5 Tips To Avoid Back Pain While Driving A Car

Driving, especially for a living, can come with both good and terrible consequences. This is what I mean. Even as you get a good income that makes your life better, back pain can make your life unbearable.

The International Archived of Occupational and Environment Health did a study in 2015. The study revealed that those who drive have higher chances of suffering from sciatica and lower back pains.

Should you, therefore, stop driving? No, some ways can help you to avoid back pain while driving a car for whatever reason.

Such include maintaining a good posture, correctly positioning your seat, taking some breaks, doing regular exercise and adjusting the steering wheel.

While these are not the only ones, they are the most effective ways to prevent back pain while driving.

Let’s put each under a microscope.

1. Maintain A Good Posture

The famous author Anne from KamaDevaYoga thinks that there is an impact on the back due to any body movement you make regardless of what you are doing. That is why you should maintain a good posture in everything you do including driving to avoid injuries on your back.

So, when driving, avoid bending towards the steering. You can attain this by having the steering close to you. Also, do not drive while bending your head. Ensure that your entire back lies well on your seat.

Ensure that your feet are not too far from the pedals so that you won’t have to strain to reach them. Also, maintain a good balance between the knees and your hips. I mean; let the height of your hips align with that of your knees.

2. Have Good Back Support

Ensure you have good support on your back anytime you are driving. However, drivers’ seats cause the back to bend while you drive. Eventually, your back experiences some pain. So, what do you do to avoid the back pain while driving a car? You can use a lumbar cushion to support your back.

This prevents the muscles in your back from being overworked thus preventing the back pain issues.

3. Take Driving Breaks

Driving for long hours without a break is dangerous as it can cause so much pain on your back which makes you to strain while driving. That may, in turn, be a recipe for avoidable road accidents.

In fact, for extremely long distance, it’s advisable to have two drivers so that they can drive in turn thus allowing themselves some time to rest.

However, where it’s not possible to have two drivers, after every two hours or so, take some break.

Walk around the car as you check if the pressure of the vehicle is enough to cater for the remaining part of the journey. As you walk around, you will be allowing your back to relax. Also, use this time to stretch yourself to relax your muscles.

4. Do Regular Exercise

As a driver, the biggest mistake you would make is never to do exercise. You see, seating for too long while driving, being caught up in a jam for hours, and staying for several hours behind some traffic lights can all cause your body to feel extremely tired and exhausted.

Your muscles may feel clogged, and that is why you need to stretch them by doing some regular exercise. Any type of exercise is just fine. But make sure you do it regularly.

5. Keep Relaxing Your Body

You can never do exercise while you are driving. Nonetheless, various muscles require some relaxation while you are driving. Get me right. You see, while one leg will be on the pedal, the other is resting, right? Let the leg that is not at work relax so that when its turn comes, the other leg gets a chance to relax too.

Always do this to the body parts that are involved during driving like the legs, the hands, and the shoulders.

The Verdict

You don’t have to stop driving because of constant back pains. On the other hand, you don’t have to wait until the day you experience back pain to seek a way of dealing with it.

Time is now to start implementing the ways above to avoid back pain while you are driving your car.