Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
After 40 years of research, Utah-based spine experts have identified one very big culprit when it comes to back pain: your office chair. It has to do with an orthopedic principle called Wolff's Law. As Healthline explains, "[T]his principle states that your bones will adapt based on the stress or demands placed on them."
Just as a cast or orthodontic braces can help reshape the position of your bones and teeth, your office chair can reshape your spine. All that's required is consistent force and sufficient time.
Sitting all day at the same desk in the same chair doing the same work for 2,100 hours per year generates both sufficient force and sufficient time to reshape anyone's spine. And as anyone who's ever had braces will tell you, this reshaping process can be painful sometimes.
Here's how the problem starts: Once you begin a new desk job, you might initially fiddle with your chair to make it more comfortable. But over time, you give up trying to adjust it and accept the discomfort. The ill-fitting chair and you get used to each other until, thanks to Wolff's Law, your back begins to mold to its shape without you even noticing.
Before you resign yourself to this painful fate, there's something you can do about it.
How one administrative assistant changed her life by changing her chair
Cindy worked as an administrative assistant at a local university. She had worked at a desk for an entire career and had tried countless chairs, some better than others. 10 years prior, she could no longer endure the daily discomfort of seated work tasks and began the early retirement process.
Fortunately, her university had begun using the Uprightly Program and its corresponding seating system for employees who suffered from WMSD (Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders). Cindy met with an Uprightly Program representative who arranged for an assessment of Cindy's spine complaints, spine shape, workstation configuration and other orthopedic considerations. She selected the upholstery of her choice, and a customizable orthopedic office chair was provided to meet her personal needs and specifications.
Uprightly installed the chair with the included footrest for Cindy and trained her how to stay protected at her desk. Using laser elevation and distance tools, they reconfigured Cindy's workstation so that all joints and muscles worked from their optimal positions.
It took Cindy a few days to become accustomed to sitting correctly upright, but the chair and footrest soon became a comfortable home base that preserved her best spine shape and allowed her neck, back, shoulders, arms, and legs to work with minimal stress even during long hours of keyboarding. She canceled her retirement plans and worked another 10 years, not only telling others of her success but also making sure that many of her colleagues also benefited from spine-safe office seating.
Don't suffer in silence
Many years before helping Cindy, the Upright Spine research team was invited by a Utah company with a large workforce to teach them how to work safely at their computers. After interviewing more than 700 employees, they learned that more than two-thirds of the workers suffered work-related discomfort on any given day, and that almost all workers took a turn being in WMSD pain. They also learned that workers chose to suffer in silence rather than jeopardize their job even though their discomfort happened mostly at work.
These findings are consistent with a 2010 National Health Interview Survey, which reported, "Low back pain is a common health problem in the workplace and most workers are expected to experience symptoms of low back pain during their working life."
Most office chairs aren't doing their job
By now, you're probably wondering what kind of chair will fix all of your back pain issues at work. Beware — simply buying a chair with ergonomic in the name or displaying the highest reviews on Amazon won't do the trick.
In 1994, the State of Utah Department of Procurement asked the Upright Spine research team to analyze available office chairs and provide them with a top 10 list of chairs they could choose from for a new office building. Prior to their request, the orthopedic research team had focused its work exclusively on how to improve spine care and spine rehabilitation.
The Upright Spine team analyzed 200 ergonomic and task chairs that office workers would use long enough for Wolff's Law to kick in. They concluded that an orthopedically correct office chair had to meet 15 essential criteria. Sadly, only three chairs met even eight criteria — and the rest met far less.
The Upright Team then met with major office chair manufacturers and asked them to build special chairs that would protect their patients. When the manufacturers declined, Upright began building its own chairs that met all 15 criteria so that spine pain sufferers could have the precise support they needed. This was the kind of chair that allowed Cindy to keep working — and it can help you, too.
You can learn more about these chairs on the company's website. You can also schedule a free consultation to learn more about how to heal and protect your own spine with the Uprightly Program.
How to find a responsible chair
A responsible office chair supports its user's spine in its best shape, meaning all three curves are symmetrical and nicely balanced one upon the other. Since the lower curve carries most of the load, it deserves more support to protect its inward bow from collapsing rearward. A responsible chair that protects the spine also protects the rest of the musculoskeletal system, such as your shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles.
Everybody wants a comfortable place to sit. But don't sacrifice correct posture for comfort. In the world of office work, correct quickly becomes comfortable while comfortable rarely becomes correct. Invest in your spine health by investing in a comfortable — and orthopedically correct — office chair. Visit uprightspine.com to get started.
