Do Recline, Don't Slouch

Dr. Waseem Bashir, a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada, recently led a study conducted at Woodend Hospital in Scotland using a positional MRI machine. The positional Magnetic Resonance Imaging method allows researchers to examine an active back. Typical MRIs allowed a technician to see a spine completely at rest, lying prone. For the recent study, positional MRIs were performed on 22 volunteers in three different seated positions.

Their big discovery, although in a rather small study, is that the traditionally held position of sitting upright at a 90-degree angle is not the best position for your back when held for long periods of time. The image of ramrod straight spine, feet on the floor, seated in a 90 degree office chair is the one most people consider "correct." And yet, the study seemed to show that sitting at a 135 degree angle, like you sit in your La-Z-Boy, was the least damaging to the lower back.

This seems like good news. Lower back pain afflicts approximately 8 out of 10 Americans. Lower back pain is the second most common cause of visiting a doctor, after colds and flu ailments. According to the National Institute of Health, lower back pain causes 93 million days of lost work per year, at a cost of about $11 billion. So any way to alleviate chronic lower back pain is exciting news.

But suddenly, headlines erupted with phrases like "Go ahead and slouch, it's good for you!" Or "Mom was wrong, sitting up straight damages your back" and even "Guilt free slouching!" Teenagers everywhere promptly emailed these articles to their moms, teachers, coaches and anyone else who had ever told them to "sit up straight, or you will ruin your back." I admit it, I even breathed a sigh of relief that my preferred method of sitting on the edge of my office chair and leaning forward was probably not as bad for my lower back as I thought.

Well, I was wrong. So were the headlines. And the jubilant teenagers who thought their boneless way of slumping and slouching was the new cool were misled, too.

Sitting up straight at a 90 degree angle for a long period of time is bad for the lower back area. Humans were not designed to sit all day in a chair (well, maybe a recliner, but who can do that?) The human body is designed to move, to be active, and to change its position regularly. Pretty much any way that you sit for 8 hours is bad for your lower back.

And guess what else? Slumping, or slouching, actually compresses the such things as the diaphragm, lungs, stomach, and circulatory system. Slouching also compresses the two lower spinal levels, which has long term negative effects on the back, too.

What the study really stated was that a reclining position (aka, leaning back in your chair with your feet up) put the least stress on the spine while in a seated position. I bet if they did studies on someone sitting in a La-Z-Boy for 8 hours, they'd find something negative about that position, too.

In yoga, one is encouraged to sit comfortably on the sitz bones; lift the midriff and expand the rib cage; hold the back, neck and shoulders high and straight; but without arching or locking the back, for optimal breathing. That is neither slouching or reclining, but neither is it sitting ramrod straight in an uncomfortable office chair.

So, don't go slouching just yet. Unless we become as the ancient Romans and install reclining couches and low tables for dining; have wireless laptops and reclining chairs in our office cubicles; and drive sports cars with low bucket seats, we aren't sitting in that optimal position unless we're watching "Desperate Housewives" or Monday Night Football.