Column How to Sit in a Chair and How it Relates to Back Pain ②: Let’s Sit Using Our Sit Bones!

This is the continuation of our previous column, which you can find here.
This time, we will explain the correct way to sit in a chair.

●Correct posture to adopt when sitting in a chair

Many people have misconceptions about the correct way to sit on a chair, so we will briefly explain it.

The correct way to sit on a chair
① Relax your whole body.
② Still, do not relax too much.
③ Do not strain your back muscles, but rather relax by putting your weight on your ischial bone.

Or to put it more simply, the easiest way to sit is to relax your upper body and avoid putting any unnecessary strain on it.
Sitting with a tense upper body will only increase the risk of lower back pain and stiff shoulders.
In order to avoid that strain, it is important to sit on your ‘sit bones’ (or ischial bones).
The ‘sit bones’ are the bones that first come into contact with the seat when you sit down in a chair.
If you put your weight further past your sit bones, you will have the tendency to slouch and thus increase your risk of lower back pain.
Therefore, when sitting in a chair, it is important to imagine that your upper body weight is resting on your sit bones, and to make sure that it is not tense.
If you are having a hard time understanding that notion, just put your hands under your buttocks and you will feel two bones protruding.
These are your sit bones. If you can get your upper body weight to rest on this part, it will be easier to understand the logic.
Another way to do it is to keep your hands under your buttocks while moving your pelvis and try to find the part where your weight rests most on the sit bones. Please give it a try and observe how much weight you are putting on this part of your body.

Important points to keep in mind
① Good posture does not necessarily mean standing with your chest out and your back straight.
② It is important to be conscious of a natural sitting position that does not put strain on your upper body.

Keep the above points in mind and make conscious efforts to enforce them.
At first, some people may find it difficult to put their weight on their sit bones, but if you put your mind to it, soon you will be able to do it.
It may not look like it if you take a photo of yourself in the sitting position, but many people can sense that their posture is a little slouchy.

For this reason, over time many people’s backs will start slouching a little even if you try to sit naturally in a good posture and managed to put your weight on your sit bones.

That is why it is important to remain conscious of whether your back is slouching or rounding too much.