Sitting

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Cross-legged
)
"Sit" redirects here. For other uses, see Sit (disambiguation).
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

Sitting is a

lower limbs as in standing, squatting or kneeling. When sitting, the torso
is more or less upright, although sometimes it can lean against other objects for a more relaxed posture.

Sitting for much of the day may pose significant health risks, with one study suggesting people who sit regularly for prolonged periods may have higher mortality rates than those who do not.[1][2] The average person sits down for 4.7 hours per day, according to a global review representing 47% of the global adult population.[3]

The form of kneeling where the buttocks sit back on the heels, for example as in the Seiza and Vajrasana postures, is also often interpreted as sitting.

Prevalence

The British Chiropractic Association said in 2006 that 32% of the British population spent more than ten hours per day sitting down.[4]

Positions

On the floor

A man sitting on the ground, on a road in Nepal

The most common ways of sitting on the floor involve bending the knees. One can also sit with the legs unbent, using something solid as support for the back or leaning on one's arms. Sitting with bent legs can be done with the legs mostly parallel or by crossing them over each other.

A common cross-legged position is with the lower part of both legs folded towards the body, crossing each other at the ankle or calf, with both ankles on the floor, sometimes with the feet tucked under the knees or thighs. The position is known in several European languages as

sukhasana
, meaning "easy pose."

On a raised seat

A woman sitting on a chair

Various raised surfaces at the appropriate height can be used as seats for humans, whether they are made for the purpose, such as chairs, stools and benches, or not. While the buttocks are nearly always rested on the raised surface, there are many differences in how one can hold one's legs and back.

There are two major styles of sitting on a raised surface. The first has one or two of the legs in front of the sitting person; in the second, sitting astride something, the legs incline outwards on either side of the body.

Buddha
, seated with legs crossed

The feet can rest on the floor or on a

footrest
, which can keep them vertical, horizontal, or at an angle in between. They can also dangle if the seat is sufficiently high. Legs can be kept right to the front of the body, spread apart, or one crossed over the other.

The upper body can be held upright, recline to either side or backward, or one can lean forward.

Yoga, traditions and spirituality

The Japanese tea ceremony is performed sitting in seiza.

There are many seated positions in various traditions and rituals. Four examples are:

  • 正座 (zhengzuo) is a Chinese word which describes the traditional formal way of sitting in Ancient China. A related position is 跪座, which differs in the tops of the feet being raised off the ground.
  • Vajrasana (Diamond Pose) is a yoga posture (asana) similar to seiza.
  • The lotus position involves resting each foot on the opposite thigh so that the soles of the feet face upwards.
  • The
    Burma
    , places both feet in front of the pelvis with knees bent and touching the floor to the sides. The heels are pointing toward pelvis or upward, and toes are pointed so that the tops of the feet lie on the ground. This looks similar to the cross-legged position, but the feet are not placed underneath the thigh of the next leg, therefore the legs do not cross. Instead, one foot is placed in front of the other.

In various

mythologies and folk magic, sitting is a magical act that connects the person who sits with other persons, states or places.[7]

Kneeling chairs

The

human position as both sitting and kneeling
at the same time.

Health risks

See also: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis
Back of a sitting nude by school of Rembrandt

In 1700,

epithelial ovarian cancer.[1][9][10][11][12] The link between heart disease and diabetes mortality and sitting is well-established, but the risk of cancer mortality is unclear.[11][13] Sedentary time is also associated with an increased risk of depression in children and adolescents.[14] A correlation between occupational sitting specifically and higher body mass index has been demonstrated, but causality has not yet been established.[9] There are several hypotheses explaining why sitting is a health risk. These include changes in cardiac output, vitamin D, inflammation, sex hormone activity, lipoprotein lipase activity, and GLUT4 activity due to long periods of muscular unloading, among others.[9][11][12]

Sitting may occupy up to half of an adult's workday in developed countries.

therapy ball chairs, and stepping devices.[10][15] Results of these programs are mixed,[10] but there is moderate evidence to show that changes to chairs (adjusting the biomechanics of the chair or using different types of chairs) can effectively reduce musculoskeletal symptoms in workers who sit for most of their day.[16]

Public health programs typically focus on increasing physical activity rather than reducing sitting time.

Cochrane review found low-quality evidence that providing employees with a standing desk option may reduce the length of time some people sit at work in the first year.[15] This reduction in sitting may decrease with time, and there is no evidence that standing desks are effective in the long term.[15] In addition, a 2018 British Journal of Medicine systematic review concluded that interventions aimed at reducing sitting outside of work were only modestly effective.[18] It is not clear how standing desks compare to other work-place interventions to reduce the length of time employees are sitting during the work day.[15]

Relationship between posture and health conditions

Though most studies even until early 21st century relate human body postures to various

iHunch
is an example of postural stress which could cause upper back pain and neck pain, which is prevalent in younger generations and people whose occupation involves prolonged usage of computers.

Sedentary behaviour

Women reclining in chairs. Painting by Jean-François de Troy.

Sedentary behaviour is any waking behaviour, whether in sitting or reclining posture, by an energy expenditure less or equal to 1.5 metabolic equivalents of task (METs).[23] MET, beside the watt and kilojoules, is the unit for expressing the energy cost of physical activities. One MET is defined as resting metabolic rate – as energy used with a person at rest, sitting quietly in a chair or as the amount of O2 consumed with that person.[24] MET for an adult weighing 70 kg equals 3.5 ml O2 per kg body weight per min.[25]

Sedentary behaviour should be distinguished from being inactive – performing insufficient amounts of MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity).[26] The World Health Organization[27] recommends at least 60 min of daily MVPA for children and adolescents aged 5–17 years, and 150 min of weekly MVPA for adults.

Sedentary behaviour can not be equated with screen time, although some researchers found out that a large share of waking time by children and adolescents in a sedentary position is accumulated by media consumption in front of a screen.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 7256176
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  2. ^ Mole, Beth (2017-09-13). "The new study suggesting sitting will kill you is kind of a raging dumpster fire". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  3. PMID 32883294
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  4. ^ "Sitting straight 'bad for backs'". BBC. November 28, 2006. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  5. ^ "The Art of the Cut". History.org. Archived from the original on August 5, 2007. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  6. ISSN 0098-7484
    .
  7. ^ Čajkanović, Veselin (1996). "Magical Sitting". Anthropology of East Europe Review. 14 (1). Translated by Živković, Marko. Archived from the original on 2007-07-03. Retrieved 2007-07-09. It is obvious from all the above that sitting, seen from the viewpoint of the history of religion, could be a magical act which, within the framework of analogic magic, will establish a certain relationship, a covenant.
  8. PMID 11527762
    .
  9. ^
    S2CID 205433800
    .
  10. ^
    PMID 20801153
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  11. ^
    PMID 21238866
    .
  12. ^
    S2CID 1026991
    .
  13. S2CID 24453607
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  14. PMID 26552416
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  15. ^
    PMID 30556590
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  16. PMID 22889123
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  17. ^ a b Europe, WHO (September 2015). "World Health Organization" (PDF). WHO. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  18. S2CID 3291752
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  19. PMID 21419349
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  20. ^ "Are you sitting comfortably: the myth of good posture". The Guardian. 5 March 2018.
  21. PMID 29682532
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  22. ^ "Posture Correction: Does it matter?".
  23. ^ Sedentary Behaviour, Research Network. "Letter to the editor: Standardized use of the terms "sedentary" and "sedentary behaviours"". Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 37 (3): 540–542.
  24. S2CID 23629878
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  25. PMID 18720173
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  26. S2CID 210158026
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  27. ^ "WHO 2011". Archived from the original on November 16, 2011.
  28. doi:10.5960/dzsm.2017.278
    .

Further reading

External links

  • Media related to Sitting at Wikimedia Commons
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