Why Good Posture is Bad
I have often repeated that the obsession with perfectly upright backs is unhealthy and nothing more than a remnant of Victorian England era ideas. Sitting bolt uprights puts all the weight of the upper body on the lower spine. Sitting slightly reclined is better, since the back of the chair now supports some of your upper body weight. Now something I thought was common sense to anyone who spent some time thinking about it has been verified scientifically.
From this issue of “The Week” Magazine under the Health and Science section
Why Good Posture is Bad
For generations, schoolteachers and moms have told young people to stop slouching and sit upright. That advice, it turns out, was wrong. Sitting with a straight back, says a new study, actually puts enormous pressure on the spinal column and can lead to chronic back pain. Researchers at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland, Developed and MRI technique that allowed them to observe the spinal columns of 22 volunteers as they sat for long hours. Some were told to slouch over a video game console, some sat upright at a 90-degree angle, and others leaned back at a 135-degree angle. After watching their spines move and settle, the scientists concluded that the reclining position was by far the best for the back. Slouchers caused wear and tear to the lower spinal disks, but the vertical pressure of the upright position caused the most damage, forcing the spine’s disks and muscles out of line. “we were not created to sit down for long hours, but modern life requires it,” study author Waseem Bashir tells the London Times. To avoid a lifetime of “Pain, deformity, and chronic illness,” he recommends sitting in a chair that provides full support to the spine when you lean slightly backward, which mimics the supine position.
How many people have suffered through back injuries because of this poor advice? How many thousands of hours and millions of dollars have been lost, because at some point people thought this ridiculous thing?
Was more comfortable than this?
Ergonomic science is only now starting to rid itself of its pseudoscientific origins.
Do a google image search on “Ergonomic Chair” and everyone suggests a bolt upright, and very unhealthy, posture.
My product, the ErgoSlope, was designed around this position, as well as information from other studies, such as those from the UCLA Ergonomics dept which suggests appropriate arm elbow angles of 100 degrees (the natural resting angle of the elbow) instead of the 90 degree strict right angle dictated by bolt upright backs.
UCLA Ergonomics
Where did I get my idea from? Not million dollar studies or extensive research, but simply looking at the way astronauts sleep in space and from something I read in a book about the human body and space travel.
This is a picture from the Canadian Space agency. CSA Astronaut Bjarni V. Tryggvason is sleeping on the Space Shuttle Discovery’s mid-deck floor. Notice the resting position of the arms. The shoulders, elbows, and wrists revert to the naturally most comfortable position. These nuetral resting positions are the ones the ErgoSlope easily facilitates! (just picture a keyboard and mouse under his hands and a desk supporting those)
What I read was that in the supine position, astronauts can withstand tremendous G forces.
"Up to 30 g’s can be tolerated in the supine position without structural damage. Although head and arm movements become impossible at 6 g’s, the wrists, hands, and fingers can move at accelerations up to 12 g’s." pg 68 LIVING IN SPACE by G. Harry Stine
The supine position then is the easiest on the body, and the position a sleeping astronaut takes is essentially that. The original implementation of my ErgoSlope was to have a chair built around the desk.
The ErgoSlope is the best facilitation of this comfortable seating position and arm and shoulder angles. Add a nice Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard to the mix and you have a good comfortable resting position for each joint of your body.
See more at www.ErgoSlope.com
