To ease back pain, don’t sit up straight
Posted on: Apr 2011
The strain of sitting upright for long hours is a perpetrator of chronic back problems
The longstanding advice to “sit up straight” has been turned on its head by a new study that suggests leaning back is a much better posture.
Researchers analyzed different postures and concluded that the strain of sitting upright for long hours is a perpetrator of chronic back problems.
Using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers studied 22 volunteers with no back pain history. The subjects assumed three different positions: slouching; sitting up straight at 90 degrees; and sitting back with a 135-degree posture—all while their spines were scanned.
“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,” said study author, Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada. “Sitting in a sound anatomic position is essential, since the strain put on the spine and its associated ligaments over time can lead to pain, deformity and chronic illness.”
Back pain, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is the most common cause of work-related disability in the United States. It costs Americans nearly $50 billion annually. Sitting appears to be a major cause of this ailment.
