My friend, upon hearing about my upcoming 1500+ miles long road trip, suggested I reassess my driving position to avoid back pain. Apparently, he had recently done a long road trip and found online that your thigh should be making more than 90 degrees with your upper body.
My current position had less than 90 degrees. My seat was too close to the steering wheel, shaping me like N. I took his advice and looked into this in more detail since I suffer from back pain after just driving 3-4 hours sometimes.
Here is what I did exactly based on advice from this article:
- Seat height: Your hips should be higher than your knees. This ensures you don’t have less than 90 degrees between your thigh and upper body. Just raise your seat until this is achieved. I raised my seat to the highest level possible.
- Seat Forward/Backward: First push your seat all the way back. Then bring it forward until you can touch the pedals. Then bring it slightly forward until there is a slight bend at your knees when pressing the pedal.
- Steering Wheel: Adjust your steering wheel such that there is a slight bend at your elbow.
- Seat backrest: If the seat is too upright, you will get neck pains from looking at the road below (remember, your seating height is higher now). So lean back a bit so that you are not looking down at the road too much.
I have driven 750 miles in 3 days so far into my trip and haven’t had much back pain yet. The change in seating posture seems to be helping!