Vindicated at Last: My Posture is Superior
After many years of teachers, parents, co-workers, friends, housemates and everyone else telling me I had poor posture and would hurt my back with the way I sit, it seems I will be the one with the last laugh. Turns out sitting at a 90 degree angle (sitting up straight) as everyone recognizes at the “proper” way to sit is bad for your back. On the other hand, sitting with your back and thighs at 135 degrees (closer to how I sit) is the more natural and thus healthier way to sit.
From the Times Online:
The study at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen involved 22 healthy volunteers who had no history of back pain or surgery. They adjusted their posture while being scanned by a movable MRI machine, assuming three sitting positions: a slouch, with the body hunched forward over a desk or video game console; an upright 90-degree sitting position; and a relaxed position where the patient reclined at 135 degrees but kept their feet on the floor.
By measuring the spinal angles and the arrangement and height of spinal discs and movement across the positions, the radiologists found that the relaxed posture best preserved the spine’s natural shape.
Waseem Amir Bashir, from Edinburgh, lead author of the study, said: “When pressure is put on the spine it becomes squashed and misaligned. A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal.
“Sitting in a sound anatomic position is essential, since the strain put on the spine and its associated muscles and ligaments over time can lead to pain, deformity and chronic illness.” Dr Bashir, who now works at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada, presented the research yesterday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago.
So this is a 135 angle:
Which is typically what I do. I guess like many other areas of my life, I’m just ahead of the times. Glad to see science has finally come around and realized I’ve been right all along.
