Which Sitting Position is Bad For You?
As a person who is going on a date or for a meeting, the first thing you notice about a person when they sit is their posture, and we must confess that bad posture isn't cool at all. We are so concerned about posture that when we find ourselves slouching while sitting, we want to quickly correct it to a sit up right position. But have we really asked which position the body wants to be?
I know you read it in one fashion magazine that sitting upright is the best position or you heard it from one health guru that people who slouch are suffering from muscle imbalance and it is a wrong position to find yourself, but have you personally done your own reading, study, or research on the topic? A paper titled "Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor For Persistent Neck pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study", the researchers gathered 2868 participants and they measured their posture and neck pain following the posture and they did this for a few years of 17 and 20 years after where follow up measurement and check for pain was done.and measured again. At the end of the study, sitting in the upright position was more associated with neck pain compared to the slouch sitting position in females, and there was no association in males.
Finding the root cause of a pain has been a long walk in the medical world as pain can be multi-factorial being that many things can contribute what is causing a particular pain also, there are many things that contributes to exacerbating it. Pain is subjective, because the duration, intensity and level of pain is dependent on the person who is feeling it. Pain can also be associated with mood and mindset, and even the study I pulled up agree that pain is multifaceted as the researchers did not conclude that the pain was caused by posture alone, they went on to propose physiological, hormonal, and psychological differences in their result.
Posture is most of the time automatic as we cannot be too conscious of our posture and the can determine how we sit at different time. For instance, when we are seeing something interesting on the TV screen we unconsciously pick the edge of the Sofa. Also there is an automatic posture for students who are writing a test and know what they are writing and anyone you see with a different posture is either done with their test or do not know what to write. While sleeping, the body automatically switches position to prevent pain from resting on one part of the body over the other.
Another article titled "High Prevalence of Inadequate Sitting and Sleeping Postures: a Three Year Prospective study of adolescents" looked at people with inadequate postures such as Slump or flex position can lead to pain and musculoskeletal disorders. While the researchers mentioned slump, they didn't give an adequate specificity of what a slump position is so these are subjective.
While people like to look at the position of the spine more often, it is important to look at the health of the spine. So taking proper look at the loads you carry, and movement patterns is important. According to the study "Identifying relationships between sleep posture and non-specific spinal symptoms in adults: A Scoping Review", changing patterns like movement patterns, level of strength and conditioning, changing of sustained pattern are risk free, cost effective way to not suffer spinal pain.
One thing holds true, and that is any position sustained over a prolonged period of time either sitting, sleeping, and bending, can lead to pain. The way you sit is the body finding a comfortable place for itself and even when you decide to find a place you feel is comfortable, the body is good at readjusting till it suits itself and when it looks like there is a prolong time on one posture, the body automatically changes it to prevent pain and for convenience.
Read More
https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/101/3/pzab007/6094842
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15093-2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8721083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6609073/
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