Are you sitting comfortably?
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The body is like a super intelligent computer, it does what you tell it to with the added ability to self heal! So, whatever you spend most of your life doing will become your bodies default habits. This is a good place to start trying to improve things, if you need to!
In this modern world we spend a lot of time sitting. This influences your bodies patterns and therefore how you ‘do’ everything else. In other words, if you lean left at your desk you probably lean left on the sofa, in the car, eating your dinner and even how you prefer to sleep. It becomes normal, so you and your mind doesn’t notice it until your body can’t do it anymore. Eventually your soft tissues fatigue, bony changes can occur (arthritis) and we start getting pain and or stiffness.
Interestingly the most natural sitting/ resting position are what we call archetypal postures like the Indian squat, the African long sit, the Japanese high kneel, the Buddha cross leg. Unfortunately, these aren’t part of our modern lives therefore we aren’t programmed to use them, but, if you can comfortably do them for half an hour a day it can help reset your bodies fascial patterns, particularly your legs.
In modern lives we most often sit in chairs so this is where we will start. The best sitting positions should be upright, energetic and balanced like a trained pianist or a horse rider. In other words, we should be in a state of ‘active neutral’. You’re not ‘doing’ anything but you are still active! Otherwise you will slouch!
This is easiest when our minds and bodies are active however when we get into a state of fatigue, relaxation, normality and or boredom it becomes much trickier to manage. So, in those states it is most important that your chair and/or desk setup works for you, and ideally you don’t stay there too long/move regularly.
Like anything balanced you need a good stable foundation and good building block. In my last blog I talked about the building blocks; breathing, nutrition, movement and fitness, mindfulness and proprioception. So now I going to spend a bit more time on the foundation for sitting.
The foundation for sitting is your sitting bones/ base of your pelvis/ ischial tuberosities, supported by your feet about hip width apart, with your legs lined up in between. The more stable your foundation the more balance and stable your body is and the less effort you need to keep it there!
The reason you should sit on your sitting bones or ischial tuberosities because forces such as body weight (posture vs gravity) should pass through the bones as they are stronger and more tensile rather than forces going through your soft tissues which could stretch and deform. To find your sitting bones when you are standing stick your bottom out backwards like you are going to sit down lightly, squat or go to the toilet standing up, then lower your bottom down to sit. Alternatively, when sitting push your bottom back in the chair, ideally so your body and thighs are at 90 degrees, then lift/ part your buttock cheeks and you should be able to feel your sitting bones. Then make sure your feet are flat on the floor about hip width apart and line your thighs up. Then take a deep breath in to lift your chest and relax shoulders. If you are balanced you should still be able to breath easily.
The complicated part we are all different shapes and sizes. We have different leg lengths and body heights, and our chairs vary hugely too. Sitting posture becomes an awful lot easier if the chair fits YOU and you don’t have to try and fit into it!
Here is some more specific situational sitting advice;
Desks; Its about the relationship between you, your chair and your desk, and then everything else. It is all there for you so make the inanimate objects work and come to you. I have found a few golden rules that usually work to get a desk setup to work for you.
- If you are 5’6”, or 167 cm, and below you usually need a foot stool.
- If you are 5’8”, or 172 cm, and above you usually need to raise the chair (and desk) height.
- Between 5’8” and 6’ you can sometimes get away with just raising your mouse, keyboard and screen (use a book or ream of paper)
- If you are 6’, or 182 cm, and above YOU HAVE GOT TO RAISE YOUR CHAIR and YOUR DESK UP! Otherwise you will be slouching and storing up problems for later! If you lower the chair you lose all your leg and foot support and your body still collapses.
For more detail here’s a government website; https://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/hsg57.pdf
Sofa; If you are tall then sofas rarely support your legs so try to find something like a bean bag or low foot stool to take the weight of your legs. Again, if you are shorter you usually need a foot stool. Reclining chairs are a reasonable compromise but again you need to find your sitting bones and get your thighs lined up to avoid leaning/collapsing to one side.
Car; When getting into the car ‘square up’ so you are sitting straight, find your sitting bones and straighten your thighs in line with your hips. Again, it helps to set up your car seat as well as possible. To do this firstly adjust the seat angle to support under your thighs, then adjust the distance of the seat from the pedals, so you can reach them comfortably, then adjust everything else. This is best done when you are still in your active neutral. Most modern car seats are very adjustable so on a longer journey change the seat position little and often but only when it is safe to do so.
If you would like to know more please check out my youtube link:
The bottom line is we really aren’t designed to sit in chairs so sitting ‘well’ is physically and mentally tiring. Studies have shown that we can only sit well for twenty minutes. We need to keep our energy up to maintain balance and defy the gravitational pull, and avoid collapsing/slouching. So, you need to be mindful of this and reset regularly, or get up and move.
Like we said in my first blog posture relies on physical and mental balance so feed your body well, breathe steady and deeply, be present and aware how you are sitting and keep active/ moving! Simple.... no!, but just give a go, be mindful of it, and be inventive with solutions. There are no rules just guidelines.
Remember some changes are better than nothing but if you don’t try it will never improve! It is a huge subject so if you would like more help we are here if you need us!
