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Best Sitting Posture Is Not Straight Up

Posted by kdawson on from the try-typing-in-that-position dept.

An anonymous reader writes, "Researchers at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland used a new form of magnetic resonance imaging to collect images from 22 healthy volunteers, who assumed three different sitting positions: slouching posture in which the body is hunched forward, an upright 90-degree sitting position, and a relaxed position where the subject reclined backward 135 degrees. They concluded that the reclined position is the best, and the forward slouch the worst." From the article: "'We were not created to sit down for long hours, but somehow modern life requires the vast majority of the global population to work in a seated position,' Dr. Bashir said. 'This made our search for the optimal sitting position all the more important.'"

34 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Is it just me... by Akvum · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or did you start to slouch the moment you read this?

    1. Re:Is it just me... by RsG · · Score: 4, Funny

      Start?

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    2. Re:Is it just me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I was already slouching.

    3. Re:Is it just me... by sparkane · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually it really made me sit up and take notice.

      sig: "I'll slouch when I'm dead!"

    4. Re:Is it just me... by danpsmith · · Score: 3, Funny
      Or did you start to slouch the moment you read this?

      Oh come on, I was already leaning back, don't you remember? Fat Joe told us to do this a couple years ago.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    5. Re:Is it just me... by greenbird · · Score: 5, Funny
      Or did you start to slouch the moment you read this?
      Unfortunately, the problem with the 135 degrees position is that you need a very good chair with a head-rest, otherwise, sitting at 135 degrees while keeping you head straight (in order to be looking horizontally at your monitor, rather than at the ceiling) hurts the neck.

      I'm typing this reclined in a lazyboy with a 22" wide screen monitor, mounted with an arm to the desk next to the chair, hovering about 18" away from eyes at a perfect viewing angle using a wireless keyboard and trackball connected to an 8 way KVM with 5 computers lined up within reach under the desk next to the chair. Add in the sound system, 42" HD LCD TV visible just to the right of the monitor and it makes for a work environment I don't mind spending 14 hours a day in. Oh... I also have an exercise bike that the arm mounted monitor can reach and I rigged with mounts for the keyboard and trackball. The only thing I haven't figured out is the whole bathroom thing.

      --
      Who is John Galt?
    6. Re:Is it just me... by creepynut · · Score: 4, Funny
      I'm typing this reclined in a lazyboy with a 22" wide screen monitor, mounted with an arm to the desk next to the chair, hovering about 18" away from eyes at a perfect viewing angle using a wireless keyboard and trackball connected to an 8 way KVM with 5 computers lined up within reach under the desk next to the chair. Add in the sound system, 42" HD LCD TV visible just to the right of the monitor


      You sir may just be the biggest, dorkiest, geek ever born. I salute you :P
    7. Re:Is it just me... by damonlab · · Score: 2, Funny

      Spoken like an admin.

    8. Re:Is it just me... by dangitman · · Score: 5, Funny
      The only thing I haven't figured out is the whole bathroom thing.

      Solution: Eric Cartman's Mom.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
    9. Re:Is it just me... by tobiasly · · Score: 2, Funny

      HA! You were WRONG all those years, Mom! Sitting up straight isn't better... IN YOUR FACE!! BOOOYAAAAA...

    10. Re:Is it just me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      S?

    11. Re:Is it just me... by nytes · · Score: 5, Funny

      I agree.

      I'm now reclining back at 135 degrees, with my monitor sitting atop a 4-foot high stack of phone books, right in front of me. Of course, it took some doing to get the monitor angled down so I'm facing it straight on. As long as the duct tape holds, everything is gre
      NO CARRIER

      --
      -- I have monkeys in my pants.
    12. Re:Is it just me... by sco08y · · Score: 4, Funny

      The only thing I haven't figured out is the whole bathroom thing.

      I'm sure a good plumber could work it for you. You'll probably have to forgo pants.

    13. Re:Is it just me... by shayne321 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The only thing I haven't figured out is the whole bathroom thing.

      Hmm, yeah, problem solved

      --
      Today I didn't even have to use my AK; I got to say it was a good day -- Icecube
    14. Re:Is it just me... by mr_matticus · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hello, ass flap pants, how good to meet you.

  2. WOOT! by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Funny

    To everyone who has ever criticized my working posture: IN YOUR FACE BITCHES!!!

    I now return you to your regularly scheduled slouching.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  3. Re:Best for the back... by gt_mattex · · Score: 4, Funny

    From my anecdotal experience with video games, I can definitely say that my performance is much better when I am leaning forward than when I am reclining -- though this may also have something to do with distance from the monitor, etc.

    I believe this would have something to do with leaning forward being a more 'aggressive' stance.

    --
    "No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture." - Learned Hand
  4. Dr. Bashir by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Dr. Bashir did this study? Life must be more boring on Deep Space 9 after the Dominion War than I thought...

  5. Finally, some recognition! by Sentry21 · · Score: 4, Funny

    So basically what this study is saying is that by leaning back, putting my feet up on my computer, and moving my keyboard to my lap, I'm not only the most laid-back free-thinking rebel at the office, I'm also the most health-conscious? My boss will be glad to hear it!

  6. Lessons from DS9 by jyuter · · Score: 2, Funny

    There was a DS9 episode where Odo was a solid and had back problems from sitting too stiffly. Maybe the Doctors Bashir should consult with each other more often.

  7. Why not go on? by gusmao · · Score: 5, Funny
    Sitting in a angle smaller than 90 degrees -> bad
    Sitting upright -> better
    Sitting in 135 degrees -> healthy
    Sitting in 180 degrees -> wow, that feels great!

    So basically they've found out that the more you incline backward the less you put preassure on your body. Very impressive. Too bad we can't lay down and work at the same time.

    1. Re:Why not go on? by killmenow · · Score: 5, Funny
      Too bad we can't lay down and work at the same time.
      There is a profession (perhaps the oldest) in which this is quite common.
    2. Re:Why not go on? by StikyPad · · Score: 4, Funny

      FYI, I just tried sitting at 270 degrees, figuring if 90 was better and 180 is great, then 270 must be awesome. Anyway, I highly disrecommend it.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  8. Well-founded study by c0nst · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. this 135 posture is so relaxing. I cn typ relly well.z.z.zzzzzzz

  9. Re:yep by SomeoneGotMyNick · · Score: 2, Funny
    *kicks back*

    I have to say that this chair was the best investment I ever made... only about $100 (Canadian) at Walmart, but still. :-)


    Now, replace your chair with mine. The one I was issued at work.

    I have to say that this chair was the best investment they ever made... only about $250 (US) at WWHHAAAAAAA!!!

    ....while the recline limit pin gives way. It's a spring loaded pin you pull out to set. The slightest forward motion SILENTLY returns the pin to the unlocked position. The next time I lean back, everybody in the office knows it.

  10. Wait by nizo · · Score: 3, Funny

    What about hanging upside down? If only they had found hanging upside down to be the healthiest non-standing posture, we could look forward to a wide array of new chair/desk/computer arrangements. And don't even get me started on how happy many big corps would be if they could hang employees from the ceiling, doubling the number of people they can cubicalize in a given space.

    --
    I Am My Own Worst Enemy
  11. Re:Vast majority? by operagost · · Score: 2, Funny
    However! All humans sit.
    I have no buttocks, you insensitive clod!
    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  12. Re:My Favorte Position by Mykid8yours · · Score: 1, Funny

    How about a blow up sheep?

  13. Re:Vast majority? by umbrellasd · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd say that a vast majority of us take things lying down, and no small number of us work that way, too! And on that note, I am happily reminded that, study or no, I do have one component that definitely works best straight up--lying down or not.

  14. Missing Option(s) by MrCopilot · · Score: 4, Funny
    Laying Down.

    On knees under my desk

    My secretary says both work great for her.

    --
    OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
  15. Re:Best for the back... by digitalunity · · Score: 4, Funny

    then your neck ends up bending forward and holding up the weight of your head

    That is why I, as well as millions of my fellow americans, are doing everything we can to be the fattest people on earth. We're simply trying to increase our body mass index to the point where our necks are irrelevant and our shoulders and fat rolls can hold our heads up while we stare into our computers.

    --
    You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
  16. I thought of South Park and WoW. :) by Bamafan77 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Or did you start to slouch the moment you read this?
    I got this mental image of Cartman and gang on the WoW episode of Southpark during their 6 week power-leveling marathon. :)
  17. Re:Is it just me... Reminds me of.. by davidsyes · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Help wanted. Many positions available" images...

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  18. Re:Vast majority? by WeblionX · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's what you get for LMAOing so much.

    --
    (\(\
    (=_=) Bani!
    (")")