Sitting is healthy.
It’s considered a movement milestone for babies. It allows them to see the world in a whole new way. It means they have proper muscle control needed to transition into things such as starting solids, crawling, standing, & eventually walking. Means their body is getting stronger to better explore their world.
Yet as adults we get plagued with headlines such as “The dangers of sitting” “Sitting is as bad as smoking” “Sitting is bad for your health” “Why sitting is bad for us”
Is sitting really that bad? Is standing the solution?
We aren’t convinced it is.
Problem lies in our lack of movement. When babies learn to sit up it allows for more complex movement skills. They sit in-between movements to look around and plan their next move, play with their toys, or to take a break from all the movement the’ve been doing.
Sitting is simply a posture that our body can take and the amount of positions in which we can sit in is near infinite. We need to sit, rest, relax, & even daydream.
Look at all the different ways we can sit:
Except many of us don’t sit like this. We sit in a chair with our hips, knees, & ankles at 90 degrees, with a rounded back, hunched over.
While there’s nothing wrong with this position, problems may arise when there’s not much variety in our sitting positions throughout the day. This can cause our tissues (bone, muscles, tendons, etc.) to adapt to being strong in this sitting position.
Essentially we get strong in the position we’re in the most.
Many of us are in the same position in our car, at the dinner table, on the couch, & on the bike in cycle class. Our brains might begin to think this is all our body does. When it starts to think that way it starts to adapt, ensuring you stay really good at sitting.
This is the issue because when it’s time to move our brain is like “What’s this movement stuff? I thought all we did was sit?” Potentially causing your body to not be prepared for the movements you want & need to live your life leading to injury.
Is standing the solution though?
We don’t think so, standing all day is really the same as sitting all day. We are in a static position for long periods of time with little to no movement.
Sitting is a skill yet so is movement. If we don’t practice & maintain these skills, we risk losing them. Sitting is good for us when used purposefully. Just like any other skill. There’s a time & a place. But if we don’t balance time spent sitting with time spent moving we risk becoming 1 dimensional in our movement when we are designed to move in 3.
Want to spice up your sitting routine? Try sitting on the floor a few times a week. Watch all the positions your body will take. If the floor is a little rough try out some floor pillows, we like these ones,
Find yourself sitting more then you’d like? Try this
Set a timer for every 60 minutes to get up and move for 5-10 minutes. A simple walk is sufficient or you can try this little movement routine we put together for you that you can do at your desk.
