Driving Posture Pt 4: How to set up your car seat to prevent driving back pain

How to set up your car seat for best driving posture, ie with your spine holding its neutral curve and your seat slightly reclined. How to adjust your seat to get the best hip angle when driving.
How to make your car seat adjustments work for you. First, adjust the seat so that your knees are slightly bent when the pedals are fully depressed. You need to keep your hip angle greater than 90 degrees. (Hip angle is the angle between your torso and your thighs.) If possible, try to make your car seat base horizontal. It opens up the hip angle more. Adjust the seat recline so that you are resting back into the seat - around 20 degrees back is ideal. It allows some of your weight to be supported by the back of seat, reducing the weight going through your lower back. Your spine when sitting should be held in its neutral curve, ie the same shape as when you are standing. If you collapse into a slump when you relax back into the seat, you will benefit from using a lumbar support.

[Dretroz]

Ty been having back issues lately & this is helping a long with heat & ice plus mild walking.

[steve]

And surprisingly most car manufactures do not know how to make car seats more comfortable

[gerardojasso]

So what’s the point of car manufacturers putting the tilt seat function if they’re going to be flat anyways?

[myrusEW]

My issue is always the steering wheel. I can have total comfort seat, or I can reach the steering wheel. I have long legs and short arms. Well I have an ape index of 1, but a short torso, so when my lower body is comfy, I have to fully extend my arms to reach the wheel

[morfitbacksupportfordrivin]

In response to the comment by SHOFT below: thank you for your comments and for highlighting the need for clarity.
To keep this video brief we have had to ‘generalise’ a bit.
This video is to help people with back pain, but at no point do we compromise on safety.

‘SHOFT’ makes 3 good points to consider.

Point 1.
“…knee is higher than the hips is for safety reasons... more resistance. “

This is quite true. In a head-on collision the occupant’s pelvis and thighs tend to be driven down into the seat base, increasing the resistance between thighs and seat, this helps resists the occupant sliding forwards.
The two important factors influencing this are; the angle of the seat base, and the friction between the occupant and the seat fabric.
However the ‘rule’ is not absolute. A potential danger with higher knees than hips occurs with soft seat base squabs. As the pelvis is driven down into the seat base, if the squab compresses too much, the pelvis is able to ‘dive’ under the lap belt, which then ends up around the abdomen. Hence, there have been some safety seat designs that move the seat belt anchors downwards, at the same time as the seat base moves downwards, this prevents ‘pelvis submarining’, these seats are not common.


Point2.
”Reclining the seat also increases the chance of 'submarining' under the seat belt.”

There are 2 types of ‘submarining’.
i/. where the whole person slides under the lap belt and the person ends up under the dashboard.

i/. Whole body submarining – this is dependent upon the ‘hip angle’, the angle between the seat base and seat back. We have recommended a hip angle of 110°. This is an industry norm.
We do say “ the bigger the hip angle the better” this is because we find that people with back pain will commonly make the hip angle smaller, thinking that sitting more vertical is good for their back, we are trying to get these people to re-think this myth.

Ii/. ‘Pelvis’ submarining – Most people in the developed world have inadequate length in their hip extensor muscles to allow our pelvis to easily remain in a neutral position, when the hip angle is 90° or less (squatting Nations excluded here), thus we want to slump. This posteriorly rotates the pelvis and encourages the pelvis to want to slip under the lap belt.
Thus too small a hip angle can encourages pelvic submarining.


Point 3.
“The car seat is designed to prioritise safety above posture.”

This is certainly true.
It does not mean that to be safe the seat must be uncomfortable.
Volvo have been manufacturing very safe and good ergonomic seats for decades.
The hierarchy of design criteria start with neither safety nor ergonomics, but rather with economics.
If safety was the highest priority, each manufacturer would design their safest seat and place it into every model. We see poorer safety features in cheaper models.
No manufacturer would provide inadequate seat belts, i.e. a lap belt only with no shoulder strap.

[shoft]

Your suggestions are correct for best posture however, the reason why the knee is higher than the hips is for safety reasons... more resistance. Reclining the seat also increases the chance of 'submarining' under the seat belt. So while you are advocating healthier posture, you might be increasing risk of injury. The car seat is designed to prioritise safety above posture.

[jbrogert]

Im over 6 foot tall. Its not possible to lower the hip anlge to flat. Never understood this concept

[farhorizonz]

What do you do if the base doesnt flatten? Ie the front of the base is above the back? I have a new car that have only driven for a week. Will the base soften over time? Test drive felt fine in a similar model

[DanBlackRacing]

Where's the review of those people driving COMPLETELY RECLINED while driving and they have to pull themself up on the steering wheel to make turns. Ridiculous😂😂😂