To protect the lumbar spine, the selection of cushions should start from four aspects

When a person is sitting, the strength of the lumbar spine is twice that of standing. If the body is tilted forward 20 degrees, the pressure on the lumbar spine will increase to nearly three times. It can be said that sometimes sitting is more tiring than standing. If you want to reduce fatigue when sitting, you must use cushions. If you want to choose the right cushion, you should start with the following aspects.

Radians. The most important criterion for selecting a cushion is to provide sufficient support for the waist. Therefore, a cushion with a curvature will fit the curve of the human body better and will be more suitable than a cushion without a curvature. If you are using a pillow with no curvature, pay attention to the size not to be too large, otherwise it will exceed the height of the shoulder blades, forcing people to bend over and hunch back. Some cushions also have protruding curvatures on the left and right sides. Lin Songkai, a rehabilitation physician at Lixin Hospital in Taiwan, believes that if you are not a driver, such a design is generally not needed.

Material. The materials of cushions on the market can be divided into four types: mesh, stretch cotton, memory cotton, and rubber. Regardless of the material, as long as it is enough to support the lumbar spine, generally speaking, memory foam and rubber materials have strong support. Many people use dolls as cushions, because they are filled with cotton, which disperses less pressure, so people who already have soreness and the elderly are best not to use them.

Thickness. Lin Songkai reminded that if the chair is too shallow, it is necessary to avoid using too thick cushions, otherwise it will reduce the space for the hips and make sitting more tired. People with shorter stature may not be able to sit on a full chair, so you can choose a thicker cushion. If you still feel dissatisfied sitting with a cushion, you can put your body close to the back of the chair, and then put a box under your feet so that your knees can be slightly higher than your hips.

Whether it fits the chair. The depth of the chair will affect the choice of cushion type. No matter how good the cushion is, it won't help at all if it doesn't fit the chair. A good cushion should be when the hips are full of the chair, the back, cushion, and chair back are tightly attached together, and the angle between the back and the buttocks is 90 to 110 degrees, so that the lumbar spine is naturally lordotic.