Physical Therapy Avon

My back is very stiff after I spend any significant time driving in the car. What can I do?

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This is a problem that plagues more motorists than you can imagine. The majority of time that this occurs is a result of your sitting posture affecting a disc in your low back. Most car seats promote a flexed or slouched posture. When our backs are rounded forward our vertebrae compress the anterior portion of our lumbar disc causing a posterior migration of the disc fluid. When this fluid is displaced it creates low back stiffness/pain and difficulty standing up straight after prolonged sitting or driving. Here are a few ideas you can try instead of buying an expensive posture friendly drivers seat. To reduce this flexed posturing in the car make sure that your knees are below the height of your hips. Most seats in newer cars have adjustable bottoms to allow for this. If the bottom of your seat does not adjust try sitting on a small pillow. Also try placing a medium sized rolled up towel in the small of your low back. This will also promote the spines natural curve and help reduce the anterior disc compression. Reducing the amount of time that we spend bending forward at the waist or slouching when we sit in non- driving activities will also help the eliminate accumulative affect of mechanical stress to our low backs.