Are you sitting right?
How do you like to sit when you’re at the office? How about the dinner table? The bus? Many people are most comfortable sitting with one leg crossed over the other.
Sure, it’s comfortable & it works for you, but it is doing more harm than good, don’t do it.
In my observation, when people cross their legs they tend to end up doing the following :
• Tightening the thighs & locking the hip joints
• Putting more pressure on knee joint
• Shifting their weight to one side, throwing the pelvis off balance & likely loading the discs of the spine more on that side
• Either holding the upper body rigidly or collapsing down into slump
Here’s what you need to know-
1. Bad posture – sitting frequently with crossed legs causes imbalance in your spine leading to improper/ bad posture.
2. It may cause back & neck pain – Imbalance in the pelvis due to crossing the leg, puts pressure on hips & spine & later leading to neck & back pain.
3. Affects blood circulation – crossing your legs increases pressure on veins that are responsible for returning blood back to your heart. Days & weeks of doing this puts pressure of one leg on top of other impeding your blood flow.
4. Compresses your nerves – the sciatic nerve is the largest in human body & stretches from lower back to down our feet. Any pressure on this such as leg crossing can cause numbness & tingling & over time may cause nerve damage.
5. Can cause pelvic imbalance – it is due to the reason that this position can impact your inner & outer thigh muscles putting your leg joints at risk.
Points to remember –
• Try to avoid crossed-leg sitting, at-least no longer than ten or fifteen minutes.
• After every few hours, get up & walk around if it’s possible.
• Avoid sitting in one position for long hours, keep changing the position.
• Maintain your sitting posture.
• Try to stretch out more often to avoid muscle tightness.
For further information, reach out to us at –
Pooja Physiotherapy & Healthcare Center
Blk 77 Indus road #01-521S’160077
Call now @ 6384 5452 or whatsapp @ 8322 3371 or
Drop an email at info@physiopooja.com.sg
