Pain in right leg while driving

**boner1** · November 12th, 2012 11:26 AM

* April_Ryan,

just my two cents worth.

1. the hip joint suffers whenever your seat is set to the lowest position. the stresses are multiplied 3 fold at this hip flexion position. this means that your bend at the hip should be set to almost 90 degrees only. if your seat position is too low, try looking at your knees in relation to your hip/waist. if you are constantly finding that your waist is way lower than your knees, then this will punish your hip and legs.

2. you cannot do anything if your seat is short or shallow in depth. a short seat puts too much tension on your quadriceps ( muscles in the front of your thighs) and obviously leaves the back portion of your thighs (hamstrings) hanging in space without anything supporting it. in long drives or bad traffic conditions, this puts your muscles to work in a disadvantaged position. i would suggest to you to keep your back as close to the seat as possible. this means your entire back should touch the entire seat. and the position of the seat is supposed to be set at 90 degrees or straight. think of a marine or a PMA cadet: 90-90 means straight back and straight knee.

3. the position of your seat also affects the pressure on your lumbar spine. the slouched position will punish your lumbar spine. ( your low back area). driving gangsta style is a no no especially in long drives, and as we get older. keep the seat in its highest position if you can. then adjsut the steering wheel to its highest position so that you will have enough clearance for your thighs when you drive.

4. i hope you are not driving with your wallet in your Right back pocket. this creates a pressure effect on one of your big nerves, the sciatic nerve. this then creates tingling and pain ( paresthesias ) in your Right thigh and leg.

try to check every point i raised and look at your car with the door on driver side wide open. try to see if your seat is in a low position, and if the back is straight, or leaning towards the back.

hope this helps.

**goldrat** · November 12th, 2012 11:48 AM

your wallet might be putting pressure on some nerve or vessel. specially if its thick crammed with bills, coupons, credit cards and the like.

**Type 100** · November 12th, 2012 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by goldrat

your wallet might be putting pressure on some nerve or vessel. specially if its thick crammed with bills, coupons, credit cards and the like.

This is correct, and a notable observation.

This is especially true when you are sitting on only one wallet, so the pressure that your butt cheeks have to carry is different. Not only will there be possible pinching of a nerve, blood vessel or muscle (runners make reference to the piriformis muscle, hidden in the butt cheeks), but also slight misalignment of the spine. Over a long drive this will make itself known.

**April_Ryan** · November 12th, 2012 09:07 PM

guys,

No wallets in back pocket for me, as I'm a female. I keep wallets in my bag

Age though, might be a factor, as I'm no spring chicken. Hahaha.

I'm monitoring the pain. Due to car wash yesterday, car wash boys moved my seat and pain started up again when I drove today. Couldn't find the position which agreed with me. Drat.

I think it's seat height + distance from pedals (i'm getting conflicting advise re whether seat should be high or low, so I will just experiment). And I can't figure out if my present car seat is longer or shorter than my previous one as old car is no longer with me.

**Type 100** · November 12th, 2012 11:43 PM

Let us know what happens.

If you do resort to lowering the seat height, you might have to get used to the view. With the seat swap on my Jazz, the H-point (hip point) went down 2" and it was very noticeable, and it took me a couple weeks to confidently navigate with the lower seat and seat rail height. I doubt that height-adjustable stock seats will have that much of a difference, though.

For illustration purposes, using bottles of beer:

**boner1** · November 13th, 2012 08:56 AM

Ma'am,

if all else fails, see an orthopod or a neurologist. skip the chiropractor first. you have to establish a sound medical diagnosis before proceeding with any manipulation by a chiropractor. i have seen one too many complications after people subject themselves to manipulations done by poorly-trained chiropractors.

this is a public forum and it is not unusual to get conflicting advice. however, if advice is coming from a professional, then its weight trumps majority of the submitted opinions from our other respected forumers. i hope i did not offend anyone.

happy driving!

**CVT** · November 13th, 2012 09:09 AM

Sis,- try changing the position of your left foot/leg once in a while... It should change the weight distribution when you are seating.

I also experienced something similar years ago when I shifted from M/T to A/T... It must be what our body was accustomed to, when driving...

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