The most common complaint people come to see me for in my Rolfing practice is Low Back Pain. Funnily enough, I have found that one of the best “exercises” you can do to reduce your exposure to future low back pain is to NOT use your hands when getting in and out of a chair.  Go “hands free” – seems easy enough, right?

Yet we all do it without thinking. We’ll put our hands on the dinner table to help us get up from eating a meal.  We’ll put our hands on our thighs to help us get up from the couch.  We’ll put our hands on the bench or chair by the front door to squat or to sit when putting on our shoes.

Here’s the thing: Using your hands to get in and out of a seated position can create problems, like:

• Decrease your sense of balance
• Create muscular imbalances by overusing limbs that feel strong while underusing limbs that feel weak
• De-emphasize using your core muscles and hips to lift or lower in a controlled motion

That last one can lead to teaching your body to use muscles that are not designed to take you through particular movements, which can lead to over-stressing joints or muscles down the road more than they were designed to take.

Reduce Hand Use, Improve Stability

To be clear, I’m not saying that the occasional use of your hands for balance is going to cause catastrophic back pain.  What I am saying is that by not using your hands 5, 10, 15 times per day as you get in and out of various seated positions, you are giving your body the opportunity to:

• Improve your balance
• Improve your core strength
• Engage and maintain leg and hip muscles
• Encourage use of the correct muscles when hinging at the hips, which translates to picking things up off the floor without pain.

The biggest trick is to remain committed to paying attention. Because as I said, most of the time you don’t realize you’re doing it in the first place.  Support your awareness by placing reminders at your work desk or dinner table to help ensure you create this new healthy habit and stick with it.  Another option would be to have your spouse or partner let you know when you’re using your hands.

If you find that you struggle to get in and out of a seated position without pain in your low back, you may have a structural issue that we can resolve in my Rolfing office.  Feel free to schedule here through my website.