To solve problems caused by sitting, learn to squat (2017)

I used to have terrible "programmer" posture. It's still not great, but it's way better. I credit a regular routine of loaded barbell squats with an experienced trainer. I think part of the progress is because I got stronger, but part of the progress is because the squat would point out quirks in my body that simply had to be fixed in order to continue progressing.

There's only so much of "try to sit up straight" before you just go back to sitting the way your body has adapted to sit. In general, your body doesn't want to change. You need to provide some sort of external stress that forces an adaptation. Squats are great for this.

I live in Thailand. People can squat here. People have all sorts of sitting and office injuries just like in the West.

Any position maintained for long periods of time is a stress on your muscles (sitting, squatting, ...).

People tend to think that sitting is "not doing anything" but your muscles ARE working to keep you upright. The wonkier you're sitting, the worse the effects will be.

I struggled with lower back pain for over 5 years, visited lots of doctors / physios / chiropractors and nobody could give any decent advice. "You're too old" (at 38!), "it's the electromagnetic rays from your computer screen!".

In the end what helped me was a routine of body strength exercises that I developed myself from online research and with the help of a young physio who finally knew what he was doing.

I'm now basically pain free, as long as I do my routine 2 or ideally 3x per week.

I highly recommend anyone struggling with lower back pain to build up a simple routing of core strengthening exercises.

In my travels I've gone from fear of a latrine-style loo to enjoying them enough to consider installing one in my home in England. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it just feels better for my body somehow to hold a more folded posture.

My challenge is flexibility. I did yoga for three years, twice a week, and while the whole of my body became much more flexible (amongst other benefits) my ankles did not yield very much at all. If I try to squat on a level surface, I have to force my arms forward to maintain balance, and it's not comfortable at all.

In Iran several toilets had slightly angled surfaces for the feet. With the toes pointing downwards just a few degrees from level, it was very comfortable.

My wife is from South Korea, a country where squatting in the home is still practiced regularly, especially by the older generations. It always struck me as a very relaxing way of passing the time, though I couldn't quite do it.

Perhaps there is a physiological aspect to this too. Japanese and Korean people appear to have different skeletal proportions to Europeans. I'm curious if this changes anything, or whether it's just a matter of culture/practice.

For lazy/shy people like me I recommend bodyweight fitness. Reddit has some nice community for that. Various core drills and stretching (back bends, lounges, squat) cured my back pain.

I'm forty and I can't do it. Like at all. I don't remember ever being able to do it.

The main problem is that my ankles are not flexible enough. When I try to squat, my heels inevitably raise above the ground so that I find myself resting on my tiptoes, struggling to keep my balance.

I lived in SE Asia for 8 years, and I learned to squat again. It does open up your hips. At first I couldn't do it without almost falling backwards, but then I worked up to where I could squat for over 5 minutes in ease. Now that I am back to the US, I have gained 25 lb. in one year. I am vegetarian, and still eat healthy, no junk, but I eat more. I had to start my exercise program up again, since I am back to an office job whereas in SE Asia I was doing 50-50 office/physical labor. Squatting loosens my hips, and generally seems to make me feel better if done more often. I go outside at work and walk a half mile, and squat at lunch for 10 minutes in the sun if it's out.

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I can hold a low squat indefinitely now because of it and my neck and back feel amazing!

Since the beginning of this year, I have begun to squat (and sit on my haunches) for 15 minutes daily. The target is to do this comfortably for at least 30 minutes by the end of the year. In my country (India), in the villages, you are likely to see people sit like this, even into their 90s. Meanwhile, here I am, in mid 30s, unable to do this even for 5 minutes, complaining of knee and back problems.

I remember the profound shock during a study exchange to east Asia when I realised I'd have to spend a year on squat toilets.

Took a couple months to feel 'safe', and not have to constantly check my pants weren't in the way.

Never got comfortable enough to read on the toilet.

Thanks for this. I've been wondering how to better help my legs and general body health. I go to the gym regularly and I'm in pretty good shape, but I know there is some ongoing issue with my legs related to sitting all day. Wasn't sure how to tackle it - I started doing more leg exercises and even squats (but only up to 90 degrees). This article make it clear that I need to do a few different types of squats to get the real benefit. My legs have been scrawny chicken legs for years because of sitting at a desk all damn day. And it surely doesn't help that I cross one leg under the other half the time and alternate throughout the day. My legs feel slightly numb sometimes which I know is terrible. My leg muscles have atrophied to a large extent and I suspect that there is even a blood flow / circulation issue all surrounding the "use it or lose it" concept. I'm not sure if it's possible, but maybe my veins or arteries also got smaller from lack of use. I've noticed my legs get fatigued much quicker and take longer to recover.

It's been very difficult to get full function back, so for anyone reading this - try to avoid making the same mistake I did. I overlooked the issue for too long. I will certainly overcome it, in time, but it sucks and it's a long process because my body has become used to not needing my legs 95% of the time.

And don't forget dead lifts and pull ups. I see a lot of people at the gym focusing on chest and upper body (biceps, arms, torso) but you need to focus more on centre of your body and lower back (dead lift), legs (squats, leg press) and upper back (pull ups).

Bench press is also good but that's it for chest, I wouldn't do more. Squats, bench press and dead lift as a core of your routine is a good idea. You can add some other minor components but you should keep focus on the big three.

Lots of comments here saying "yeh squats are great, do squats." But the article is not talking about exercise squats! It's talking about "deep squatting as a form of active rest".

Personally I think squatting as a form of sitting is not going to be happening too much with larger framed people. Smaller and slimmer people will obviously have a much easier time of sustaining a sitting squat comfortably.

This article doesn't really make a case in my opinion. The only two justifications seem to be:

> So if a joint doesn’t go through its full range—if the hips and knees never go past 90 degrees—the body says ‘I’m not being used’ and starts to degenerate and stops the production of synovial fluid.”

And,

> A 2014 study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that test subjects who showed difficulty getting up off the floor without support of hands, or an elbow, or leg (what’s called the “sitting-rising test”) resulted in a three-year-shorter life expectancy than subjects who got up with ease.

(Study here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23242910)

As far as the first one, I'd say, so what? More fluid means healthier? Why?

As far as the second one, correlation doesn't prove causation. We should stop pretending this is the case with everything.

I wasn't aware that squatting is such a big deal.

I often find myself squatting while working at my laptop. Frankly, it's just for a few minutes, because at some point my feet will hurt.

I wonder whether this is just a matter of exercise, or whether squatting for too long (in that position, with a laptop on the thighs) is unhealthy.

Most often I do this while in public transport, where I don't always find a seat. It happens rarely within the train but more often at the station, where the seats are even more limited.

In the beginning, I often looked for a wall to lean my back against. But I soon discovered that I don't really need it. Walls are cold and, in the end, they are just a help for balancing.

Our poor posture and use of the body in the West is partly a side-effect of our mental activities, in my opinion. Not merely due to sitting. Rather sitting and performing mental activities whilst partially tranquilised:

e.g. playing video games at a desk whilst sipping coffee/soda/alcohol.

I can't explain why this is but intuitively I think it's to do with our locus of attention being out of the body and into abstract ideas. In the developing world their locus is more 'in the body'.

This is something I do normally as an adult in the West, but only because for whatever reason I never got out of the habit from doing it as a child.

It was my default position playing outside in the dirt or the sandbox. I didn't like getting my clothes dirty so squatting, as opposed to sitting on my behind or knees, made sense.

These days when I'm working on anything below waist height I'm usually squatting. People always remark how child-like it looks and I remark how comfortable and easy on the knees it is.

Really interesting. I've always been a squatter for no apparent reason (white, raised by middle class republicans in california).

I often sit semi-squatted at my computer; basically my feet on the seat and thighs against my chest. I've actually avoided this consciously since it seemed like 'bad posture'.

I wonder if I have actually been actively avoiding something I should be doing more of. It's always felt more comfortable this way.

Squatting requires a lot of flexibility, and not only on your hips. Your ankles need to be supple enough to support that degree. That said, a lot of "office problems" with posture take time to become minor. Squatting is an option that works your legs and glutes. But your back needs work too. Complete sports such as swimming, along with yoga for example could provide good balance! :)

Sitting like this is pretty common in sub-continent as majority of people prefer WC over commode system. Beside that home maids and house women sit in squat position when cleaning home. We are also being exploited by modern luxuries hence more and more people suffering from knee and joints problems.

my goal for this year is to stay more active during work. I'm your typical American working in small cubicle 8 hours a day in a boring looking office. Soon January I started doing push ups 6 times during my work day. I start a set number so, for example 4. And set I add one. So first set is 4 and last set of the day is 10. Once I'm comfortable doing 9. Then I add one to my starting point. So start 5 and then end at 10. It has been now nearly two months and I am starting at 10 and ending at 15. That adds up to 75 push ups in one day. It's incredible but I couldn't do more than 4 when I first started and now I can do 15 at once.

Next month I plan to add one other excersise. Either squats or crunches.

This idea that it requires lots of flexibility to squat is actually a pernicious myth.

It is really about the angle of your feet and the width of your stance, most anyone without a debilitating injury can learn to squat in a few minutes when given correct instruction.

I'm a fairly built 190lb person and I was a baseball catcher as a kid and in high school. It definitely took a toll on my knees - I wonder if squatting as rest is also somewhat dependent on humans being a little more wiry than they are today.

Interesting, I sit cross-legged quite a bit at work purely because I find sitting for long periods to be uncomfortable, nice to know it's also better than sitting for health reasons, i guess it pays to listen to your body.

I also have back problems. Weight, age and other problems prevent me to squat or do most exercises, but I found immediate beneficial effects by consuming meals standing when I'm alone.

The best cure for stiff muscles is to trick them to relax. For example doing concentric movements using the antagonist muscles using light load. For example pushing water.

I'm genuinely starting to think people should just lay down when working with a computer. That's what I do all day long anyway.

I want a squatting desk.

I am a life-long squatter. It has ruined my knees. Also their expert is an osteopath.

I have both bad back and runner's knee. Once I found out the most effective treatment for my bad back is regular exercise (40min a day, 4 days of the week... but I can't afford to skip it), I started thinking about other problems I could solve this way.

I thought about runner's knee. I started googling around. I found some contradictory info initially, but in the end there seems to be consensus squats not only don't harm a knee, they make it stronger! You're essentially building your exoskeleton.

What I found gives me best results is wall-facing squat.

It's difficult to start. It took me weeks, perhaps even months to feel benefits, but now I'm a squat addict. Wall facing squat is very good because it makes it impossible to cheat. You have to develop better stance, balance, and flexibility. And you have to think how to get there.

As a nerd who played computer games A LOT, I was so inflexible I could only straighten my leg about 120 degrees when lying on my back and raising the leg vertically. Now I can grab my heel with leg perfectly straight, or touch my forehead with my knee. So don't think you can't do that. You just need to be persistent, systematic and don't force it (especially if you're starting to feel pain).

Nowadays I try to incorporate those wide wall-facing squats into every raising movement I make. I get some odd looks (I don't do it at work, though), but I don't care. When I raise from bed, I don't use my hands. Same for couch, chair, and other platforms.

Don't get obsessed with numbers. Numbers don't mean a squat if they come at the price of bad technique. Bad technique is like building a tower on skewed foundation. Repeat that movement enough times, and the tower will start leaning, then fall (injury). So once in a while I lower my weekly number of squats, when I feel I can get even closer to wall. At first I thought I'd never manage it, but every couple of weeks I can exercising closer to wall. It's better to perform smaller sets of perfect exercise than lots of bad. Too bad I learned it the hard way.

Aside from feeling very flexible at thighs and legs in general, it's rewarding because my knee feels very stable. A few years ago, when I was shifting my weight while standing, I could feel it rotate in various ways. Now I feel more confident because I feel it supports me better. My balance also got a lot better and I'm leaning over tables and other objects in ways that seemed impossible before. I naturally adjust my stance when walking upstairs, downstairs, or running downhill. It feels like my entire leg works through the entire range of motion. I get bonus points when cycling, I can power through some smaller hills at full speed where previously I would be soaked with sweat.

In general, anaerobic exercise like squats gives your body more HP (Hit Points), making you more resistant to injury, increasing bone density etc. The last one is especially important for women, who are prone to osteoporosis when getting older.

I'm getting the itch to resume long distance running, and now I could probably pull it off. I learned to listen to my body, and prevent injury in advance by adjusting my stance and movement until I feel no pain or discomfort of any sort. I dig the endorphin, the runner's high. I don't know if i will find enough time, but worst case scenario is I will just focus on cycling.