Sitting can cause lower back pain, neck pain, blood clots and affect your productivity. Your seat is hugely to blame, and that’s why today we’re talking about having a thick seat cushion.
We’ll show you the ergonomic benefits of dense memory foam seat cushions and how to make any seat better for your health.
Why Use a Thick Seat Cushion Other Than for Comfort
Generally speaking, the first consideration that comes to mind when buying a memory foam seat cushion is comfort. But with increased ergonomic awareness, tons of other factors should define our cushion selections, too.
Here are the five ergonomic reasons you need a thick foam seat cushion for your car or office chairs.
Improve Posture
Sitting for long hours is tiring, stressful, and dangerous to your health. If your seat isn’t ergonomic, you tend to adjust your body often because of the intense stress. In most instances, you end up slouching and exposing your body to back problems.
Maintaining proper posture is important for your long-term health. If your spine is properly aligned, you’re likely to avoid the many drastic health concerns associated with sitting. Your back stays durable; imagine not using walkers when you’re past 80 years old.
An ergonomic memory foam seat cushion ensures that you maintain a healthy posture. By contouring to support your lumbar and reducing pressure points, memory foam encourages a healthy sitting position. Even after sitting for many hours, you don’t have to adjust your body often as it stays relaxed and soothed.
Reduces Pressure on Hips, and Lower Back
Your weight usually settles and overloads your hip and lower back areas when you’re sitting. As a result, you may feel pain in your lower back or experience fatigue after working for long periods. Concentrated pressure on your buttocks can also strain your spine.
Memory foam is scientifically proven as a pressure redistribution material. Memory foam naturally responds to heat and pressure from you and molds to distribute your body weight across the seat. This further helps deconcentrate pressure and provide pain relief on the overloaded lower back area.
While memory foam yields to your body, it doesn’t flatten or lose shape like the average cushion. The perfect memory seat cushions have a 4’’ thickness that protects your hips from your seat’s pressure points.
Decrease Pressure on Blood Vessels and Increase Blood Circulation
Have you experienced or heard a friend complaining of numb and swollen feet after traveling? Dr. Sheldon Sheps, a specialist in hypertension and peripheral vascular diseases, says the condition is poor blood circulation due to oversitting.
Good news; if you’re self-driving, you can use a memory foam cushion to enhance blood circulation and prevent numbness.
Your weight won’t press your vessels as it would without a cushion. This helps relieve your blood vessels, allow smooth blood flow, and prevent potential numbness or clots.
Protects Your Back and Neck
A standard office chair inflicts pressure on your back which can cause backaches. And due to slouching, your neck is also at risk of injury.
Muscle strain causes neck pain because of overuse. If you sit at your desk for too long, areas around your neck may strain.
If you suffer from neck pain or stiffness due to prolonged sitting, an ergonomic seat cushion helps support your spine which protects you from neck and back pain.
A thick seat cushion provides a plush sitting surface that promotes a proper sitting position. This ensures a healthy spine curve thus reducing strain on your neck muscles
Stay Energized and Productive Throughout Your Working Hours
One of the many reasons you crave an ergonomic seat cushion is to deal head-on with fatigue. We know it; spending a day on a bad seat can be tedious and cause low productivity.
Oversitting lowers your metabolism rate. Calories don’t burn as fast because of inactivity. This makes you feel drained and unenergetic after work.
Newsflash! Proper sitting positions gained after installing an ergonomic cushion help engage your muscles more to burn calories. This helps reduce lethargy and also fuels your body with energy.
Beyond that, when your body has proper support and is free from all pressure points, you’ll stay productive. You stop the frequent fumbling on your chair. A plushy feel around your body replaces the energy-sapping hard surface.
How Thick Should a Chair Cushion Be?
Car, office, or work-at-home seats should have a thick seat cushion measuring between 3.5 to 4 inches wide. High-density memory foam makes an ideal and reliable material for such chairs.
Thick foam is necessary where you sit for long periods—usually, your weight presses on your chair when you’re sitting. A large seat cushion helps absorb the pressure and encourages healthy posture.
How to Make Your Seats Thicker and Better for Your Rump and Spine
Granted that you have a decent memory foam cushion, there’s no need to bear the cost of an ergonomic chair. You can transform any chair into an ergonomic one without heavy spending.
How?
Set Your Seat Properly
Ergonomics starts with your chair.
If you’ve set your chair too high, your feet will dangle off in the air. This is not only uncomfortable. But it may also limit blood circulation around your waist and thighs.
Setting your seat too low repels pressure back to your knees and rump, which can cause back pain.
A perfect seat height allows your feet to lay flat on the floor and your knees to form a 90 degrees bend. That way, there’s no weight overload in one body area.
Add a Pressure Relief Seat Pillow
Regardless of how well you set up a non-ergonomic seat, your health remains at risk. With time the constant pressure becomes unbearable, causing pain all over your back. As the day unfolds, pain escalates and hits the back of your neck.
Installing a pressure relief seat pillow is a fantastic way to make your chair safe. Cushion Lab’s seat pillow is thicker, thus ideal for relaxing your muscles and providing pain relief. Its split design further protects your tailbone area by keeping it far away from your seat’s surface.
Margaret W., one of our verified buyers, says,
“My favorite aspect is the split design, and that wraps around the hip; I find that it really helps distribute my weight and prevent lower back pain.”
Will your seat pillow stay stationary after installation? The pressure relief seat pillow is lined with silicon weldings on the bottom side, which grip and keep your cushion in place.
Get a Back Relief Lumbar Pillow
A popular, affordable, research-backed option to improve your seats is the lumbar pillow—a decent one contours at the back to support your spine and provide constant comfort.
We vouch for the back relief lumbar support pillow, especially if you want a versatile one to use on any chair. Think of it as your ever-present lumbar support buddy on a sofa, recliner, car seat, or kitchen chair. Thanks to its gel-lined straps, it grips any chair back and won’t slide.
Steve W., verified buyer, says,
“I have chronic sciatic pain and have long drives which inflame it. This cushion is firm enough and the perfect shape to gently curve the spine. I love it!”
Make Your Chair Ergonomic Today
You get incredible value for your money when your choice of a seat pillow offers more than comfort. Cushion Lab seat cushions are scientifically designed to provide you with wellness and improve your life.
Featured Image: Pexels by Karolina Grabowska
