As someone who’s in his mid thirties and has worked an office job right out of college, I started feeling back pain maybe no later than 5 years after graduating and getting my job. The thing about back pain is that it sucks. But it doesn’t suck in a conventional way like having to bear it for a certain time period and wait for it to pass. It hurts much slyly – you’d be sitting in the office for 8 hours without a problem, and then after you go home, shower and try to relax in your bed, all the pain and suffering would comes back haunting you.
It was several years ago when I decided that enough is enough – I decided to treat my body like it should be treated – a temple. I’m getting older and so is my body, meaning that this is just the beginning of the problems of this kind. I started hitting the gym a few times a week, do posture exercises, bought ergonomic furniture for my home office, and even went as far as buying a lumbar support brace.
While the spine itself can maintain a natural curve without any back support, people tend to slouch forward when sitting for long time periods. This results in your posture pushing your lower back out, making the natural curve of the spine to go in the opposite direction, straining you. At first, I thought something was wrong with me, but later I found out that a lot, and I mean A LOT of people struggle with it.
Out of all the things I mentioned above, I feel like the lumbar support brace helped me most, but that could be only me. There are literally thousands of models available online, so you need to pick carefully. The lumbar support brace I bought is meant to improve my posture while sitting for prolonged time periods. I wear it under my work clothes and it’s pretty much invisible.
It’s made of macro-fibre, allowing the skin to breathe easy through it. Plus, it keeps me dry and cool. Fasteners add to the convenience, and I can simply adjust it and close it to my needs. Getting the right size is a bit tricky, so you have to consider that as well. Mine was larger than my size at first, but thanks to the fasteners, I strapped it tight and it’s fine now. Consider the buyer, some offer a replacement if you get your size wrong, while others won’t allow it.
Overall, I’m very satisfied with my lumbar brace, and even though the ergonomic furniture and the gym helped, I think the lumbar brace did the greatest part. When I started wearing it, it was a bit weird for a few weeks, but then I got comfortable with it so now I wear it throughout the day, until I get home. The best part is probably that I don’t have to wear any special clothes to hide it when I go to work. Convenience at its finest!
