Ergonomic Office Chairs: Part I .Postural Practice for Prolonged Sitting

Ergonomic chairs are designed for enabling people to remain comfortable when performing work or employment based activities in an ergonomic chair.

Postural comfort does not come naturally. It comes from learning to create movement in your pelvic region, so that tissues in your buttocks remain comfortable.

Movement is needed in your pelvic region, because it is not humanly possible to sit all day in one position. Your body forces you to move your pelvic area at least every twelve minutes.

This is important because your whole body weight is pressing down on to the pelvic area. It forces oxygenated blood out of the tissues, which can only be sustained until the tissues demand further oxygenated blood is returned to the tissues.

Without movement and therefore oxygen in your pelvic area, tissues will ‘necrose’ and die. It is why people with paraplegia, who suffer nerve damage below the waist, must lift their body weight off their buttocks at least every fifteen minutes, or else tissues in their buttocks will break down and die.

For your needs, you only need to lift one pelvis and then the other, for relieving the pressure in the pelvic region and returning oxygenated blood back to the buttocks.

If you’re having difficulty lifting your pelvic bones when sitting, you need practice strengthening your pelvic region at home on the carpet with your feet straight ahead.

Now try lift the one pelvic bone and moving the same leg forward. Repeat the same process on the other side and you have started a process called “bum walking”. This is an excellent procedure to learn for strengthening your hip flexers that enables comfort in prolonged sitting.

This is also important for people who suffer with extra weight around their stomach region, who are having trouble using their pelvic muscles to lift their hips.

Strengthening your pelvic muscles is a necessary exercise, in order to move your pelvic region regularly in prolonged sitting. This is one of the key ingredients that ensure you remain comfortable in an office chair, when sitting all day for any work-based activities.