Now, be honest: when was the last time you squatted to have a natter with an old friend on Market Square?
Never mind “effortlessly”, “smiling” or “clutching a dog on your lap”…
Chances are that “Never!” or “When I was 5…” are the likely answers, if you’re a middle-aged person of European descent. And you may think that’s the norm. After all, you witness your mother or your great-uncle grinning tightly or grunting as they painfully lower themselves onto the couch or the bed. And we won’t even get into what happens when they try to heave themselves up from a sitting position.
Well, you’d be wrong: because from Japan to Jordan and from Yaoundé to Manaus, you will come across young and old, working, talking and laughing as they sit on their haunches for what seems like hours. And if you’re like me, your jaw may initially drop when they lithely get up and just… walk away.
Personally, I feel rather smug when I manage to hold the position for a few minutes. And I am loath to report that it is anything but effortless, since my heels remain far from the ground, thus hindering a good balance. Furthermore, emerging on otherwise stable legs is akin to torture. And smoothly walking away will have to wait until blood circulation is re-established.
Similar scenarios can be expected when “Westerners” sit cross-legged during their first yoga or meditation class – let alone sleep on a mat or a carpet for the first time.
In our previous post, we defined “freeze culture” or “immobilisation” as a post-modern plague that closely ranks with the onslaught of glucose in our diets. We also discussed strategies to bring back more natural movement into our everyday lives.
But what to do about posture?
After all, postures are not just technologically enabled through furniture or architecture, they have been culturally mediated for decades, if not centuries. Indeed, when in Rome (or Toronto), you will struggle to find people enjoying their morning coffee while crouching on the pavement and chances are that you have paid a fortune for your designer sofa or your high-end boxspring bed.
So, here again, we are not suggesting you throw them out of the window. But, at least in the confines of your own home, you can begin to re-experiment with postures and positions that have accompanied humankind from very early days, helping us to remain supple, balanced and largely pain-free, well into old age.
A group of evolutionary anthropologists (Raichlen & al., 2020) studying patterns of sitting and squatting on the basis of a hunter-gatherer sample from Kenya came to the following conclusion: We suggest human physiology is adapted to more consistent muscle activity throughout the day associated with a combination of both physical activity (e.g., MVPA) and non ambulatory time spent in active rest postures. Recent work suggests that it is prolonged muscular inactivity that drives the negative health effects of sitting. Sitting in postures that do not require much muscle activity (i.e.,chair sitting) leads to reduced local muscle metabolism, with detrimental effects on lipid and glucose metabolism, blood flow and endothelial health, and regulation of inflammation."
So, why not, for instance, organise a room or a corner of a room with a low coffee-table and cushions instead of chairs to practice more dynamic sitting?
At epiAge, we are curious to hear about your strategies to remain “naturally” flexible...
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Sources and further reading
Raichlen, David A., Pontzer, Herman, Zderic, Theodore W., Harris, Jacob A., Mabulla, Audax Z. P., Hamilton, Marc T., Wood, Brian M. “Sitting, squatting, and the evolutionary biology of human inactivity”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. March 9, 2020.117 (13), 7115-712. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911868117. Online: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1911868117
Coutinho, Marilia, The fear of squatting (in industrial societies), Elitefts, 31.01.2020. Online: https://www.elitefts.com/coaching-logs/the-fear-of-squatting-in-industrial-societies/
Sariev, Vasil, Benefits of Sitting in a Squat Position. Daily, Medium, 23.07.2023. Online: https://medium.com/@vasilsariev/benefits-of-sitting-in-a-squat-position-daily-48093c639fc8
Illustration
Quang Nguyen Vinh / pexels
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