Smart Seat–A New Invention to Correct Your Posture While Sitting!
How often do you find yourself complaining of lower back pain? Do you feel your body ache after sitting for long periods of time? Have you ever experienced dead butt syndrome or sharp, shooting pain down the back of your leg? I hate sitting for too long; and always feel achy if I’m chair bound for a while. I wrote a book specifically for that reason, Chair Yoga! I know so many people can’t do chair yoga all of the time; and may often be in constrictive clothing. It may be one alternative; but not always so available for most desk bound people.
When I am seated for a while, I cross my legs repeatedly switching from one side to the other. I never feel comfortable; and I know it’s not great for me to sit this way. I recently discovered SmartSeat. SmartSeat™ is an incredible invention from the renowned Physical Mind Institute, inspired by their clinical advisor, Marika Molnar PT. She was the first to recognize the issues of sitting with crossed legs. They recently tested it out on some pregnant women and they were in love, one women said she wished she had the SMARTSEAT for her first pregnancy. I certainly wish I had it, especially when I was pregnant with the twins.
I found sitting became most uncomfortable when I was pregnant. I had a hard time finding ease and my lower back was always achy towards the end of my pregnancy with the twins. Many women develop sciatica during pregnancy, also. Between 50 and 80 percent of women experience back pain during their pregnancies. I think we revert to sitting cross legged when pregnant; but many women sit this way a majority of the time regardless of being pregnant or not.
Why is sitting with your legs crossed bad for your body?
When we sit with our legs crossed (and also when we are pregnant), we tend to sit with a posterior tilt which puts pressure on the lower back and makes us naturally round our shoulders forward. After sitting like this for prolonged periods of time, it also puts too much pressure on the discs and sciatic nerve. I notice when I’m in long meetings, I just shift from one leg on top to the other to try and get comfortable. Rarely, does it feel good to sit in a chair!
SmartSeat posture corrector makes sitting with legs UN-crossed feel good. It also helps pregnant women and those who suffer from lower back pain sit with more ease. Beacuse of it’s special slope, you can comfortably sit for long periods with your pelvis in neutral. You can even rock the pelvis for more flexibility. This seating posture helps relieve lower back and sciatica pain; and distributes our weight better. When I was pregnant with Robert and William, I had 40 lbs of babies inside of me. My body always naturally fell into a posterior tilt and especially when seated. Sitting in a posterior tilt makes you feel heavy and compressed. Sitting with the corrector seat, I did feel much lighter, more flexible, and had less pain and discomfort.
WHY SMARTSEAT™ WORKS
You may think sitting with legs crossed feels okay; but that is because the body is smart and adapts to this posture. SmartSeat provides a way to erase this muscle memory and correct your posture by substituting a more bio-mechanically correct seated posture. When we sit with the right posture, it helps eliminate lower back pain, spider veins, and sciatic never pain.
You can also avoid:
- Lack of core use—especially internal oblique muscles.
- Pelvis in a posterior tilt so there is compression on the femoral nerve, artery and veins bilaterally which restricts circulation to the lower extremities.
- Blood pressure increasing due to compression.
- Foot pain and numbness due to adverse neural tension which causes pressure on the peroneal nerve which may lead to long-term nerve damage.
- Lumbar spine (low back) & nerves being compressed in tilted posture.
- Sciatic nerve and the piriformis muscles stressed.
- Femur (thighbone) abducted (rotated inward) which can lead to lumpy looking thighs and spider veins.
We have become a seated culture and finding a way to sit that’s not only comfortable; but also necessary for the health of our body, is remarkable! Something that is easy enough to throw on your favorite chair, bring to work with you or even in the car for long commutes is a no brainer. We may spend one hour a day working out or finding correct alignment in our exercise classes; but why negate that by sitting with such poor posture the rest of the time? I also love that something like this can help pregnant women find more ease throughout their trimesters and especially towards the end of their pregnancy.
Kristin McGee is a celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor in New York City. She is currently teaching yoga with Peloton. She is the star of over 100 videos, seen in several magazines and tv shows and is a spokeswoman for many brands and causes she believes in. A proud mom to three, she sure keeps herself busy!
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