A lot of people end up thinking it's about ergonomic chairs. An un-ergonomic chair will make things bad pretty quick, but supportive ergonomic chairs are part of the long term problem IMHO.
And deadlifts are not the only solution. I started out using just a backless stool and it helped a bit (can't slouch!), but what really sorted me out was using the "lumbar machine" at the gym for a couple of years. When Covid came along I couldn't go any more so I started doing "the plank" at home, that plus the "side plank" and some push ups have kept me going the last four years. And it's totally free and I can do them basically anywhere e.g. on holiday.
> A lot of people end up thinking it's about ergonomic chairs. An un-ergonomic chair will make things bad pretty quick
I'm still fairly young so I probably shouldn't be so quick to say – maybe I'll have to eat my hat in the next decade or two – but I feel like this is also one of those "it's not the thing but how you use it" type situations. I have always used un-ergonomic fairly spartan wood chairs and stools without problem.
What I do, that I don't see everyone else do, is adjust my position a lot. Since I find the chair slightly uncomfortable, I have like a million different positions I can sit in and I rotate through them naturally throughout the day. I haven't seen any science on it but it would make sense that variety helps prevent damage caused by prolonged exposure to one position.
That might help to some degree, but I bet actually exercising your back muscles regularly will have a larger effect.
I mean I'm sure of it. It seems like common sense we've forgotten. Stress the muscles, eat a generous amount of protein, they will grow and get stronger. Do stuff that doesn't stress them as much, they will stay weak and that will lead to complications.
Similar to how the discussion around obesity has become so complicated, in a country where the #1 cause of death is heart disease. It is not complicated, obesity leads to heart disease, to reduce your risk, you must become less obese. Yet we insist on complicating the topic.
A lot of people end up thinking it's about ergonomic chairs. An un-ergonomic chair will make things bad pretty quick, but supportive ergonomic chairs are part of the long term problem IMHO.
And deadlifts are not the only solution. I started out using just a backless stool and it helped a bit (can't slouch!), but what really sorted me out was using the "lumbar machine" at the gym for a couple of years. When Covid came along I couldn't go any more so I started doing "the plank" at home, that plus the "side plank" and some push ups have kept me going the last four years. And it's totally free and I can do them basically anywhere e.g. on holiday.