Socket Seat Cushion Review

I’ve taken to calling my Socket Seat cushion my geriatric butt cushion. Why?

Well, I’m not quite geriatric but I feel like I am. Because as someone in their mid 50s, I can’t believe I need to sit on a special memory foam seat cushion to ease my pain. 

This decision to buy a Socket Seat didn’t happen spontaneously. My orthopedist recommended it.

In fact, she said she had one in her car. It helped to save her back on long car drives from Western Pennsylvania to see her family on New York’s Long Island. 

As someone who spends a lot of time driving in the car, this was quite the resounding recommendation. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you what happened to my lower back that had me visiting the orthopedist, eventually buying a Socket Seat and whether or not the Socket Seat worked for me.

Why I needed a Socket Seat

In mid-November, I woke up one Wednesday morning with sore glutes. I hadn’t done any Peloton weight lifting classes the day before, but it felt like I’d overdone it on squats. 

In fact, the only thing of note I’d done in the days before was getting a root canal on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, I spent three hours in the dentist’s chair getting a crown.

However, by Thursday, I could barely put weight on my legs. Walking was excruciating, nevermind going up and down stairs in my house.

After messaging my orthopedist, she suggested taking higher doses of ibuprofen and doing gentle yoga to stretch out my hips, glutes and back. This was the week before Thanksgiving.

Then, if I still wasn’t feeling better after the weekend, she wanted to see me. Well, as I’m sure you can figure out, I didn’t get better. In fact, I was worse.

The next Monday, I saw my orthopedist. After running a battery of movement tests, I left the appointment with a prescription for physical therapy and the suggestion to buy a Socket Seat.

You can buy the Socket Seat on Amazon; it’s actual name is the Aylio Socket Seat.

Because I have an Amazon Prime account, I ordered the seat cushion on that Monday and it arrived by Wednesday.

What is the Socket Seat cushion

The Socket Seat is a seat cushion, as it sounds like, but it is designed to take pressure off your glutes, coccyx (aka your tailbone) and low back. How does it do this? By keeping your pelvis in a good position.

You see, the Socket Seat has two cutouts in the memory foam. That’s where your butt cheeks are supposed to go. Then, there is a small indentation in the back so nothing is pressing up against your tailbone.

The memory foam helps the cushion keep its shape, regardless of how long you sit on it. It basically bounces back, if you’re familiar with how memory foam works.

This is not a hemorrhoid pillow, which is shaped like a donut. Instead, it reminds me of the stocks or a pillory used in colonial times to punish criminals. 

Finally, doctors sometimes recommend the Socket Seat when you have Ischial Tuberosity or sitz/sit bone pain. Thanks to the cutouts, your sit bones aren’t touching anything.

Also, this pillow could help with sciatica or hamstring issues–at least making you more comfortable. Of course, check with your doctor first before buying. I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV.

Driving with this cushion

As luck would have it, a few days after the cushion arrived, we were taking a road trip. First, we were driving from Western Pennsylvania to upstate New York for a family event. Then, we were driving from upstate New York to Maine where we would spend Christmas and New Year’s.

After our holiday was over, it was back in the car and back to Western Pennsylvania. That’s a 10-hour drive.

I can tell you this: the Socket Seat saved my back and butt. For the first time ever, I wasn’t sore after a long car drive.

Cushion size

If you’re tall you may have a problem with driving with this seat cushion. It’s three inches thick at the back. So, if your head already grazes your car’s ceiling, then you won’t be able to drive and see comfortably out the windshield. 

My 6’3” husband can’t use it to drive, but it is OK in the passenger seat because he sits differently when riding shotgun.

Thankfully, I’m short so this was not an issue for me hitting the ceiling. However, what was an issue is the width and height of the Socket Seat. 

It’s about as wide–19 inches at its widest part– as the front seat of my Subaru Forester and sits as high as the seat belt buckle connector. So, everytime I went to buckle my seat belt, I would pinch my fingers. 

I got over it and figured it out. Because wearing a seatbelt is important.

Did the Socket Seat work

I won’t go as far as saying that my Socket Seat cushion fixed my back. Because that would be misleading and untrue.

However, this is what I can say. After starting physical therapy twice a week, doing my exercises at home, and giving myself at least six weeks to heal, I’m definitely feeling better. I still have some pain when I walk, and I still need to take ibuprofen albeit a smaller dose. 

At some point my orthopedist is going to order an MRI, because my physical therapist believes I have a herniated lumbar disc. However, I’ll keep on keeping on with my PT and sitting on my Socket Seat when I work at my desk, sit on the couch to watch TV with my husband or drive my car. 

FYI, it has a convenient carrying handle on the side. That helps to make it feel like that aforementioned geriatric butt pillow. 

Final thoughts on the Socket Seat cushion

Again, the Socket Seat isn’t a cure all by any means. But it definitely was worth the money.

I’ll probably continue to use it long after my back, butt and hip issues clear up. In fact, I hope that by doing that I can avoid back issues again in the future.