This week I heard a great interview with Daniel Lieberman on his new book, Exercised, which is about why humans did not evolve to exercise but nonetheless it is healthy for us to do. The interview is about 30 minutes and he brings up great stuff on movement, why treadmills are kind of weird and not a natural way to walk, sitting and when chairs started to have backs on them and how that is linked to back pain. His years of research is congruent to many of the same concepts I talk to all of you about and what many of my own teachers have taught me.
My two cents on sitting. Dr. Lieberman gives an interesting history on when chair backs became a household item and a point he makes is that in indigenous cultures where he has done research, many of these people sit as long as we might. What he does NOT talk about is HOW these indigenous groups sit and WHAT they sit on. Most likely these people don't have access to our cushy couches and recliners. (In fact, as I write this, I just changed my position from writing on my couch to sitting on the floor with my laptop on the coffee table).
Anyway. HOW you sit for 6-8 hours can significantly affect your body. Seat backs allow us to RELAX out back muscles. Sitting without a seat back makes us USE our back muscles more. (Lieberman does a great explanation of back pain you can hear in the podcast. What I assume about these cultures Lieberman studies in remote parts of the world, is that they are sitting on the ground, maybe with pillows or the like for cushioning. What sitting on the ground does is make us MOVE more. Here in the states, we might sit for 6-8 hours and barely change positions because we are so cushioned and padded in our comfortable chairs. But think about times you have sat on the ground. Do you notice how "fidgety" you get? Sitting on the ground in fact STRENGTHENS our joints and muscles because we have to USE them to sit there and we have use to them to get up and down off the ground.
In his book Muscles and Meridians, Philip Beach writes that "Erecting ourselves from the floor is an essential tonic exercise that is a direct challenge to gravity." Beach writes that we spent our childhood learning to stand up against gravity. In our current lives, with our comfy chairs, our beds, and all the objects where we now find repose, we are only ever about halfway down to the ground. So we lose that extra strength it would have taken us to get up and down off the ground all day long, before these comforts were added to our lives.
Now I am not saying GET RID OF ALL YOUR FURNITURE AND SLEEP ON THE FLOOR! But if you are interested in transition to that type of lifestyle, Katy Bowman and Nutritious Movement have you covered. Much of what she teaches, and what I am trying to say here, is that just getting up out of our chairs, opting for sitting on the ground for a little while (use pillows and blankets and things! Doesn't have to just be sitting on the ground without padding), or practicing getting up and down off the ground (or even just practicing getting up and down from a chair, using the strength in your legs, if the floor seems too intimidating) is essential to keeping our bodies strong. Taking off our shoes, wiggling our toes more so our feet can FEEL the floor can help our entire body get stronger so we can FEEL more underneath us.
It's those little decisions throughout the day that can help us start to feel a little better, and start to help us feel stronger. So this week, if you find yourself sitting for a long time, just simply chose to get up more often, do that stretch you know you need, if the floor is accessible, sit on the floor, with pillows and things for a little while. You don't need to get rid of your furniture. We just have to chose to find new postures throughout our day.
On top of that, I don't want you to feel intimidated or bad about your own choices at home. What I hope we all can do is find ways to move that make us happy and not hurt so much. I hope that our work together can help you continue to do the things that make you happy. And choosing to wiggle around at home is a great way for us to continue to move and stay healthy!
If you want to start a transition to being able to sit on the ground more (and get back up off the ground), I can help you with techniques to get that to happen!
(Ps, now I’m on the floor on my stomach with a pillow, under my hips propped on my elbows typing). ;)
Listen to Podcast HERE