Slouch - it's the safest way to sit

Your mother probably told you, as her mother told her: sit up straight. Whether at table, in class or at work we have always been told that sitting stiff-backed and upright is good for our bones, our posture, our digestion, our alertness and our general air of looking as if we are plugged into the world.

Now research suggests that we would be far better off slouching and slumping. Today’s advice is to let go and recline. Using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a team of radiologists have found that sitting up straight puts unneccesary strain on the spine and could cause chronic back pain because of trapped nerves or slipped discs.

The ideal angle for office workers who sit for long periods is about 135 degrees. It might make working at a computer impractical but it will put less pressure on the spine than a hunched or upright position, the researchers say.

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.

The study was the first of its kind because MRI scan- ning has previously required patients to lie flat.

Back pain is the cause of one in six days off work and about 80 per cent of Britons are expected to suffer from it at some point. Office workers and school children may stave off future back problems by correcting their sitting posture and finding a chair that allows them to recline, Dr Bashir said.

He added: “We were not created to sit down for long hours, but somehow modern life requires the vast majority of the global population to work in a seated position, The best position for our backs is arguably lying down, but this is hardly practical.”

However, Gordon Waddell, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital, said that the link between biomechanics as shown in MRI scans and preventing back pain was still very theoretical.

It was “human nature” to develop back pain, he said. “Like a headache or a cold, it seems we all get back pain and most of the evidence suggests that sitting position does not make a difference.”

Non-specific back pain accounts for about 5 million lost working days per year, one in six of the reported total, costing the economy at least £5.7 billion

In 2004-05, 452,000 people reported suffering back pain caused by, or made worse by, work

Back-pain sufferers took an average of 19 days off per person last year and 11 per cent of the 2.8 million claimants of incapacity benefit said they had a musculoskeletal disorder

40 per cent of adults have suffered from back pain lasting for more than a day in the previous 12 months Source: Health and Safety Executive, ONS

The issue in back trouble (probably including sciatic nerve trouble which is perceived by the brain as relating to the leg, but nonetheless originates in the back) is muscle tone of the trunk.
Far too many of us - myself emphatically not excluded - allow our abdominal muscles to go on permanent vacation, and rely on the arching of the spine to stabilize the trunk. That is, we do not keep our abs and our back muscles in tension. The result is that the back muscles are short but ill toned, and the abs are long and ill toned.
Consequently when such a physical specimen reaches down and does gardening or other similar activity, the spine bends unusually forward and the back muscles are atypically stretched. So long as that posture is maintained, back pain will not result. When the unfortunate person "straightens up" and relaxes, the back muscles, irritated by unaccustomed stretching, are returned to their typical short configuration. And a tired/irritated muscle will go into painful cramps only when they are not stretched but short.
The result is that bending over to garden sets you up for back cramps which only are activated by returning to "normal", slovenly, posture. And that in such case the sufferer, ironically, gets immediate relief by returning to the very posture which, by stretching the back muscles, precipitated the symptoms. Not understanding the dynamic, the sufferer is baffled by this seemingly paradoxical phenomenon - and loses all sense of what constitutes sound posture.
What, then, is the practical remedy? Obviously the remedy must include exercises to strengthen the abs. But that is insufficient. The missing link is a subtlety which is a powerful psychological inhibitor of improved posture. Part of that is an unwillingness to project a body image different than the one to which you (and, you are sure, everyone you know) are accustomed to and identify with you. But the real kicker is that seriously upgrading your posture will change the sound of your voice.
That is, proper posture requires effort, effort which changes not only the appearance of your body but changes the way your voice resonates in your chest. The voice will sound better - a man's voice will seem deeper even though he is making no effort to change its pitch with his vocal cords. It will sound deeper because the resonance of his chest will emphasize the basic pitch of his voice and deemphasize the other components of his voice.
But although, objectively, his voice sounds better - would instantly be approved by a music teacher as a signal improvement over the quality of sound that results from his customary, slovenly, posture - it is not the sound that the person in question identifies with. And indeed, it is not the sound that the wife of such a man identifies with her husband. So even if the husband learns that he should improve his posture so much that it improves his voice, both he and those he cares about will resist the vocal change.
So there it is. Good posture - posture which will protect your spine and enhance your health and vitality - is hard. It is a tiring physical exertion, and its side effects create psychological resistance to boot.
But what's new? Wherever masses of people are doing something patently against their own interests, there will be strong psychological and probably strong physical/economic reasons why they do not change. How else explain masses of people accepting American Establishment Journalism, or the (indistinguishable) BBC, as "objective"? It is certainly not because there is any philosophical reason to do so, and certainly not because the evidence of history supports the idea. Human nature can be so frustrating . . .

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.