How to Pick an Office Chair to Reduce Back Pain

How to Pick an Office Chair to Reduce Back Pain

This takes some of the strain off your neck and shoulders

Adjust your armrests so that they slightly lift your arms at the shoulders.  maintain good posture. It is extremely important to adjust your chair to the proportions of your body to optimize your chair for back pain prevention. Here are some simple ways to figure out the desired height of your work station, which depends on your height and the type of work you do. Sit as close as possible to your desk. Keep your upper arms parallel to your spine.

How to Pick an Office Chair to Reduce Back Pain

Adjust the height of your chair so that your elbows are at a 90-The most common health problems among office workers are: headaches and problems with concentration, pain in the neck and shoulders, backache and spine ache , problems with pelvis), pain in thighs, pain in knees and calves.

To find an office chair that fits you need to ask yourself a few questions. For true comfort, start by determining how you will be using the office chair. Office Chairs come with a variety of mechanisms that control the tilt angle, tension tightness and a variety of other office chair controls as well. Depending on how much time you are in your chair, and what you are doing while seated at your desk chair, these features can make a huge difference on whether you are sitting in comfort or not.If you want to know more continure reading …

You can prefer some better than other but take some advice before buying a chair!

degree angle when you rest your hands on your desk.back of your chair with a cushion that causes your lower back to arch slightly when seated. This is essential to minimize back strain. If you’re like most people, lumbar support is the main factor that will determine the extent of your comfort or back pain. Slumping or slouching places extra stress on your lower back, especially on your lumbar discs. The best chair for lower back pain will ensure that the flats of your feet make complete contact with the floor, preventing you from moving your hips forward and slouching. If your seat is too low and your knees are above your hips, you will shorten your hip flexors and also end up with severe lower back pain. Your gaze should be aimed at the center of your computer screen when you’re sitting comfortably with your head facing forward. If your screen is higher or lower than your gaze, raise or lower your chair until it is at the height of your level gaze. To avoid keeping your back in the same position for long periods, make sure you stand, stretch and walk for a few minutes every hour. In general, moving and stretching throughout the day will help keep your joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons loose and healthy, allowing you to relax and focus on your work productively. Some people believe that best chair for back pain is an active, ergonomic chair such as a Swedish kneeling chair or a Swiss exercise ball. These promote good posture and back strength because they require active use of one’s muscles 

for balance and to sit upright. 

Adjustable armrests are best since they allow user’s arms to rest and relax at the right height. Depending on your work style and requirements, you may not need armrests on your office chair, since they may get in your way as you move around. They should allow the user’s arms to rest comfortably and shoulders to be relaxed. The elbows and lower arms should rest lightly, and the forearm should not be on the armrest while typing.

, computer chair, How to Pick an Office Chair to Reduce Back Pain

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The Best Sleep Positions - Sleeping Positions to Avoid Back Pain

Sleeping position can help relieve back pain, do you ever wake up with a tweaked back? Waking up with back pain can really start your day off on the wrong foot. Who knew your night of restful slumber would actually be a night of back torture? The key to waking up pain free could be how you sleep. The Best Sleep Positions  - Sleeping Positions to Avoid Back Pain

It can be really difficult to find a comfortable position to sleep when you have back pain. There are several possibilities you might try; the only way to know which works best is by experimentation.

You can sleep on your back if you have some pillows under your legs. How good this is for you probably depends on exactly which disks are having problems though. I personally find this most comfortable when I have two pillows placed just under the knees. If you don't have pillows then this position puts a lot of strain on your lower back, which can be partially reduced by spreading your legs, or bending one knee and sticking your foot under the other knee, kind of like a pillow.

You might also try sleeping on your back, but using a lumbar role just above the belt-line. Sometimes this feels good to me, but usually only when I'm in a lot of pain already. It can be tricky to keep the roll in place. One option is to use a rolled up towel, draped across the bed, or perhaps even tied around your waist (I've never gotten that to work, myself) .

Sleeping on your stomach is also pretty good; I find it's much harder on my neck, but my back likes it. It's good for short naps, especially since I don't find it hurts my neck too much then, and really relaxes my back.

A side position is your next best option for optimal sleep. This also helps to prevent neck and back pain, and is especially important if you are pregnant. CNN reports that sleeping on your side keeps the spine elongated and reduces snoring. A downside could be that side sleeping can increase wrinkles due to the consistent contact of your face with the pillow. Sometimes, the side position can be awkward and you may feel discomfort in the arm, shoulder, or upper back. To counterbalance this, use a thicker pillow to fill the space above your shoulder so the head and neck are supported in a neutral position.
In general, however, the position which I find comfortable most often is sleeping on my side, with a relatively thin pillow tucked between my knees. I almost never wake up in pain after sleeping in this position.

I encourage everybody to experiment with all the different sleeping postures. Also keep in mind that what feels good today may change tomorrow - I've switched between sleeping on my side and other postures several times, usually depending on how bad the pain is. Don't get too set in your ways, and be willing to try changing things around once in a while. The Best Sleep Positions  - Sleeping Positions to Avoid Back Pain
Sleeping on your back is the best position to keep back pain at bay. However, sometimes due to individual’s mattresse or body shape, even sleeping on your back can cause lower back pain. Try placing a pillow under your knees to help your back maintain the normal curve. You can also add a small rolled up towel underneath the small of your back for more support.

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Your Sitting Posture and Back Pain - Correct sitting position

Correct sitting posture is very important to avoid back pain, when you maintain a neutral pelvic position with a straight and upright back, the vertebrae in your back are nicely aligned. This takes a lot of pressure off of your spine and back muscles, which can reduce back pain. Your Sitting Posture and Back Pain - Correct sitting position

• Sit up with your back straight and your shoulders back. Your buttocks should touch the back of your chair.
• All three normal back curves should be present while sitting. A small, rolled-up towel or a lumbar roll can be used to help you maintain the normal curves in your back.
  Here's how to find a good sitting position when you're not using a back support or lumbar roll:
  • Sit at the end of your chair and slouch completely.
  • Draw yourself up and accentuate the curve of your back as far as possible. Hold for a few seconds.
  • Release the position slightly (about 10 degrees). This is a good sitting posture.

In my personal experience, less than 90 deg. can quickly lead to pain. Exactly 90 deg. feels much better, at least in the short term. Greater than 90 deg. seems, however, to be the least painful of all. It can be hard to get a > 90 deg. position in a regular upright chair, however, without also leaving your back unsupported and hanging, leading to a reduction of lumbar lordosis. One way to avoid this is to role up a towel and sit on it. This will increase the angle between your hips and your back, while still maintaining the good lordosis. Another option is to slouch backwards, and then support your lower back by placing both of your arms behind your back.

Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of research into how exactly to adopt good posture--a lot of what we know tends to come from being told to “sit up straight” as children. A study in 1999, however, found that sitting at an angle of 110 to 130 degrees is optimal for spine comfort, and another in 2007 showed that leaning back at 135 degrees is ideal for preventing back strain.

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Not only is a position like this difficult to measure and maintain (do you know precisely what angle you’re sitting at right now?), not everyone agrees. Your Sitting Posture and Back Pain - Correct sitting position

Tags: Poor Posture Causes Lower Back Pain - Back Pain Relief Daily, 

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Chronic back pain treatment - Physical therapy and exercise

Millions of Britons have back pain, costing the NHS around £480 million every year. It is often caused by degeneration in the fluid-filled discs that separate and cushion the vertebrae of the spine. 

As we age, these discs can weaken and flatten, and bulge (or prolapse) outwards, pressing on the nerves running through the spinal cord. And this can cause inflammation, which leads to scarring, which can trap the nerves. Chronic back pain treatment - Physical therapy and exercise 

The fluid in the discs can also seep out and irritate the nerves. As the nerves carry pain messages around the body, you may feel pain in a completely different place.

Initial treatment is with painkillers and perhaps physiotherapy to strengthen the muscles in the back. Losing weight can help reduce pressure on the discs; patients can also be taught to sit, stand and lift properly.

If the problem doesn't resolve, surgery can be used to remove the damaged disc.

Chronic back pain treatment - Physical therapy and exercise 
Regular exercise or physical therapy can help strengthen back muscles, maintain healthy weight and enhances mobility.

• Yoga improves ability function, eases pain and improves mood.
• Physical therapy provides patient education.
• Typically a home exercise program is customized to specific patient needs after physical therapy.

Joining your family member or friend on an exercise regime to deal with chronic back pain is positive for their well-being. Since chronic pain sufferers can sometimes become depressed, emotional support can lift spirits and encourage a positive outlook.

Chronic back pain treatment - Physical therapy and exercise 

Heel Slides

• Lie on your back.
• Slowly bend and straighten knee.
• Repeat 10 times
  .

Abdominal Contraction

• Lie on your back with knees bent and hands resting below ribs.
• Tighten abdominal muscles to squeeze ribs down toward back.
• Be sure not to hold breath.
• Hold 5 seconds.
• Relax.
• Repeat 10 times
  .

Wall Squats

• Stand with back leaning against wall.
• Walk feet 12 inches in front of body.
• Keep abdominal muscles tight while slowly bending both knees 45 degrees.
• Hold 5 seconds.
• Slowly return to upright position.
• Repeat 10 times.

Exercise plays a very beneficial role in chronic back pain. Repetition is the key to increasing flexibility, building endurance, and strengthening the specific muscles needed to support and neutralize the spine. Exercise should be considered as part of a broader program to return to normal home, work, and social activities.

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Review of book 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life: How to Rapidly Relieve Back and Neck Pain

I've got got fretboard troubles for two years of which cause severe along with chronic problems. The particular workout routines within this publication with the proper bed sheets have got built a new connected with difference. I truly do a number of the workout routines each day easily sense a head ache coming, are sitting a long time, or have got a lot of pressure around my shoulder muscles. If you have chronic soreness, this specific publication is worth trying. 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life: How to Rapidly Relieve Back and Neck Pain review and rating

More richly detailed and in-depth than his previous books, this volume is illustrated with over 100 photos and liberally peppered with real-life case histories. Starting with an analysis of how the back and neck work, it moves on to a discussion of the common causes of pain--bad posture is most often to blame. At the core is a detailed explanation of how to do the McKenzie Method exercises, when to apply them, and how to adjust your personal program over time. Included are instructions for people who suffer with acute back and neck pain (with appropriate cautions regarding when to call a medical professional) as well as for people in special situations like pregnant women, athletes, and seniors. An impassioned introduction by coauthor Craig Kubey, a satisfied convert after suffering intense back and neck pain as a result of several auto accidents, could very well make a believer out of anyone. --Marianne Painter --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review of book 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life

  By 

Patrice M Hutton 

I have had neck problems for a couple of years that lead to severe and persistent headaches. The exercises in this book combined with the right pillow have made a world of difference. I do some of the exercises everyday if I feel a headache coming, have been sitting too long, or have a lot of tension in my shoulders. For people with persistent pain, this book is worth trying.

Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones who find this is a complete cure to your problem. Maybe you won't. But it's only 300 pages, easy to read, and extremely cheap. Give it a try.

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Review and Recomendation: The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook

This is a review of Trigger Point massage, and a particular self-help book about applying the technique:  The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies. I've been trying self-applied Trigger Point massage for a while now, using this book as my guide. I've found it to be a useful technique, and I recommend trying it. I've used it for back pain and hip pain, but the book contains sections for almost all areas of the body. 

The theory behind trigger point therapy is that muscles get knotted up in very specific locations in the body, and that the stress caused by these knots causes referred pain to nearby parts of the body where those muscles attach.  The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook  shows you where all these trigger points are, and the pattern of referred pain associated with each point. In addition, for each set of trigger points there is a lengthy discussion of the typical causes of problems at those points, how to locate the points by touch, and how to treat the trigger points. 

The treatment is almost always the same: high pressure massage of the muscle around the location of the trigger point. Exactly how the massage is done probably doesn't matter that much, so long as you get the spot right. The book's advice, however, can be helpful for figuring out how to get sufficient leverage and pressure for each point.  In many cases, the suggested massage tool is just a regular tennis ball, though sometimes more fancy tools like the thereacane are suggested. 

The book is a useful resource for finding the trigger points because the pain is usually referred. You may massage near the area of pain, but usually the actual point where the massage is needed is outside the area which aches. Interestingly, however, once you know the general area to search for the points, it's much easier to find them by touch than by religiously following the diagrams in the book. Nonetheless, the diagrams are important for figuring out the right areas to start searching. 

The book is very clearly written. It is intended to be read by pain sufferers, and while it doesn't dumb down the topic, care is taken to not be overly technical. It does suffer from overly grandiose claims for all the different conditions it might treat - in one section it even speculates that dyslexia may some day be treated by trigger point therapy.  Don't be too turned off, however, as in contrast to dyslexia, trigger point therapy really does seem to help chronic pain. On the other hand, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that there is less than 1% chance that trigger point therapy will ever provide a measurable help to dyslexics.  Oh well, like most self-help books you have to learn how to filter the good from the bad. 

In the end the book wouldn't be worth reading if it didn't help. Luckily, it does. In my own life, I've found that trigger point massage can significantly reduce my acute back pain around 30% of the time I apply it, and makes for at least some improvement almost every time I try it.  That's a pretty impressive level of improvement, in my book. It's well worth the $15 that it costs to buy it from Amazon (or other good online booksellers).  And, given that the only other tools you really need are a tennis ball, and perhaps a bottle opener, it's a very economical way to treat your pain.

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Cheap theracane alternatives

I've recently been trying trigger point massage for my lower back pain. I'll post more once I have had more experience. Trigger point therapy requires a fairly deep massage, which is rather hard to do with your hands, let alone if the points are behind your back.

The Theracane is basically a cane with some hand-holds, which is meant to make it easier to massage areas like your back. Experimenting in the store, I did not feel it was really suited to deep, high pressure massage, but it would still probably be a useful tool. Check out their website if you haven't seen the Thera cane before. The problem is that it goes for between $50 and $30, usually without any return policy. I've come up with a couple of $1-$5 alternatives which work pretty well.

First, you could always try doing a tennis ball massage, (just trap the ball between the wall and your body, and wiggle around). This works OK, but doesn't really make for a deep massage because the ball is too big. Also it can be difficult to pinpoint the spot you want on your body this way.

So, what I really suggest is to go to a kitchen store (I went to IKEA) and find a short kitchen tool which has a round handle, as in the picture to the right. The one I found cost 99 cents. Now, since it's not rounded on both sides, it may be kind of hard to hold comfortably, especially when applying lots of pressure. Solution: cut open a tennis ball, and stick the non-round part into it. Now, you have a nice soft handle, and a good, hard massage point. For extra force, I put the tennis ball up against the wall, and then lean into the rounded handle of the tool.

That works pretty well for the lower back. It's a bit hard to position the tool, since it's all happening behind your back, but your arms can be flexible enough to make it happen.

Much harder is to massage your upper back or neck. Perhaps you really need a Thereacane? No, there's a cheaper alternative, on the order of $5 at your local hardware store. Get a storage hook (here's one link, but it's probably better to check it out in your local store first). See picture below for a suggested model, but I'm sure you can use your own judgment on this one! It's really crazy how much you will get charged for "health related" items, as compared to everyday products that are just as good but have to appeal to the more cost-minded general consumer.

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Take it easy after a flareup

For many people chronic back pain varies significantly over time. You'll have good days, good weeks, and good months, just like you'll have bad days, weeks, and months. Usually the bad periods are caused by some sort of unfortunate event (for me, air-travel is the most dependable cause of a flareup). When you have a flareup there is a perverse desire to start doing exercises and stretches right away - the very exercises and stretches you should have been doing before you injured yourself to reduce the chance of a flareup.

I've found it's very important to resist this urge. Once you have an inflamed back the surest way to make it worse is to stretch or do other unusual exercises. For instance, the two times I've tried yoga while my back was hurting, I've ended up in significantly worse pain afterwards. The same is true of times when I've tried to get aggressive with my physical therapy exercises. It appears that injuring yourself is much easier once there is some sort of acute inflammation, and many things that might normally be helpful are actually quite harmful.

This may be the reason why bed rest used to be prescribed by physical therapists. That is not the solution either. Moderate exercise actually speeds up recovery. The trick seems to be that doing the sort of movements you make every day is OK, because you know how to do them in a non-stressful way. This may be because you know from years of experience exactly what those movements should feel like, and therefor can detect almost instantly when a particular mode of movement is too much, and needs to be adjusted. For instance, going on short walks actually makes my back feel better, at least when I make sure to move very slowly, taking extreme care that each step is pain free (or at least as pain-free as possible). Because I'm far from a yoga expert, I cannot make the same sorts of judgments about the safety of the yoga poses.

So the question is, when to start doing those exercises that you so desperately want to start again, in order to help your back? The key point, I think, is that those exercises are not meant to help you recover from an acute problem, but rather to strengthen you so as to prevent future problems. So there's no hurry to start them when you are still in the acute stage of a flareup. I would advise waiting until your pain level is no longer getter better on its own, which suggests that the acute phase of the injury is over. Since pain tends to vary a lot, day to day, a good way to asses this is to ask yourself if you are significantly better (or worse) today than you were a week ago. If you can go a week without any change in pain level, then it is time to start, very cautiously, with your exercises, stretches, etc. Otherwise, what will undoubtedly happen is that you'll start to feel better, and after a day or two, launch yourself into some sort of activity which seems like it should be safe, only to find yourself in much pain later that day.

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Lumbar support

The McKenzie book stresses the importance of good posture and good lumbar support. They sell a polyurethane lumbar role, which you place just above the beltline when you sit. This can make sitting more comfortable. There are other more low tech (and high tech) lumbar supports however, with various advantages. Here's a complete list:

1. Mckenzie Lumbar Roll Pro: strap makes it easy to carry. Made of foam that is soft and small enough that you can use it for extended periods of time without strain. Con: sometimes it is not big enough to provide sufficient support. The foam wears out after a while (expect to replace it every year).
2. Paper towel role. I prefer the smaller size that typically costs about $1. For its cost, it's actually quite effective, and since it doesn't compress as much as the McKenzie role, it can be better in some situations (such as in a car with very poor lumbar support in the seats). Be sure to keep the wrapper on so it holds together. I usually keep a spare in my car, in case I'm caught without my Mckenzie roll.
   
3. 2 pound bag of frozen peas. Aside from the fact that they melt and the bag will eventually leak, there's no better lumbar support. The peas are just right combination of cold, size, and flexibility. But, at most the bag will last an hour before it will urgently need to be put back into the freezer. I like to use these at home, such as when sitting down for a meal. You can reuse the bag if you freeze it again, but after enough reuses the peas will tend to freeze into a solid brick, which doesn't work so well. I find that the bag leaks a lot less if you wrap it in one or two plastic shopping bags.
4. Rubbermaid ice blanket ($2.50 at Target). Frozen peas are great, but they melt. The ice blanket does too, but without the mess. The package is not as flexible as a bag of peas, so it may be slightly less good ergonomically. On the other hand, having a package that lasts half a day, and doesn't need to be refrozen immediately is a big advantage. I like to combine one whole blanket with 2/3rds of a blanket, and then wrap the whole thing in about 4 plastic grocery bags, as otherwise it gets way too cold.
   

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