When you think about sitting comfortably while driving, you probably won’t pay attention to how you’re sitting or driving. It is something we just do on autopilot. But did you know that the way you sit in your car and use your right leg to press the gas and brake pedals can actually affect your pelvic health and overall comfort?This is where pelvic levelers enter the scene.These are simple but can make all the difference by helping keep your body in better alignment, reducing the strain and discomfort that often comes from pressing the gas and pedal while driving.
Let’s break it down in a simple way.
What Are Pelvic Levelers?
Pelvic levelers are tools designed to help balance and align your pelvis. When you’re driving, you practice the repetitive motion of tapping on the gas and brakes, where you only engage your right leg and leave your left one behind. This repetition eventually causes imbalances in the pelvic area, sometimes even causing discomfort or pains in the lower back, hips, or legs. Pelvic levelers are used to encourage strengthening in the left leg, balancing out the pelvic alignment in your body so that everything sits correctly.
Why Pelvic Imbalance Happens While Driving
It is easy to fall into a routine of only using one leg to press the pedals when you are behind the wheel. Your right foot is in charge of the gas and brake, but your left leg tends to just be along for the ride. This leads to an uneven distribution of effort between both sides of your body. This unbalanced pattern causes your pelvis to shift and one side becomes more engaged than the other.
This movement, or pelvic rotation and tilting, can be mild at first but grows as time progresses. It results in the misalignment of your spine and lower back that leads to discomfort and even pain. This imbalance can eventually worsen if left unaddressed and will then start affecting how you move, not just while driving but in your everyday life.
How do Pelvic Levelers Improve Driver Balance?
Pelvic levelers are designed to counteract the effects of this imbalance. They help ensure that your pelvis stays level, reducing the risk of discomfort or pain caused by prolonged driving. Here’s how they work:
- Promoting Strength in the Left Leg: Since your left leg often isn’t engaged while driving, pelvic levelers help encourage better use of it. By focusing on strengthening the left leg, these devices help balance the muscle engagement between both sides of your body. This leads to a more even distribution of weight, reducing pelvic tilt.
- Correcting Pelvic Alignment: Pelvic levelers support your body by gently realigning your pelvis. This realignment ensures that both sides of your pelvis are in sync, preventing strain on your lower back and hips.
- Improving Posture: Pelvic levelers also help in promoting better posture. By properlyaligning your pelvis, your spine and shoulders can follow suit, thus helping you sit straighter and reducing the chances of developing discomfort over long drives.
- Reducing Pressure on Your Lower Back:When your pelvis is out of alignment, it can put additional stress on your lower back muscles. Well, this is where Pelvic levelers help and reduce this stress by bringing the pelvis back into a neutral position.
How Do Pelvic Levelers Work?
Pelvic levelers are worn on your left foot. They mimic the movement that your right foot makes when you press the gas and brake pedals.
Thus, the pelvic leveler encourages your left leg to do the same as your right leg. It balances the action of your right leg by equally involving both sides of your body. This reduces pelvic tilt and keeps your pelvis in alignment, thus minimizing the pain and discomfort experienced in the lower back and hips.
Final Thoughts
Spending long hours driving doesn’t have to mean dealing with constant discomfort. Pelvic levelers are an easy way of solving the problem of right lateral pelvic tilt and the effect it has on the overall pelvis imbalances as caused by repetitive actions, like driving. They work towards balancing out the usage of both legs, posture improvement, and readjusting the pelvis.
