There have been a lot of studies and articles declaring how bad sitting is for you. Sitting is the new smoking, they say. It’s all probably a bit over-sensationalized, however, there is one thing that is undeniable: sitting is not helping your posture. And it isn’t just because we’re lazy sitters. It is actually very difficult to maintain good posture in your standard chair.
The Backs Of Chairs Are Not Upright
Leaning Back With Neutral Posture—It’s Work!
Most chairs have sloped backs. That means that when you lean on them your head and chest are trying to fall backwards. See for yourself; lean all the way on the back rest while trying to maintain a completely straight torso. It feels like you are doing a plank, because you are. Your anterior core muscles are kicked on in order to keep you from flipping backward over the chair. That’s a lot of work and your body is unlikely to put up with it for long. Unless you are focused on your posture and nothing else, you’ll slowly sink into a slouched position because it is much easier, and much more comfortable.
Standing Is Balanced
Standing, in contrast to sitting, is a relatively balanced position for the body. When you are standing up tall with the chest out and the shoulders and head back, everything is stacked neatly atop one another. The head is over the shoulders, the shoulders over the hips, the hips over the feet. In this position, your muscles only have to do the minor job of keeping everything from drifting. That’s not all that much work, and your muscles can do it pretty easily for a very long time.
Video: Proper Posture And Why It Matters
It’s Your Posture, Silly
A lot of the bad rap that chairs have gotten focuses on their connections to health and fitness problems like increased risk for cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and the like. But if there is a causality there, which is debated, it is probably more about being sedentary than it is about chairs. A sedentary lifestyle is just not good. We would be wise to remember though, that you can be sedentary in a bed too, it’s not all about the chair. What is particularly troublesome about sitting is the extra postural imbalances that it promotes. Walking around hunched over leads to poor movement patterns, which can lead to weakness and injury, which in turn can increase our amount of time being sedentary. That’s the real reason to avoid too much time sitting.