Buerkle Honda Auto Repair Service

Adjust Your Car Seat to Avoid Pain and Discomfort

We are in our cars a lot--commuting, chauffeuring the kids around, running errands or taking the family on road trips for vacations and holidays. Much of this time is spent being uncomfortable, especially if your vehicle was manufactured within the last 10-15 years.

At Buerkle Honda Auto Repair Service, we know that posture is important and many car seats are not comfortable, so here is some helpful information for our friends and customers in St. Paul and all over MN.

The automotive industry standard prescribes shoulders forward, S-shaped spine, and head forward and most car seats are designed to position the driver or passenger in that position.

So, here is a checklist for healthy posture when driving:

·         Shoulders should be back and down

·         Neck must be elongated and positioned directly over the spine

·         Bottom well back in the car seat

·         Spine elongated and straight

Today's high-tech modern car seats will often make these fairly simple posture practices either somewhat challenging or completely impossible. The great news is that it’s fairly simple to fix any type of car seat to make it more conducive for correct posture. 

When it comes to shoulder positioning, you may find that the “bolsters” in your car seat can get in the way of placing your shoulders completely back. These car seat bolsters add a significant horizontal curve to this seat upright and will also prevent the arms and shoulders from resting back against the torso.

Car seat bolsters were originally designed for the racing industry, because they keep racing car drivers in their seats as they speed around corners at extremely high speeds. For those of us who are not compelled to turn corners at in excess of 100 mph, the bolsters are an irritation that makes it literally impossible to set the shoulders in a comfortable and healthy position.

The solution here is to build up the backrest area between the bolsters, so that your torso is no longer positioned underneath the bolsters, which will with force your shoulders forward. Depending on how much your vehicle's bolsters protrude, a towel folded over several times may suffice, or you might need  much thicker support.

For proper neck support, have you ever noticed that many vehicle headrests push your head forward rather uncomfortably, because it seems to get worse within the last few years. Headrests now called “head restraints," and are shaped to stick far enough out that the head will be resting against the headrest and without enough space to whip backward in the event of a crash. 

Sources: Autocar, Forbes and Motor Authority