5 Surprising Bad Habits that MAY cause Back Pain

Back pain or any kind of pain is a combination of two things:
- What the world does to you
- What you do to yourself
In other words, your habits.
In this article, we will focus on your habits and how some of them can lead to pain in your back.
This article is about small things that at first seem unimportant. In fact, repeated behavior that accumulates over time causes serious harm.
On Your Chair
1 – Feet Position
Having your feet forward while sitting on your chair will invariably result in your back slouching. The reason is simple: weight balance. If your legs shift forward, something else needs to compensate (in this case: your back).
Effects of slouching:
- Increased pressure on the inter-vertebral discs, i.e. increased risk of a disk hernia.
- Forward head posture and rounded shoulders.
- Reduced lung capacity, hence more fatigue and less creativity.
Observe that if your feet are under the chair, the back hollows (same reason: weight balance)!
Hence, the ideal feet position is when the heels (or ankles) are under the knees.
2 – Resting on your Elbows
- Resting on one elbow:
If the weight of your upper body rests on one of your elbows, it means that your spine is twisted sideways. This results in asymmetric muscle tension and asymmetric pressure applied on the cartilage.
- Resting on both elbows:
If the weight of your upper body is on both your elbows, that implies that you are resting with a slump and again, your discs are overloaded. But usually, the correction of your line of sight will also create neck strain when looking at your screen.
Ultimately, it is advised to avoid leaning on your elbows while seated altogether. This is why you need a great lumbar support (see below)!
3 – Not using your Lumbar Support
As previously explained, your weight shouldn’t land on your elbows. Hence, an alternative has to be provided: your chair’s lumbar support.
In other words, you need to sit back and rest your pelvis (i.e. belt level) against the lower part of the backrest (i.e. the lumbar support) to let it carry your body weight.
The above 3 pointers are specific to your office chair and since I cannot offer you more support with just written words, I recommend having a look at these videos where I cover the ergonomics of the office chair at length –
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFQ1LZmpfUM – Choosing the right chair
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMxyaIjhVGk – Hidden features of your office chair
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfGQXZH02T0 – Office chair backrests
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXMLHrOsZrk – How to adjust your lumbar support
4 – Screen Height
A too high screen causes neck extension (raising your forehead).
Yes, that’s mainly about your neck. But actually, strain in your neck will result in strain in your lower back as well.
To prevent this, all you need to do is keep the top of your screen below eye level. You can check out my video on choosing the best screen height here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1QQ_7v3wQ
In just 5 minutes you will have a thorough understanding of the basics.
5 – Sitting for too long
Sitting well (i.e. with proper posture) gives you the maximum endurance, but that does not mean your body can handle sitting all day long without getting any movement.
Your body needs you to get out of your chair twice an hour. Not necessarily for 30 min but frequent short breaks are a must.
To transform this into a new habit, try to identify sitting tasks that could be done standing instead;
- Zoom meetings
- Phone calls
- Drinking coffee
- Bilateral meetings
- Team discussions
Studies have even shown that workers who take regular short breaks work more and with less mistakes than workers who take longer, less frequent breaks: when fatigue sets in, getting rid of it is much more difficult than preventing it.
Conclusion
I hope this information has been helpful in managing your lower back pain and improving your seated posture at home as well as at your office.
BUT, since there are many other variables that also play a role in our posture, a more subjective approach might help, i.e, you being able to assess yourself!
As I mentioned above, this is a 100% free self-assessment tool aimed at making your life less painful and your office hours more sustainable – so please, give it a try and share it with colleagues who also experience posture related pain or discomfort at their workstations – https://ergoh-conseil.typeform.com/self-assessment