no its not what you think. this is simply a question of whether the human body is designed for sitting? with all the back problems it seems to me that the human body is not meant to sit for extended periods. any links?
Might I note that as I type this I’m laying sideways on a futon propped up by my now-numb elbow with my entire right side seething with pain and my back so far out of alignment you could put a railroad-car on it and charge $10 a ride and have been in the same position for about 10 minutes because I’m a lazy fuck who doesn’t know posture from a 2-cent hooker… As far as not being able to sit for a long time… you obviously have never sat in one of those really expensive leather chairs where you sink about 3 feet down immediately… It’s heaven… I never wanted to leave the store
Designed by whom? You seem to think that something or someone actually designed humans and that sitting was perhaps an afterthought.
I’ve seen other simians in the wild sit all the time… not in chairs of course, and that’s probably what is causing so many problems. My guess is that humans evolved in an environment where standing, stooping, lying down, walking and running were the most common positions… but sitting on the ground isn’t foreign to how we live even today.
Chairs, I think, are where we went wrong. They force us into a position that, for some people at least, causes pain in the lower back after long period of time.
As far as what we were designed for… talk to your favorite deity about that one.
In most Asian countries, there are forms of sitting and squatting that you almost never see in the Americas or Europe. Its also almost impossible to achieve if you didn’t do this, and thus stretch out certain muscles and ligaments, as a young child. But it does seem to be a more natural position. I have seen people squat like this for hours at a time, and it is just amazing. Never heard of back injury complaints from any of these folks, but this is purely anecdotal evidence, don’t know of any studies. Personally I noticed that once I had more or less adjusted to local ways, eg, lost some weight, that my butt couldn’t handle sitting for very long stretches of time anymore.
I’ll throw in another vote for squatting as the preferred method of “sitting.” We all did it as children. Have you ever watched a two year old play? They squat naturally and easily. The strong muscles in their legs are much better suited to supporting them than those in their backs. But then our parents, if we grew up in western society, taught us to sit “politely” and our muscles tightened up and we lost the ability.
Why? Normal use of the joints maintains the health of the cartilage. Squatting uses most of the hip’s normal range of motion, while sitting in chairs does not. As a result, some of the cartilage falls into disuse, and begins to degenerate. Another name for osteoarthritis: degenerative joint disease.
This argument sounds solid to me, but I couldn’t (read: was too lazy to) find a non-partisan website to back it up.
:eek: I thought I was the only person on earth that didn’t like sitting better than any other position!