Are you sitting comfortably

2008 Author: Gavin Burt

Driving posture - Gavin Burt DO offers some useful postural tips while driving.

About 80% of us spend on average 360 hours each year in the car

love driving a car, it’s exhilarating and liberating! Get me behind the wheel and I’ll happily drive for hours along country roads, city roads, motorways, whatever roads happen to be en route. I’m certainly not alone. About 80% of us spend on average 360 hours each year in the car.

Our love of the open road satisfies two basic desires; we like to have purpose, and driving makes us feel as if we are going somewhere, even if we aren’t! We also like to ‘zone-out’ and the car, for some reason, is the perfect place in which to do so. A few years ago, when I used to drive to work (before I became environmentally aware, I might add), I could remember leaving the house and arriving at work, but would find it very difficult to remember anything about the route itself (how safe this was, of course, is a matter for debate!)

a comparison of drivers in the USA and in Sweden found that in each country 50% of those questioned reported low back pain

These desires for purpose and ‘zoning-out’ are quite difficult to achieve, however, if you are experiencing back pain whilst driving – which is quite a lot of us. A number of research studies have investigated the association between driving and back problems, and generally have found significant results. For example, a comparison of drivers in the USA and in Sweden found that in each country 50% of those questioned reported low back pain.

Why do we get back pain whilst driving?

It is thought that there are three reasons for back pain whilst driving: vibration from the engine (something we drivers cannot change), our sitting position and the length of time we spend in our cars.

Laboratories have studied the effects of ‘whole-body vibration’ from sitting in a car seat. The lumbar spine naturally resonates at a frequency of 4-5 Hertz, and results show that this natural frequency can be distorted whilst driving a vehicle. This distortion can lead to higher spinal loadings (compression) in the lower back, which in turn could result in low back discomfort and an increased risk of injury. The only way that we can prevent vibration from having an adverse effect on our low backs is simply to drive less, or at least to drive for shorter periods at a time.

Sitting whilst driving is different from sitting whilst stationary (duh!). When the car is stationary then of course it is easy to get comfortable, in much the same way as you would in a normal chair, but as soon as the car starts moving things change and the body is subject to completely different forces - accelerations and decelerations, lateral movements from side to side, and whole-body up and down vibrations. The feet are also being used, the right foot on the accelerator pedal and the clutch...

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