How to Modify Your Car Seat For a Pain-Free Ride
Most of us spend a good deal of time in our cars,commuting, chauffeuring kids around, doing errands, or if we’re lucky, heading out to an adventure spot. Much of this time is spent being physically uncomfortable,especially if the car was manufactured in the last decade.There seems to be a downward spiral of poor posture and design that reflects poor posture - which in turn worsens posture. How can we break this cycle?
A checklist for healthy posture when driving includes:
Shoulders: back and down
Neck: elongated and stacked over the spine
Bottom: well back in the seat
Spine: elongated and well-stacked
Modern car seats often make these simple posture practices challenging or impossible.The good news is that it’s relatively easy to fix almost any kind of car seat to make it conducive to good posture.
1:Shoulder positioning. You may find that the “bolsters” in your carseat get in the way of placing your shoulders back.
The origin of bolsters lies in the racing car industry - bolsters keep racing car drivers in their seats as they whizz around corners at high speeds. For those of us not compelled to turn corners at 100 mph, the bolsters are an annoyance that make it impossible to set the shoulders in a comfortable and healthy place.
Solution: Build up the backrest area between the bolsters,so your torso is no longer sunk between the bolsters with your shoulders forced forward. Depending on how much your Used Honda Odyssey Cars bolsters protrude, a towel folded over a couple of times may suffice,or you may need a much thicker support.When I travel, I use rental cars.With each rental car,my first action is to profile it: will a single Stretchsit cushion suffice or will it need additional thickness?
Technique: After adding some thickness to the mid-portion of the chair upright, move one shoulder at a time a little forward,a little up, and then significantly back and down.Once you have your shoulders back in place,you may discover you need to move your seat closer to the steering wheel to comfortably hold the steering wheel. Be sure to keep a safe distance from the airbag.
2:Neck support. Have you noticed that many car headrests push your head forward uncomfortably? The degree seems to get worse with the years.Headrests now have a new official name,which is “head restraint.They are shaped to stick far enough out that the head is resting against the headrest and would not have any space in which to whip backward in the event of a collision.
When I taught a workshop to the designers at Johnson Controls in Ann Arbor,they pointed to my Stretchsit cushion and remarked the reason your products are popular is that we’re legally obliged to design seats the way we do.It is sad when designers become constrained by deterioration in people's posture.
Solution: Very similar to the solution for bolsters, but the extent of how much you build up the central portion of the backrest now depends on how much the head restraint juts forward. DO NOT turn the headrest around 180 degrees or remove it or sit forward in your seat - in case of an accident, this would put you at risk of severe damage from whiplash.
Technique: Determine the best posture you are able to assume in your neck.Now pad the central portion of the backrest so that the headrest works to rest your head against. Elongate your neck in any of the five ways described in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back,and “hook” the back of your head against the headrest so your neck is getting a gentle stretch.
3:Setting the bottom back in the seat. This is not a problem in most cars. Some notable exceptions are:
Solution: build up the cave to horizontal or near horizontal.Do not build it up to be a wedge - wedges are helpful for stacksitting,but not for stretchsitting, and in a car you want to stretchsit, not stacksit.
4:Spine support. Does your car seat have lumbar support?This is based on conventional wisdom about an S-shaped spine being normal and healthy.
Solution: What you really need is a thoracic support that you can stretch your back against. Technique: Use a Stretchsit cushion (if you have a fabric seat,a folded towel can also provide the grip you need) suspended behind your mid-back.Follow the instructions in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back (link is external) to stretchsit and put your lower back into a gentle,comfortable amount of traction
So what can you do to set your car up for healthy posture?
If you're in the market for buying a car, examine the car seat.Some brands are better than average in the design of their seats. The Fiat 500, for example, has a head rest that works with healthy neck posture, and has bolsters that do not extend all the way up shoulder level.
Set yourself up with good posture. No matter how good your car seat is, there is no substitute for knowing what to do in your own body. Stretchsitting, which is one of the easiest Gokhale Method techniques, is well suited to driving. Lengthen your spine against a support at the level of your mid-back, roll your shoulders back, elongate your neck against the head rest, and enjoy the ride!
A checklist for healthy posture when driving includes:
Shoulders: back and down
Neck: elongated and stacked over the spine
Bottom: well back in the seat
Spine: elongated and well-stacked
Modern car seats often make these simple posture practices challenging or impossible.The good news is that it’s relatively easy to fix almost any kind of car seat to make it conducive to good posture.
1:Shoulder positioning. You may find that the “bolsters” in your carseat get in the way of placing your shoulders back.
The origin of bolsters lies in the racing car industry - bolsters keep racing car drivers in their seats as they whizz around corners at high speeds. For those of us not compelled to turn corners at 100 mph, the bolsters are an annoyance that make it impossible to set the shoulders in a comfortable and healthy place.
Solution: Build up the backrest area between the bolsters,so your torso is no longer sunk between the bolsters with your shoulders forced forward. Depending on how much your Used Honda Odyssey Cars bolsters protrude, a towel folded over a couple of times may suffice,or you may need a much thicker support.When I travel, I use rental cars.With each rental car,my first action is to profile it: will a single Stretchsit cushion suffice or will it need additional thickness?
Technique: After adding some thickness to the mid-portion of the chair upright, move one shoulder at a time a little forward,a little up, and then significantly back and down.Once you have your shoulders back in place,you may discover you need to move your seat closer to the steering wheel to comfortably hold the steering wheel. Be sure to keep a safe distance from the airbag.
2:Neck support. Have you noticed that many car headrests push your head forward uncomfortably? The degree seems to get worse with the years.Headrests now have a new official name,which is “head restraint.They are shaped to stick far enough out that the head is resting against the headrest and would not have any space in which to whip backward in the event of a collision.
When I taught a workshop to the designers at Johnson Controls in Ann Arbor,they pointed to my Stretchsit cushion and remarked the reason your products are popular is that we’re legally obliged to design seats the way we do.It is sad when designers become constrained by deterioration in people's posture.
Solution: Very similar to the solution for bolsters, but the extent of how much you build up the central portion of the backrest now depends on how much the head restraint juts forward. DO NOT turn the headrest around 180 degrees or remove it or sit forward in your seat - in case of an accident, this would put you at risk of severe damage from whiplash.
Technique: Determine the best posture you are able to assume in your neck.Now pad the central portion of the backrest so that the headrest works to rest your head against. Elongate your neck in any of the five ways described in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back,and “hook” the back of your head against the headrest so your neck is getting a gentle stretch.
3:Setting the bottom back in the seat. This is not a problem in most cars. Some notable exceptions are:
Solution: build up the cave to horizontal or near horizontal.Do not build it up to be a wedge - wedges are helpful for stacksitting,but not for stretchsitting, and in a car you want to stretchsit, not stacksit.
4:Spine support. Does your car seat have lumbar support?This is based on conventional wisdom about an S-shaped spine being normal and healthy.
Solution: What you really need is a thoracic support that you can stretch your back against. Technique: Use a Stretchsit cushion (if you have a fabric seat,a folded towel can also provide the grip you need) suspended behind your mid-back.Follow the instructions in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back (link is external) to stretchsit and put your lower back into a gentle,comfortable amount of traction
So what can you do to set your car up for healthy posture?
If you're in the market for buying a car, examine the car seat.Some brands are better than average in the design of their seats. The Fiat 500, for example, has a head rest that works with healthy neck posture, and has bolsters that do not extend all the way up shoulder level.
Set yourself up with good posture. No matter how good your car seat is, there is no substitute for knowing what to do in your own body. Stretchsitting, which is one of the easiest Gokhale Method techniques, is well suited to driving. Lengthen your spine against a support at the level of your mid-back, roll your shoulders back, elongate your neck against the head rest, and enjoy the ride!
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