Lumbar cushions and seat wedges must be properly fitted to your body and your task in order to be effective. In addition, sitting supports can be cumbersome, especially in cases where a combination of inserts are required to address your seat's height, contours, resilience, and angles. If you change your sitting posture frequently, or if you need a combination of supports to get the job done, you might consider purchasing an ergonomic chair instead.
Follow these steps when you choose a portable sitting support.
Step 1 - Fit your activity
Lumbar supports work best for upright and reclined activities like driving, typing, and relaxing.
Conversely, lumbar supports are ineffective when the sitting posture is forward since you lean away from it. Seat wedges work best for forward sitting activities such as writing.
Lumbar supports work best for upright and reclined activities
such as driving, typing, and relaxing.
Seat wedges work best for forward sitting activities such as writing.
Step 2 - Fit your height and weight
Here are some product selection tips for those of you who are particularly short or tall, heavy or light.
SHORT PEOPLE
When your seat is too high, you may need to "raise the floor" with a footstool. You can also mount a footrest bar underneath your desk or use a chair with a footring.
If your seat is too deep, use a thicker backrest cushion. A bed pillow can be very effective for this purpose.
If your neckrest is too high it can push your head uncomfortably forward. Women often suffer this in an airline seat. Try sitting on a seat cushion to raise yourself high enough for the neckrest to nestle into your neck.
TALL PEOPLE
Your backrest support will be ineffective if you are too tall for your chair or car seat. To correct a low chair, raise yourself on cushions or raise the chair legs. You will probably need to raise your desk height, too.
If raising the seat in your car compromises your line of vision, access to foot pedals, thigh room, or head room, little can be done short of getting a new car.
HEAVY AND VERY LIGHT PEOPLE
If you weigh more than 250 pounds, a soft foam support will compress too much under your body weight. You should select more rigid, nonfoam supports or thicker, firmer foam supports. If you weigh under 110 pounds, select softer or flatter foam supports since they compress little under your weight.
Step 3 - Fit the chair
No one sitting support makes all chairs comfortable. Different seat heights, contours, and back angles influence a portable support's performance.
An automobile bucket seat or the curved back of a captain's chair is more difficult to modify than a flat seat back. Make certain that the sitting support is narrow or select a sitting support specifically designed for a bucket seat.
A chair with a gap between the seat and backrest is difficult to modify because many supports - even those with attachment straps - can slip through the gap as you shift around. Look for supports specifically designed for this type of chair or consider all-in-one seat and backrest support units.
Very soft or sagging seats like couches and overstuffed chairs may "swallow up" your portable seating support and make it ineffective. Select a thicker support to compensate for a chair softness or choose a support with a rigid built-in frame.
Article reproduced with permission from
ergoTALK.