
Part I .Postural Practice for Prolonged Sitting
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 flexors 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.