Is Your Chair Setting You Up for Back Problems?

There’s no doubt that dysfunction abounds when it comes to sitting. Most of us spend many hours on poorly designed chairs in poor posture. As many people know all too well, poor sitting habits can definitely set you up for chronic back pain and tension. 

The good news? With just a little time and awareness, we can learn to sit well. There is real beauty and functionality in sitting done skilfully! When you do, sitting becomes not only comfortable, but also healthful and therapeutic. 

Here are four ways this transformation happens:

1. Rethink your backrest: the “S-spine” myth

Most modern chairs follow the wrong design paradigm—they create or enable an S-shaped spine rather than supporting your body’s natural J-shaped spine. If you already have a pronounced sway (inward curve) in your lower back, you may think a lumbar support offers a good fit. But in fact, it can worsen the problem by reinforcing that curve. What you really need is a backrest that lengthens and decompresses the lumbar area, not one that keeps it tight and shortened.

When your lumbar spine curves, your discs and nerves get compressed.

Our solution: a backrest that lets you hitch your back and gently traction your lower spine, supporting a long, relaxed posture instead of a curved, compressed one.

2. Reshape the seat pan: reclaim your pelvic foundation

Another common flaw in chair design is in the seat pan—the part you actually sit on. Do you sink into overly soft or aging cushions? Sit crumpled on a sling-style seat made of fabric or mesh? Slump on an intentionally concave surface such as molded plastic, curved metal, or woven straw? 

This office chair sparkles with 1960s retro-chic. However, its markedly concave seat will internally rotate your legs, encouraging malalignment in the hips and knees, and flat feet.

These concave surfaces rotate your legs inward and prevent your pelvis from settling where it belongs—nestled between your thigh bones. Your pelvis is the foundation for your spine, and it needs to be well-positioned to support a healthy relationship between your SI joints, sacrum, and your stacked vertebrae. Without this foundation, you’ll find yourself alternating between slumping and sitting upright in tension—both of which do damage.

Our solution: a “mushroom top” seat pan. This convex shape promotes gentle external rotation, allowing your pelvis to nestle naturally, and your torso, head, and neck to align effortlessly. Sitting upright can now feel easy, and your spine can receive its natural massage as you breathe. (No electric massage chair required!)

3. Fix the seat angle: stop sitting on your tail

A back-slanted seat pan encourages you to tuck your pelvis and sit on your tailbone—a sure recipe for back strain if you’re trying to sit upright. 

Our solution: build in a forward-slanting front portion that supports healthy, upright sitting. This encourages your pelvis to orient correctly and your spine to stack in its natural J-shape. The result? A relaxed, sustainable posture that is both strong and open.

All Gokhale chairs allow your pelvis to antevert naturally and your spine to stack.

4. Give space for your behind—literally

Most chairs don’t leave enough room for your behind to actually be behind. This forces your pelvis into a tuck whenever you sit back against the backrest.

When I designed the Gokhale® Pain-Free chair, this was the most challenging flaw to fix, since most commercial backrest supports are straight. We custom-forged a curved support post that allows your pelvis to stay anteverted and your behind to rest naturally behind you—where it belongs.

All Gokhale chairs allow room for your behind, so you are not forced to tuck your tail under.

The Gift of Healthy Sitting

This Black Friday, the Gokhale Method is offering the best possible solution for happy sitting — and as a lucky blog reader, you’re getting early access to this offer right now. Buy any Gokhale® Chair before midnight December 1 and receive a complimentary 40-minute consultation with a qualified Gokhale Method® teacher—a $160 value, absolutely free. Plus free shipping (continental US and Canada) on your chair.  

That means you’ll not only own a chair uniquely designed to help your body do the right thing, but also gain the knowledge to sit well for life. Your teacher will guide you through all the posture-friendly features of your chair, get you started with the Gokhale Method techniques that will help you position your body at its best, plus answer your questions and give you personal tips.

Show me the Pain-Free Chairs + Claim my free consultation  
 

Wishing you all a very happy and pain-free Thanksgiving—from my Gokhale® Executive Chair!

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