Posted on August 08, 2016 by Kate Halsall
How you sit or stand plays an important role in your overall posture. If you slouch in your chair or stand on one leg – they both have postural implications. When we stand, we want to have our legs parallel to each other with our knees and toes pointing forward. When we sit we want to be upright and our feet should be flat on the floor. Already by reading this you’ll be thinking of how you sit or stand, so here’s our posture advice part 4 – watch those legs!
Feet Not Parallel
From doing postural assessments, I have found that quite often, people will have their legs straight, but the feet point in different directions. If our feet are not parallel it will affect the muscles around the knees, legs and hips which will affect not only our backs, but also our functional movement. You have to remember that your feet are your bodies base of support so we need a stable and even position.
Leaning on One Leg
I find that this is more common in tall people – it’s as if they are trying to hide their height! But instead of using your core muscles to keep you upright, you’re placing excessive pressure on one side of your lower back and hip. This is bad simply because over time, you may develop muscle imbalances around the pelvis area, which could lead to back pain.
Sitting Crossed Legged
Ideally, when you sit facing forward, both feet should be planted squarely on the floor. However, most of us lean to one side or the other, or cross our legs. The problem with sitting with your legs crossed is that you’re changing the positioning of your hips – and you repeat this over and over again. Your hips/pelvis support your spine, imagine the load and pressure you are placing on it by sitting this way – not to mention how you are changing the muscle function around your hips!
Unlike the other advisory blogs in this series, I can’t simply give you one exercise to help you with these postural elements. You just need to be aware that you are doing these things and try and correct them! It will be uncomfortable at first – because it’s not your natural position, but you need to think of the potential long term damage you are doing to your body!