You’re sitting wrong if it hurts.Why this matters:I recently spoke with a new client who shared that their physical therapist and chiropractor weren’t helping their pain. Upon further digging, her greatest pain was sitting, and she was given core strengthening exercises to “manage the pain”. But it didn’t help. Of course it didn’t help! You shouldn’t have to “contract” your core when sitting. It is a passive activity. Trying to create tension in your abs when sitting is counterintuitive to what sitting is, a resting position. So we spent some time looking at how she was sitting.It turns out that she can tolerate about an hour of sitting before the pain comes on. The typical sitting position was rocking back onto the buttocks, and letting the back round. Now this isn’t a bad position, but being there too long can be painful (similar to if you bent your finger backwards gently, but held it for a while; it’s going to eventually hurt). So we introduced a new sitting position which allowed her to rock onto her sit bones, taking the load off her back for some time. She was told to switch between positions during her time in sitting.Action steps:
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