Are office chairs bad for your back?

Sitting on an office chair all day that does offer adequate support can great a lot of stress on the lower back.

What is the problem with sitting on an office chair all day?

When you are sitting on an office chair all day, your back doesn’t receive the adequate support that it needs which causes stress on the lower back. This is because when you are sitting lumbosacral discs that are located at the bottom of the spine are loaded three times more when you are standing up rather than when you are seated. So if you are sitting on a chair that doesn’t have the correct spine support you will start to experience poor spinal posture. This consequently causes the soft tissues and joints stress which will lead to pain.

You can also experience back pain when you are sitting in your chair the way you are sitting. If you sit sitting forward with all your weight shifted forward this can also add stress to the soft tissues, joints and discs that are in the back. This will then lead to tension in the muscle and obviously back pain.

What should your office chair be like?

Your office chair should provide enough lumbar support with this is because when your chair provides this support, the muscles in your spine feel relief as they don’t need to try and force the spine into its natural curvature. Having adequate lumbar support can help to reduce the pressure off the muscles, therefore, minimising the muscle tension that can lead to pain in the back.

If your office chair isn’t offering enough lumbar support it makes it tricky to keep the correct posture.