Slouching is GOOD for your back!

Now, sit up straight and pay attention!
Does that sound like what your mother probably told you a million times, as her mother told her: to sit up straight?

No, not that straight! Who do you think you are, a professional stuntman? You'll do your back an injury. At least, that's the latest word from the medical world.

Researchers have found that sitting in the 90-degree posture dictated by stern school teachers and parents does not spare you from back trouble later in life. It may actually exacerbate it. Scientists have recently found that sitting upright places needless strain on your back, provoking potentially chronic pain if you spend long hours sitting.

So, if you spent last night sprawled awkwardly on the sofa and you've woken up feeling stiff, then sitting up the way matron taught you may not dispel the aching. What you need is yet more sprawling backwards, tracing a generous angle of 135-degrees with your body and feet on the ground: think of it as the chiropractic equivalent of the hair-of-the-dog remedy drinkers use to chase away a hangover.

Stiffening your spine as a mark of good breeding might be doing you more harm than good!

And if sitting up straight is bad for you, who still dares to say that eating up all your greens will make you strong? Or that an apple a day will keep the doctor away?

Now, try the new *revolutionary* sitting position..

Ah... that's more comfortable. Just one problem with typing while sprawled backwards like a human deckchair: it's sometimes tricky to reach all the keys on the computer keyboard. This may pose a serious problem if you are set on advocating this new posture at work; of course that is if your boss doesn't trim your bonus or increment and brand you as a "slacker".

Well, I've got a work-around for this:

1. Adjust the height of the chair to as high as possible (always ensuring that your feet touch the ground)
2. Take a seat and ensure you tuck your butt all the way into the back of the chair (we tend to unconsciously balance our butt-cheeks along the edge of the seat, adding additional stress on the lower back).
   
3. Now, slide yourself (together with the chair) towards the desk, stopping once your chest touches the tip of the desk. Be sure not to attempt to sandwich yourself too tightly between the desk and chair. Prolonged "squashing" may result in unwanted injury to boobs, especially the surgically refined ones.
4. Adjust the angle of your backrest to approximately 120-degree. Notice I refer the new-found posture to 120-degree instead of 135-degree? I just thought that 135-degree might not be realistic for the working environment. Of course, when you're at the comfort of your crib, by all means, go for the recommended 135-degree.
   
5. With the new-found 120-degree posture, you should be able to use your keyboard effectively without exhibiting any sign of sprawling (they're all hidden under the desk) and at the same time, reduce the risk of chronic back pain 10 years later. At the end of the day, it all depends on how anal and sticky your boss is about maintaining office image.

Read the full article here.

So, next time your mother, teacher or boss bawls at you when you sprawl on the sofa/chair, refer them to this article and tell them, that it's SCIENTIFICALLY proven to be the ideal sitting position for maintaining a healthy spine.

The first people to read this post has got to be my parents! They have been nagging about my "bummer" posture for the last decade!! Haha..