Although we sit on chairs every day and have been doing so for almost our whole life, it is hard for most people to sit comfortably and even harder to sit without slouching. The more upright we sit, the better for our back. We can also breathe more fully.
We can make adjustments to most chairs. If you work from home, you don't necessarily need an adjustable office chair. You can also think about your chair height when sitting at the dinner table, sitting in a school hall, cinema and theatre seats and so on.
What is a good height for a chair seat?
A good, comfortable height for a chair seat will allow our thighs to be parallel to the floor, or slightly sloping down. Here, our knees are at the same level as our hips and our feet can be flat on the floor.
What if your chair height is too low?
If you’re sitting in a chair that is too low for you, your knees will be higher than your pelvis, and this will cause you to roll back on your sitting bones. The spine goes into a C-shape and this puts pressure on the lower back. It’s also not so easy to breathe fully.
What can you do?
Raise the chair seat - bring in some books or yoga blocks to raise the seat height
Stack two chairs together
Perch on the front of the chair
What to do when the seat height is too high
If the seat is too high and your feet can’t reach the floor, then it’s hard for your back to relax. This tension will also affect being able to breathe freely.
If your feet can't reach the floor, let the floor reach your feet. Get some books or yoga blocks to rest your feet on. You can also buy a foot rest (often found in office supplies) but yoga blocks or books are more versatile and don't take up so much space in your home.
'Sitting up straight?': sit on the front of your chair
Many people think they need to ‘sit up straight’ to have an upright back. But this is usually done in a way that is uncomfortable, unnatural and unsustainable and so they go back to slumping. The good news is that you don’t need to arch your chest, push your shoulders back and tilt your head up. Not only is this uncomfortable, it also tightens everything and so it’s even harder to breathe. It’s actually quite a skill to sit well without back support and without ‘sitting up straight'.
Sitting up well is actually quite a skilled activity. It's something we focus on in Alexander Technique lessons. But here are some thoughts in the meantime.
If you bring your bottom to the front of the chair and wiggle a bit, you’ll feel your two Sitting Bones (ischial tuberosities). These are the curved bones at the base of your pelvis.
The sitting bones are like little rockers. When you’re slumping, you’ve rocked onto the back of the sitting bones and the back will be in a C-shape - look again at the image when the seat height is too low.
When we sit on our sitting bones, a little bit to the front of the rockers, the pelvis will be 'in neutral' and this gives the spine the best chance to be upright naturally. The head will sit more on top of the spine. It’s easier to find the sitting bones when sitting at the front of the chair.
This can get tiring after a while - especially for backs that aren’t used to supporting themselves. So we might need back support.
Back support in a chair - upper back/thoracic support
Most backs of chairs slope backwards. So if you’re sitting with an upright spine, there will be a gap between your back and the back of the chair. For a bit of comfort, you can fill this gap so that your back has some support and is also upright.
The support needs to be at the upper back - roughly between the shoulder blades. It’s different from lumbar (lower back) support.
You could roll up an item of clothing - sweater/coat - and put that in the gap. Or use a cushion or yoga block.
Why does posture matter?
Good, natural posture where we are not holding our body tense or letting it slump, matters because it helps our backs, necks and shoulders to be more healthy and less uncomfortable, especially for those with back pain.
And good, natural posture helps us breathe more easily. If the ribs are not constricted from tension and/or slumping, they can move freely to open out and enable more breath to enter the lungs.
Sitting upright isn’t easy - there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. The better we know how to use our body, the less it matters what the chair is like. But we can look for a chair that is the right height or, at least, undertand how to adjust it.
However the most important aspect is what we are doing with our body. How we hold it. How we even land in the chair. How we get up from the chair. It's quite a skilled activity, one that we take for granted and don't actually do very well. And this is one of the areas where the Alexander Technique comes into its own. You learn how to build strength in the deeper postural muscles and quieten the muscles that are trying to heave you upright which tire more easily.
Book a Chair Height analysis: Free 15 minute zoom consultation
If you want some advice on the chair you sit on, book a 15 minute zoom consulation and I can have a look. You'll need to set up your laptop/computer so that I can see your chair from the side with you sitting in it. We can also chat about how you sit and whether you might want to think about trying Alexander Technique lessons to help your posture.
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