Trunk muscle activity with different sitting postures and pelvic inclination

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Sitting posture may often place large burden on trunk muscles, while trunk muscle activities in the sitting posture have not been well clarified. In this study, a difference in trunk muscle activity between two kinds of sitting postures was evaluated, focusing on low back pain induced by posture holding. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An experiment was conducted on the subjects sitting on a stable-seat and on an unstable-seat, with the pelvis inclined forward, backward, rightward, and leftward. RESULTS: With the pelvis inclined forward, rightward and leftward, muscle activities were significantly increased in a stable-seat sitting posture. In contrast, no significant increase in muscle activity was observed with the pelvis inclined in every direction in an unstable-seat sitting posture. CONCLUSIONS: With the pelvis inclined in the stable-seat sitting posture, muscle activities were imbalanced, while with the pelvis inclined in the unstable-seat sitting posture, muscle activities were not imbalanced. Thus, it is suggested that with the pelvis inclined to the maximum extent in the stable-seat sitting posture, low back pain may be induced by imbalanced muscle activities.