Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and it's
product review time again. The folks at
OfficeGYM sent me their orthopedic seat
cushion. So let's get started.
So there's some great things about this cushion that i really
like. The first thing is the cover is
really really soft. It feels really good.
If you're wearing shorts, and it's on
your skin it's super comfortable, and it's
just nice and soft in general, so I
really like that. Sometimes some covers
on cushions aren't so comfortable, but it is
supersoft, you could probably sleep on it
if you wanted to.
It also has a little handle on here so
you can carry it with you because you
can use it in your office chair, at home,
or work, you can use it in your car, you
can even take it on an airplane if you
want to. Sometimes those seats are very
uncomfortable and so it has that nice
handle where you can just carry it with
you and you don't have to hold onto it, and
you can hold a bunch of other things, too,
if you have the handle. And then what's
very very nice about it is it has this
cutout here. This part goes in the back
because this is where that coccyx area
on your bottom goes. So what you do is
you sit on it and then back there
there's no pressure on that area. So a
lot of people who have had a coccyx
fracture know that if they sit on that
area is super painful, so what this does
is it allows you to sit there and have
no pressure on that spot, so that's it
that's a really good thing that makes it
super comfortable to sit. And then also
if you can see here it has these little
contours where your legs go, and so it
makes a nice little shape here so when
you're sitting on it it doesn't cut off
the circulation in your legs, and a lot
of times that happens that people are
are sitting a long time on a flat
surface it cuts off the area and it
feels like your feet are going to sleep,
and they getting numb and tingly and
things like that, so this is nice as it
it helps kind of protect that and keep
it nice and comfortable. And then if you
can see here, when I squish on it, is it's
made out of memory foam and is super
comfortable. It's nice and soft and
squishy. Some other cushions
are a little bit firmer and that might be
fine for you, but I feel like this is
really nice because it's going to help
mold to your bottom and those curves in
your bottom so it makes it super
comfortable, and you kind of sit in there
and it's nice and you don't have, you
know, these areas where you're having to
lean and take pressure off because it
sits in there very nicely.
It also has a zipper here where you can
open it up and take the actual memory
foam, where you can see here I'll push on
a little bit, that memory foam you can
take that out and then you can wash the
cover separately. So you know if you're
sitting on it and it gets a little
sweaty, or maybe if you have this for a
family member in a wheelchair and it
gets soiled a little bit you can take it
out and wash it and so that's really
nice as well. So what I'm gonna do is I'm
going to put it in the chair and kind of
show you what it's like and show you how
to sit properly because when you sit all
day long, especially at work, and you're
focusing on what you're doing,
people tend to get a really bad posture
and it is just bad for your body in
general. It causes a lot of problems so
I'll show you some good tips to make you
get into a better posture while you're
sitting. So as you can see, make sure this
opening is in the back portion of the
chair where the backrest is, and then
make sure it's comfortable for you and
then sit. And so you can feel that
opening in that bottom area where that
coccyx is is nice and open it doesn't
have any pressure on it now. If you can
see my toes are touching but my heels
are not. When you're sitting in a chair
especially for a long time you want your
feet to be flat. And so especially if you
start off with your feet flat and you
put a cushion in it, you're going to have
to change the height just a little bit
because you don't want to sit like this
because then again there's a lot of
pressure on the bottom part of the legs
there and that that can cause
circulation issues. So hopefully you have
a chair that you can change the height
of it, and so now my feet are flat.
Let's say you don't have a chair that
you can't move the height then get a
little stool or something so you can
prop your feet up because you really
want your knees and your hips to be at
that 90-degree angle, or pretty close to
it, and that's what gets you in that
neutral position.
You also want to sit
nice and tall, and that's what this
cushion helps you do. When I sit in it, I
feel like I can sit up a little bit
taller vs sometimes even with nice
chairs like this one, it tends to want to
kind of suck you in, and then you end up
getting a different curve in your back
than the normal curve, but with the
cushion in there it really helps me to
sit up taller and it makes it feel good,
and I might not actually have it against
the back of the chair but that's okay
because then you can work your core
muscles while you're sitting nice and
tall.
If you're at a desk area, you want that
your desk height to be where you can
have your arms comfortably so you don't
want to be up here and you're looking up,
and you don't want them to be down low.
And another good one is a lot of times
when people are working especially on a
computer or something, their head goes
forward and it goes forward and then
these muscles and these muscles get over
stretched. These get tight and so sometimes
just taking five minutes every hour in
doing some chin tucks really helps kind
of reset those muscles and that makes
you not go forward so much. So it's a
chin tuck. Just a simple to chin tuck, I
like using my finger as a target because
then it makes me feel like I'm
accomplishing something. Just start off
with your finger on your chin and then
pull your chin backwards almost like if
my hand was here and I'm trying to touch
the back of my head some. I'm squishing
it in where you get like a lot of little
chins right there, and just hold it for
about three to five seconds and then let
go and you can see, that's a little bit
of an exaggeration of my finger, but
usually your fingers here and then when
you come back you're not quite as close
to your finger and that just means
you're kind of resetting those muscles.
So hold it for about 3-5 seconds, do about
five of those, and now hopefully reset
those muscles and a lot of times that
helps take away tension headaches that
you have by overstressing those neck
muscles.
You can also take just a few minutes to
get your legs going a little bit, and it
can be as simple as just doing a little
march in your chair. A seated march, just
to get those legs moving and circling if
you don't have a chance to get up and
move around. But ideally every hour you
want to get up move around,
and if it's just for 30 seconds do a sit
to stand about five times just to make
sure that your body's not staying in one
spot for a long period of time. So there
you have, if you have any questions leave in
the comments section. If you're
interested in purchasing the cushion you
can go to our products store at
askdoctorjo.com/officegym And
remember, be safe, have fun and I hope you
feel better soon.