When you have low back pain it can be very difficult to sit on certain chairs or sitting can feel like it brings on pain and you might not be able to sit for very long at all. Let\u2019s look at why this might happen and what you can do about it:<\/p>\n
Sometimes your body can become sensitised to certain positions. If your pain came on when you moved whilst sitting or if the pain came on after a day of being very sedentary and sitting you may find sitting uncomfortable. This is your body trying to protect you from harm – last time you sat you ended up in pain so your brain triggers a pain response to try to make you move and prevent the painful situation occuring again.<\/p>\n
Sitting is a similar movement to bending forward. If your acute pain came on as you bent forward then a sitting position may be interpreted as a threatening position because it is so similar.<\/p>\n
If the pain is making you feel tired and miserable it may simply be that you don’t want to be in that situation – at work, in a meeting. Sometimes those emotions will trigger pain to enable you to leave that situation.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it can be predictive. People’s beliefs are extremely powerful. If you believe that sitting on a certain chair or in a position will bring on your pain it almost certainly will.<\/p>\n
Continuing with beliefs – a lot of people have beliefs about certain chairs. You may associate your pain with sitting on a soft sofa. You may believe you should only sit on hard chairs. Again these beliefs will tend to be predictive of your pain response.<\/p>\n
Sometimes hard chairs will feel better. One of the reasons for this is that you can have more varieties of sitting positions – sitting, leg crossing, slouching, leaning to one side or the other. On a softer seat you can tend to sink into one position for longer.<\/p>\n
As with any position – if you spend too long doing any one thing it will often bring on pain. This is particularly emphasised if you are having a pain episode. The key, as I often mention, is to move regularly.<\/p>\n
Sitting will not cause harm or damage in your back. If you are getting pain you need to think about why. Is it because you haven’t moved for a while? Is it because you believe that chair will cause you pain? What are your emotions about the situation you are in? Addressing some of these factors and reassuring yourself that you are not causing harm, alongside regular movement can make a big difference.<\/p>\n
Whilst sitting you can introduce a movement exercise by bending from side to side several repetitions or alternating between a slouched position and upright to move your lower back for several repetitions.<\/p>\n
When sitting is uncomfortable it can be helpful to limit your sitting time. For example decide how long you can sit for without too much discomfort – perhaps 2 minutes. When you sit down set a timer for 2 minutes and then get up and move. Gradually increase the time you sit for – maybe 3 minutes then 5 minutes, then 8, then 10 etc. Make sure that you are not simply sitting there waiting for your pain to come on. Focussing on the pain is not helpful. Sit down and do something. When the timer buzzes move, no matter how you feel. Sometimes it can be tempting to sit for longer if you feel ok but this may be unhelpful until you are confident that you can last longer without increasing discomfort. The risk is you will make your pain yo-yo between highs and lows whereas we are aiming for more of a plateau.<\/p>\n
Try one or two of these ideas and see if you can improve your symptoms relating to sitting. Some people struggle getting up from sitting although they are comfortable sitting, this is something we will consider in a future question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you have low back pain it can be very difficult to sit on certain chairs or sitting can feel like it brings on pain and you might not be able to sit for very long at all. Let\u2019s look at why this might happen and what you can do about it: Is it the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[29],"tags":[26,54],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/painpuzzle.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/man-2734073_640.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n