Car!

That you wriggle out of that car seat with a stiff, painful lower back and slowly manage to straighten your body again...

If the back of a chair seat is lower than the front, your pelvis will tilt backwards (‘tail between your legs’), causing you to sit on your sacrum rather than your sit bones.

A car bumps, vibrates and shakes while driving, and the vertebrae in your lower back vibrate along with it, the intervertebral discs become pinched and the connective tissue becomes stuck.

And voilà, you need a shoehorn to wriggle out of your chair and stand up straight again.

 

Getting in by first swinging your leg in and then the rest of your body behind it causes your hip on one side to be regularly subjected to considerable strain. Getting out is much the same: first one leg out and then the rest of your body behind it. Your lower back and pelvis make a strange twist and the discs between your vertebrae eventually scream out in pain.

 

All you need to prevent that is a towel and a peppermint. It can be that simple.

 

How?

 

Sitting:

Fold the towel narrowly and place it on the back of your chair seat so that the seat is horizontal instead of slumped backwards, and make sure you sit on your sitting bones. It also helps to support the hollow at your waist with another folded towel, or you can buy a back support pillow.

You will probably need to lower the seat a little now that you are sitting upright.

It takes some getting used to, but you will also get out of the car feeling much less tired!

 

Getting in and out:

Clamp the peppermint between your knees, then lower your bottom onto the seat and turn your knees (peppermint!) into the car while turning your pelvis.

Getting out is the same, but in reverse.

 

Those peppermints are good for something after all!