Could Driving Be Causing Your Back Pain?

Article by Rylie Teeter, CEO

I rent cars a lot and I can’t believe how the seats in different cars impact the way my back and neck feel.  Who are they designing these seats for anyway?

To be in good posture our shoulder blades should sit flat on our back and head should sit back so our ears align with our shoulders – so why do car seats put extra padding on the sides, and have headrests that push your head forward?  Seems entirely counter-intuitive to me.

As a result, I found myself many times stealing a roll of toilet paper so I could fashion a lower back support.  Since hijacking hotel room toilet paper, not to mention driving around with it, is not very classy, we decided to look into how Teeter can help us all compensate for these lacking car seats.

The Teeter team was able to come up with a truly innovative solution with the Core Restore.

What is great about this tool is the versatility.  In the car (or in any chair) it is a great lower back support, helping you get into a healthy posture. But it can also be used as an active sitting cushion – simply sitting on it creates an unstable surface to engage postural muscles (aka tone the tummy and back while you sit). And that’s not all – it is also a balance and core exercise device and comes with a 14-page exercise book.

Decompressing the spine is not enough to keep the back healthy, we need to consider our posture and lifestyle activities to support our spines.  Since sitting is much harder on the back compared to standing (2.5 the pressure in the discs according to the Nachemson¹ medical study – thanks to relaxed muscles the pressure dumps into the skeleton), maintaining good posture in the seated position is paramount to feeling and functioning at our best.

A couple of additional driving tips: 

• Remember to set your distance from the steering wheel so you are not rotating your shoulders forward, this will help with back pain while driving.
• The Core Restore should be used as lower back support while driving. DO NOT use the Core Restore in the Active Sitting position (sitting on top of it) while driving.

Safe driving!

-Rylie Teeter