Now is the time to start blaming your chair in the office for the recurrent and sometimes disabling pain on your back. Yes, blame the chair you sit on for hours at a time. It’s probably too soft or incompatible with your height.
Muscle imbalance and strain from sitting
When the muscles in front of your shoulder and chest are more active than the muscles that extend the lower part of your back, there is an imbalance that leads to pain. This kind of imbalance is encouraged by a sitting posture characterized by leaning back with inadequate lumbar support and shoulders rolled forward.
If you work on a laptop or desktop computer with a forward head posture, the muscles of your neck and back would be working harder than normal to support the weight of your head. This habit could lead to neck strain. People who look down a lot at their work might be sitting on a poorly matched chair and table.
Evidently, sitting on a chair with poor posture and using a chair of inappropriate measurement could be behind the pain on your back that won’t go away.
Too much sitting is not good for your health
For your information, the human body is designed for perpetual motion. Humans are not supposed to sit in a cubicle for six to eight hours a day, chained to our desks and glued to LCD screens. The pairing of poor posture with a non-ergonomic office chair is a death sentence for the ligaments and muscles of your back.
Some structures are lengthened, stained, and weakened. Others become tight and lose flexibility. Imbalance results when one muscle group works harder than others. Your body is wired to recognize and perceive pain.
If pain is the main sensation you feel on a daily basis it is time to rethink your way of life, specifically how you sit at work and the chair you sit on.
Pain up close
The human body is a dynamic machine, and its muscles and nerves could fall prey to developing circulation and metabolic anomalies when sustaining static positions for long periods. If you sit for long periods and do so constantly, there is no way your muscles will get all the oxygen and nutrients it needs.
With movement and frequent changes in position in the course of the day you’d see a lessening of the severity of pain, and less frequency of recurrence.
A quick and safe return to a pain-free life
You don’t have to live with pain all your life. Your best work is still ahead of you. If you ask a sports medicine doctor here in Suwanee, GA what had gone wrong, he or she would say there’s probably something wrong with your chair. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.
Your doctor, physical therapist, and wellness coach would be one in recommending a lifestyle check. Aside from availing necessary medical and rehabilitation measures to improve your symptoms, discard the old chair and look for ergonomically designed furniture.
Don’t let back pain restrain your capacity to produce quality work. Don’t let back pain keep you from enjoying a happy and productive existence. There are no miracle cures, but there is a chair out there that fits you well.
