How to Sit with SI Joint Pain? Guide for Posture & Tips

Learning how to sit with SI joint pain is essential, especially considering it doesn't change the fact that work must get done and productivity must be maintained. It's not that your organization doesn't care that you have sacral pain when sitting, but this is one of the realities of life. 

Should you suffer from the condition, then you likely spend a lot of your time trying to learn how to relieve SI joint pain. That's what all the information here today is about. First, things start with defining SI joint pain, so awareness can be spread about what sacrum pain when sitting may look like. 

After that, there is a brief guide on SI joint pain sitting, teaching you how to do it correctly for the best results. Proper sitting posture is important for everyone, and even more so for those that may be suffering from such a condition. 

An appropriate office chair is required for people who fall under this category, so things wrap up with a quick look into some of the best options for an ergonomic chair with back support. The focus is not necessarily on a chair for upper back pain, though the units identified help with this too. 

Hopefully, by the time you are finished reading, you have learned more, not only about the condition, but also about what you can do in the office space to mitigate its effects. Who knows? It may not necessarily be for you.  

Maybe you know someone who needs to learn how to sit with SI joint pain. If so, don't keep your newfound knowledge to yourself, but instead, share it with those who may need it most. 

What is SI Joint Pain?

First, “SI” is used to shorten the word sacroiliac. This is a kind of joint that you have on both sides of your body. Your sacrum and your ilium bones join here. As you may know, wherever you have two bones meeting, it's called a joint.  

For reference, your ilium is your hip bone, and your sacrum is a flat and wide bone found between your lumbar spine and your tailbone. 

These are not the same kind of ball and socket-type joints that you may find in your elbow or knee. Therefore, the actual joint site doesn't move very often, and thick ligaments hold everything together. By default, people don't necessarily have problems with their SI joints, though it is not unheard of. 

Instead, repetitive stress or sudden ergonomic injuries cause the joint to create pain as it becomes more inflamed over time. You may notice this pain hovering around your lower back or your buttocks.  

Note that it's not always because of inflammation, injury, or stress though. Certain phenomena, such as pregnancy or conditions, such as ankylosing spondylitis, can certainly have quite a detrimental effect on the spine and lead to SI joint pain. 

A sedentary lifestyle is also a potential causative factor, as sitting for extended periods is almost a surefire way to either aggravate pain that's already present or introduce pain to your SI joints.

However, provided you know how to sit with SI joint pain and how to relieve SI joint pain, you can certainly reduce the amount of pain that you feel or mitigate it altogether. With that said, it's time for you to learn how to sit properly if you want SI joint pain relief. 

What is the Correct Posture to Sit with for SI Joint Pain Relief?

As indicated before, you have a series of thick ligaments that are present at the joint site. Their purpose is to transfer force between your leg and trunk whenever you run or walk. With the joint pain present, whenever you're in a position that introduces stress on your ligaments, you can end up dealing with irritation or even greater pain. 

As you sit, the rule of thumb is to always maintain a neutral position. You may hear these instructions provided to persons even when they're not dealing with SI joint pain. For someone who has the condition, it's even more essential. Greater focus must be placed on keeping the hips neutral, as doing so can eliminate the stress on the ligaments mentioned. 

The best way to achieve this is to imagine maintaining a position that allows your hips to be level with each other. Sometimes, people sit in a way that creates a bit of a slope. Therefore, one hip is lower than the other. 

Even when sitting on a completely flat surface, people also sometimes lean to one side, causing an imbalanced distribution of pressure. Once there is any kind of asymmetry present, you are setting yourself up for SI joint pain.  

Crossing the legs is often a very comfortable position, especially for women. Well, you may want to know that this position is highly conducive to SI joint pain, so you may want to reconsider using it. 

First, as you sit, try to keep your chest up as much as possible. You don't want to keep things on the tense side of the spectrum, so do your best to lower your shoulder blades and relax. If you are tense, then you are going to start feeling pressure and discomfort in other areas, which you want to avoid.

Your knees need to be slightly apart, and as mentioned before, you don't want them to be crossed. You want to remain in constant and balanced contact with your chair, ensuring that the tops of both hips are level with each other. 

Not every chair supports your lower back effectively, so if yours doesn't, you may need to introduce a pad or cushion into the equation behind your lower back.  

If you sometimes sit on the floor for whatever reason, you may want to use what is known as the tailor’s position, which helps to maintain a neutral pelvis and cut the amount of stress that your SI joint must deal with. Again, symmetry in the hips is essential. 

As you sit on the floor, ensure that your “sit bones” are firmly pressed on the floor and that a constant contact surface is maintained throughout. Now, you cross your legs, ensuring that each foot is underneath a thigh. Again, your chest should be up and your shoulder should be relaxed. 

This is probably the only time you're going to be advised to cross your legs, as here, it contributes to relieving SI joint pain while sitting. Note that you can achieve the tailor’s position without being on the floor. To this end, you want to sit on some other firm and flat surface. 

Recommended Chairs for SI Joint Pain

1. ErgoChair Recline

The Autonomous ErgoChair Recline was designed with a series of features that people who may be suffering from SI joint pain may find incredibly beneficial. You can use it to work, sit back, lean back, put your feet up, and relax. From an aesthetic standpoint, you can get it in either black or gray designs.  

It's designed on ergonomic principles, which are aimed at keeping you as comfortable and functional as possible. Things start with an adjustable headrest, which is essential for spine health and relaxation. Additionally, an extendable leg rest is included, which is not a staple in most office chairs. 

Extend it when you need it and kick it back when you don't. Not only does the chair support your body weight well, but it keeps your spine stable too, allowing you to move freely and safely.  

One of the essential puzzle pieces for you is the adjustable lumbar support that contours to the natural curvature of your spine. Of course, everyone is different, so having this feature is a tremendous addition.  

Other ergonomic features include the adjustable seat height, armrests, and an incredibly comfortable supportive foam seat that should help you sit in position easily. 

2. ErgoChair Pro

The ErgoChair Pro is known for its fully adjustable and highly inclusive design, which makes it seem almost custom-designed for everyone, whether they may be experiencing SI joint pain or not. As far as colors go, you can get it in standard black, grey, or black and white. 

If you are feeling a little more on the creative or crazy side, feel free to go for the evergreen, red apple, or baby blue options. Their real selling point of this one is where it has some kind of adjustment present for seemingly every part of your body. Not only are you going to be eliminating pain, but you're also going to be increasing your mobility. 

Apart from just supporting you, the chair progressively corrects your posture. Expect to be placed into that neutral and balanced position that was indicated above. Tilt tension is adjustable, and you have a recline feature that is lockable at five different positions. 

It's all about keeping your spine stable and giving proper support to your lumbar area. Additionally, the ErgoChair Pro helps you to fight fatigue, meaning you can recline and stretch with no pressure whatsoever on your legs, thighs, or lower back. 

Pain relief and elimination, especially in the lower back area, are almost built into the design, with the inclusion of a lumbar cushion that protects your spine's natural curvature. That way, apart from pain, stiffness is also being eliminated. 

Even your circulation is being worked on, as the design frees up restricted blood vessels with its stress relief capabilities. 

3. Modway Ergonomic Chair

You cannot properly address your SI pain with a chair if it doesn't feature ergonomic capabilities. That has been the theme until now. Like the two models above, this Modway chair is highly supportive and features a slew of adjustability features to keep you comfortable and protect your SI joint area. 

The seating pad is highly compatible, offering padding that is soft, yet firm enough to provide support. It is contoured effectively, providing support to your buttocks, which yields tremendous relief from SI joint pain as you work. It helps you to maintain that constant and level contact surface that you need. 

Some of the other ergonomic office chair options include armrest adjustment, seat height adjustment, lumbar support, tilt tension, and lockable angle, and a 360-degree swivel. If you are worried about longevity, then don't, as this is a very powerfully designed chair that is likely to yield a high level of durability. 

4. Steelcase Gesture Chair

Not only is Steelcase a reputable manufacturer in the world of ergonomic desk chairs, but the Steelcase Gesture chair is very well known in the niche. It is very elegantly designed and features what is known as a 3D live-back technology. 

Essentially, it synchronizes with your back, allowing the backrest to constantly move and contour based on what your spine is doing. Therefore, there is always some level of support for you. Of course, the chair isn't just bending to your whims, as it is also going to force you into a proper position while keeping you comfortable. 

The seating pad is curved effectively, to provide support at the sites of both hips, and to help you maintain a constant contact surface, which reduces SI joint pain. 

It's a highly adjustable product, featuring seat, height, armrest, recline, and tilt tension adjustments. 

Don't worry about its durability and longevity, as it can withstand consistent use without batting an eye. Note that there is a bit of a waterfall edge present at the seat, which means you get additional relief just under your thighs at your pressure point. 

If all that wasn't amazing enough, the product arrives fully assembled which is not typical of many designs. 

Final Remarks

Now, you should be way more equipped with information where SI joint pain sitting is concerned and how to sit with SI joint pain. Maybe you already knew that you had a challenge in this area, or you had the pain and did not know exactly what you were experiencing. 

Well, you can identify what the challenge looks like and how to relieve SI joint pain by adopting a proper posture when you sit. Furthermore, you are now aware that a proper ergonomic chair can help you to stave off the physical challenges that the pain can bring. 

You were even given a high-level overview of a couple of the chairs that you can consider as a part of the solution.