How Often Do You Slump ?

SLUMP POSTURE

Slump sitting means habitually sitting with your low back rounded and your tailbone rolled down and under you. This fairly universal pattern of sitting happens automatically when you sit on surfaces where the seat and/or backrest areas are too soft, too deep, too low, or concave shaped..

Then, feel the location of your tailbone- it is probably down close to the seat surface; perhaps it has even rolled under you. Now check to see how the rest of your body is “stacked” above. Your low back is relatively rounded out ; your chest is “depressed” and may be practically “sitting”on your pelvis; your upper back is rounded forward, and in order to keep your head level there is now an abrupt backward arch at the top of the neck. Notice how your head is “hanging” or “sticking out” in front of your chest rather than being balanced above it. The more often you sit in this alignment, the more your body will become shaped and “ glued” into this pattern..

CAUSES OF SLUMP POSITION:

Slump sitting significantly increases compression and overstretching of the low back and pelvis. It is probably the chief culprit of Low back pain, neck pain  and the degenerative structural changes that develop gradually overtime. Pain may be felt in the low back and/or neck; in more serious cases pain can also, or exclusively, be referred from the back or neck to the legs and/or to arms. At times this pattern of sitting may feel comfortable, but it can actually result in pain and limitations in standing and walking. This is because the low back has difficulty straightening up into the standing gear after sitting too long in a slumped, rounded pattern.

In slump sitting, the middle and upper joints of the neck tend to be crammed together because of the increased backward arching at the top.While slumping, slowly turn your head as far as you can toward one side, then the other. You may notice some strain or discomfort at the end of your range as the joints get cramped together in the area of the neck that is arched backward.Because the head is hanging down or sticking out in front of the chest, the muscles of your neck and shoulders are worked. The spinal joints at the base of the neck suffer a forward strain due to gravity. As a result, headaches and various pain symptoms in the neck, head, shoulders, and arms are commonly aggravated in this sitting pattern.