Should We All Be Using Reclining Chairs?

About 80% of us at some time during our life have had reported some sort of back pain. And the number of people who experience lower back pain is increasing at a high rate. So what's the cause of all this? Well, There is good reason to believe that what chairs we use and how we sit is contributing to this massive health pandemic. So if this is true, is there anything we can do specifically to reduce some of the problems that we get from long-term degenerative back pain by making small changes to how we sit? The good news is that most of our typical office chairs today have a simple feature that may unlock a solution to better back health. Contrary to common belief sitting at a 90 degree angle, meaning your legs and torso make a right angle, is not near the optimal for your back. There have been decades of research suggesting that the reclined position is actually much better, or more simply the ability of the chair to lean back in your chair. In this video we dive into the specific reasons on why this is the case and why you should consider using the incline on your chair.
1. It's better for the muscles in your spine
Research from an article in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics found that ”Subjects in seats with backrest inclinations of 110 to 130 degrees, with concomitant lumbar support, have the lowest disc pressures and lowest electromyography recordings from spinal muscles.” this translates to chairs with more of a recline, are associated with a reduction in muscle activity. A decrease in muscle activity means that we will experience less fatigue and tiredness for in our back muscles over time. In the longer term this can mean a lesser chance of discomfort and a reduction in the injury risks for many people. When we looked at the standing position which is about 90 degrees, there is a low level of muscle activity in the back. When we compared this to sitting on a chairs we saw a large reduction in muscle activity in chairs that have arecline anywhere between 110 and 130 degree. This will reconfigure you workspace setup because this seating arrangement lowers the position of your head. If you want to learn more about configuring your workspace click the annotation in the top right hand corner that will tell you everything you need to know about how to do that.
2. More similar to standing
When chairs are in the inclined position they more resemble standing. This has to do with the way the angles that we sit at affect the pressure placed on our disks. The nearer we are to an angle closer to angle we have whilst standing the better. Standing is the optimal position for our spines because it places the least amount of pressure on the spine and the muscles that support it. So when we replicate that when we sit the better for our backs it will be. However in work and at home we typically do the opposite of this, and lean forward. To demonstrate the relationship between the sitting angle and the load on the disks we can look at this graphic which shows the differences between sitting positions. As we begin to lean forward there is a linear relationship between the agle we sit at and the pressure on our disks and at a sitting angle of 80 degrees, which is the angle that many of us sit at, we have 190 percent more disk pressure that if we were standing. So almost double the amount of strain! When we sit at these angles we degenerate our disks. This has major implications for the flexibility and health of our spines. So, when sitting try to find an angle as close to standing while remaining comfortable




3. Less Pressure On Vertebrae
Sitting for long periods of time is widely known as being associated with all sorts of back pain and more specifically disc herniations. Similar to the results above the closer we are to a standing angle the better the long term health of our spinal vertebrae. Do you ever remember sitting back in class when you were younger and your teacher telling you to sit back up straight. Well it turns out you were right! Sometimes when our body tells us that a position is more comfortable it is really better for our spines no matter what some teacher has told us. Just make sure when you lean back in your chair to get the proper lumbar support because it's possibly the most important features of a chair.

So I hope you learned something new in this video that you can begin implementing in your daily life. Its vital for us to get our posture right if we want to maintain a healthy back and sitting the right way may just be the most important place to start. To summarise the point of this video, try to sit at an angle closest to standing. It's the most biomechanically ideal position for our bodys and it will surely improve and prevent back pain.