Having This In Your Chair Can Really Help

Hey!  I hope your day is going great!

I am just getting back from a short trip to Orlando where we saw the Christmas Exhibit at The Gaylord Palms Resort Hotel.  It was incredible.

They managed to build an entire little city out of ice blocks (2 million pounds of them to be exact) and they had dozens of characters, buildings and furniture topped off with a slide, all made entirely of ice.  It was very cool! (and with a temperature of 9 degrees throughout the rooms I mean that quite literally).

In addition to this we had a chance to check out Orlando a little bit and we played my sons favorite spy game all around our hotel and the Orange County Convention Center.  It was really a great time.

Right before I was about to leave my house yesterday I had a thought that I later became very thankful for.  The thought was that I should probably grab my lumbar support cushion for the car seat to reduce the stress on my lower back.  Being that I spent about 5 total hours in the car since yesterday morning, I’m really glad I brought it.

I just recently invested in one of these support cushions because over the past few months I’ve been doing a lot more writing at the computer and with a history of back problems, I wanted to be extra careful. I can sincerely say that it was a great investment.  I’m even getting one for my office too.

So how do lumbar support cushions work?  Take a look at the picture below to better understand.

This is a picture of the natural curves of your spine.  You can see that the lower spine has a slight curvature forward, whereas the mid spine has the opposite.  This is an important thing to be aware of.  If the curvature in the lower spine is not maintained than the stress and strain on the ligaments, discs and muscles can become excessive and cause problems.

One of the reasons we have such an epidemic of lower back problems in our society is because this curvature is not being maintained well by most people enough of the time.  This is no more true than when sitting.

Sitting causes our sacrum (the bottom part) to be pulled under which in turn reverses the curve of our lumbar spine.  This can really take its toll on your lower back after a while.

Lumbar support cushions are designed to create a wedge between your lower back and your chair, which gently pushes your lower back into its proper curvature.  This can be a useful item if you are sitting, especially if it is for more than a few hours.

I have no affiliation with any support cushion manufacturers, I simply typed in “lumbar support cushion” on amazon.com and got the one that was rated highest.  Most of them are built very similarly so I wouldn’t say that there is any “best” one.

Even if you don’t currently have any perceivable back problem or have a history of any in the past, I would highly recommend that you get one for your car, office or living room.  It’s a simple (and very inexpensive way) to reduce stress on your back.  And its pretty darn comfortable too!  (in my opinion anyway).

To your healthy spine!