, then you're up here on your cushion, and then it changes where all that stuff is. So it's really important to have a nice good seated cushion support to kind of make sure you're not getting those pressure points and make sure that it's not pressing on those nerves causing pain down into your legs. So that's really important as well. Also you want to make sure that if you have armrests, sometimes it's good just to not have armrests at all. But if you have armrests, you want to especially if you're working at a computer gaming or just doing work on the computer, that you want to have it where you can be in a good neutral position with your elbows, your wrists, and your hands. So you want to have the armrests to be able to be adjustable in all directions even going out and in. So it's really nice to have something where you can adjust it in all ways. So then when you are you know working on something, you're in that good neutral position. Because it doesn't matter if you're sitting properly and then you're having to type like this or down like this. And then you end up you know if the armrests are too high, then I'm putting pressure on my shoulder. So you really want something that can adjust like that as well. And then you also really want to be able to have your feet flat. And this is important because I think a lot of times people are like, okay well I'm going to take my seat all the way down so my feet can be flat. And then you know they're lower and then again they have to do this. So a lot of times I say if you can't adjust your desk, then bring the the height of your seat up and then use something like a foot rest or a box or something. Because you want to be able to have your feet flat against something. So your knees and your hips can be at about 90 degrees, maybe a little bit less. So you're opening up that position. But if your feet are dangling, you're going to get a lot of pressure here. And then if it's too far up, then you're going to get some impinging in your hips. So you really want to make sure that you have something like that as well to support your feet if your chair is in a spot where you can't get your feet all the way flat. So again just kind of showing you what's really great about chairs like the anthros chair when you have a lot of parts that you can move and adjust. It's important because if it's just in one spot, it might be great for one person, but it might not be great for you. If it's designed for someone who's 5'9", someone who's 5'4", isn't going to be comfortable in that chair. So you can see here that this is the pelvis support that moves. There's also the upper part or the thoracic part that moves. And then I showed you here with the armrest. So again just having a chair that has a lot of those moving parts where you can adjust it, you can customize it to you, is super important because if you're not comfortable, if I'm sitting here, you know, and then eventually I'm going like this because this isn't supported, then everything's going to be tight. Everything's going to be uncomfortable. But if I can adjust it here, so now I'm supported. I don't even have to move the top part because my pelvis is in that nice neutral position. But if I want some support there, I'll get it right there. And now I don't have to force myself into that nice proper s curve of the spine. So getting that comfortable position is really going to help take away that back pain, and take away that neck pain, and take away that nerve pain that might be going down in your leg because you're getting too much pressure on the bottom. So there you have it. That was the best sitting posture to reduce back pain and neck pain. If you're interested in finding out more about the anthros chair, click on the link up there. And don't forget to subscribe by clicking down there. And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.