Having done a bit of driving lately, and adjusting to my husband’s “new” car, I was reminded to write about a favorite topic: getting comfortable and preventing pain while driving. My main premise: no matter how fancy the seats, they were probably not designed for you. I invite you to bring in additional props to make your driving comfortable. The typical lumbar pillow is often not helpful, but here are more ideas.
Lower Back pain?
We are meant to sit on our sit bones, relatively straight with our back in its natural curves. The way that car seats tilt backward in many cars they make sitting upright nearly impossible. Experiment with using pillows to move the hips up so they are above or even with the knees. Even a wedge pillow is not always enough to accomplish that. I have made my own bottom pillow filled with buck weed hulls (from a health food store, or you could use rice), so that it evens out the seat somewhat, then top it off with a narrow pillow (half of a square pillow) so it supports my behind but not my thighs. You can experiment with a folded towel instead of the pillow, to see if you like the firmness of a towel over a softer cushion. This will also help if you have a painful coccyx.
Upper back and neck pain?
So many of us sit hunched forward, because we are sitting too much for work. Car seats encourage this posture even more.I prefer to use a long pillow the length of my spine. You can again experiment with a rolled or folded towel, roughly in the shape of this pillow in the photo- you can also buy a simple piece of firm foam. The benefits of putting a support lengthwise behind your whole spine are, that your upper back has good support, and you have room for your shoulders to open and release backward. What a relief. It also feels good to be able to lean back into the pillowy support to stretch your back gently while driving. On long drives I carry more than one pillow, to switch off thickness and firmness.
You notice that I did not mention a pillow for the neck. You may not need it with this set up, as the head can be carried naturally on top of an upright spine, and does not need support.
Hip pain?
Do you have right hip pain? I did for several years. Using the wedge set-up above may help. What is more important, is keeping you hip even while you drive. We tend to move our left leg into all kinds of positions to get more comfortable, but to keep the hips even it should be parallel to the other leg, there is often a foot rest in the right spot. When I switched to a car with cruise control and used it as much as was safe, my hip pain disappeared. I would love to hear from you to confirm if this is true for you. All the women I have met who had hip pain had it on their right side (unless there was real structural damage). My theory is that women’s hormones may have something to do with this. Please feel free to e-mail me if you like to weigh in on this topic. Also let me know if you have other great tips how to get comfortable in your car.
Car image copyright