Last month I listened to a podcast where Dr Chatterjee’s spoke with Tony Riddle.
Ever since, I’ve been working from my laptop while sitting on the floor, and practising my relaxed squat sit. So far my unaided squat-sit is not very relaxed after a few seconds, but I’m working on it every day.
Some of the benefits of Squat Sitting are:
Mobility of hips, knees and ankles
Relief from back pain
Healthier bowels
Chairs are unhealthy for us
I’m sure you’ve heard that we are not designed to sit for long periods of time. More precisely, we’re not designed to sit for long periods of time in a chair. Especially a soft, comfortable chair, as then we don’t feel the need to move.
Use it or lose it
We need compression and movement of the joins to produce synovial fluid – which is what ‘lubricates’ the joints. Squatting is a great way to keep the ankles, knees and hips oiled.
Sit on the floor with your laptop!
You know how uncomfortable it is to work from your laptop?
Well try sitting on the floor with it. You should notice much less neck strain working this way.
Fidgeting is good
As previously stated, we’re not designed to sit in one position for hours, so when you sit on the floor it’s actually perfectly healthy to keep changing positions. Getting uncomfortable is your body’s way of telling you to move. Tony Riddle says there are about 100 relaxed sitting positions, and he shares a few of them here.
30 day challenge
If you know me, you know I LOVE a challenge!
One of my goals for 2020 is to be able to sit comfortably in a squat position, as a way of resting, as opposed to doing it as an exercise. Jonathan Mead (The Uncaged Human) has a great free video with his 30 day challenge. To see his best quality video I recommend signing up to join the challenge, as the video you’ll get access to is much better than the one on YouTube.
I love to learn and grow, especially when I reap so many health benefits from it; and this ties in beautifully with my switch to barefoot shoes and barefoot running.
I hope you found this information interesting, motivating and useful.
If you have any questions, or need help with this, then please contact me
I hope you have fun with it!