Sitting Posture: Upright or Lay Back?

"Sit up and work hard!"

"Lay back and have a brew~"

A lot of times, sitting upright in office might give people an impression that you are highly focused at work and if you have google "work hard" you will definitely know how people sit when they are working hard.

A sitting upright posture... looks smart!

A focused businessman inclining forward
 with a strong arm supporting his head.

On the contrary, lying your back comfortably on the back of chair have not been successful to show people that you are productive and working hard enough... for example:

Sleeping...

Tired businessman...
description taken from the original website.

However, this perceived good sitting posture over centuries has proven to be wrong. A team of researchers, leaded by Dr. Waseem Amir Bashir, presented their research at an annual meeting (2006) of Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and suggested that sitting at an angle of 135 degree would be the best to protect the spine.

"A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical siting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal" Dr. Bashir

A diagram showing sitting at 90 degree
would reduce the natural lordosis at lumbar spine.

 The research was conducted at a hospital in Scotland, and it recruited 22 healthy participants to examine their vertebral disc movements under three most common sitting postures: slouching forward, sitting at 90 degree and reclining backward at 135 degree. It aimed to find out which sitting position would give the least strain to our spine. It concluded that sitting at 135 degree was the best comparing to the other two sitting postures. The result showed that a 135-degree-posture gave the least strain to the lumbar spine while the other two put more stress on the vertebral discs leading to misalignment with the vertebral spine and reduction of disc height.

Okay so... as the evidence suggested, do both: sit comfortably and work well! Charging yourself into a battle mode with an upright sitting posture might be good for your psychological mind but poor for the spine!

Yes I am focusing!

Reference:

• http://www2.rsna.org/timssnet/media/pressreleases/pr_target.cfm?ID=294

Forward Head Posture

FHP is the result of misalignment of your upper back, shoulders and head.  

          (L) Poor Posture                              (R) Proper posture 

I find my posture always looks weird, especially for my neck. Perhaps it's due to my awkward posture. during activities. I develop this when I'm concentrating such as using computer and phone, reading, reading, watching tv, etc. I did not know I was in that poor posture. My head leans forward gradually and silently once I am focusing on things. This gives me neck sore and stiff which is not a good stuff. Anyway, I found this useful link in Youtube talking about the correction exercise for the Forward Head Posture. I am going to try these exercise and hope to get a better posture and relief the stiffness. Here you go.

Pictures reference: http://activespines.com/clients/7950/images/back_pain_solution_forward_head_posture.jpg

http://www.euclidchiropracticinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/postural-distortions-and-posture1-300x291.jpg