The problem with sitting down is not necessarily the sitting itself. To understand this better, let’s go around the topic from two different perspectives.
One is a stability question. To maintain a stable position of the body, we use three things: the feet, the glutes, and the spine. When we just casually sit down, we pretty much lose two of those three. The feet can do anything, most often we are not even aware of them at all. Secondly, since we can rock back on the bum, eventually we will do that since there is support behind us most of the time so we can’t fall back. And although we could try to make up for losing them two by the remaining third, that is a bit too much effort and we would get tired pretty quickly.
So, what we can do is to keep all the 3 ideas alive whenever possible. If sitting down is non-negotiable and a must, we can at least try to use the hips, and move our legs into positions that will provide a stable base for the trunk.
1.) As a minimum, we can sit on the edge of the chair, so we are not just purely relying on the support behind us, which also means we can tilt forward onto the sit bones and the feet have to work to keep us stable.
2.) We could open the legs wider while having the feet together and facing each other, which would awaken more muscles around the hips
3.) We could kinda squat on one or two legs
4.) We could sit on both heels
5.) We could keep the legs in a staggered position or just lunge down and support the weight on the legs
6.) And we could even cross one on top of the other
A second way to look at the problem is from the perspective of breathing. If by default our breathing is really functional, meaning it happens diaphragmatically and expands the trunk in every direction, we are in a good position all the time, so we have a nice posture. The breathing should not change just because we are sitting down. If we always breathe the same way, the trunk will maintain the same position. As soon as we start bending forward or slouching the back, the air will not be able to travel the same way as before, which will give us immediate feedback about the change in position. Unfortunately, being aware of the breath to this degree is not very common, but it is certainly something that we could all improve on and practice regularly. So the problem with sitting in this case it the fact that chances are, when we are looking at something or doing something with our hands, we will shift and move away from an upright position, where it’s easiest to keep the centre of gravity. If the head pulls forward for example (because we can’t see something on the screen and we lean towards it), we will immediately change the body’s position.
The best solution is probably to not sit down if possible. Leaning against something is already a better option since that forces us to maintain some level of tension to keep us upright. And by this, I don’t mean that you have to stiffen up the body and keep it tight during the whole day, every day. You can change positions, shift around, and do various things. The main concept to keep in mind is while you are breathing well and moving around, you have some level of constant body awareness, and your body won’t forget about its capacity to do all of these things.
1.) Standing is always a good option – without locking out anything and evenly distributing the weight over the feet
2.) Leaning into something (high chair, bar stool, table, railing’s etc.) is a pretty good alternative to standing
3.) As previously mentioned, sitting on the sit bones is important.
4.) Could lean into the front leg (notice that the body is maintaining a neutral position, and the height of the chair or hip flexibility doesn’t change that)
5.) Try some other hip positions, similar to a pigeon stretch
6.) Or even a more extended leg position (these all require different abilities from the body/hip)