Why ditching your sofa could save your life
As experts claim long periods of sitting may damage health and raises our risk of cancers and heart disease, KIM JONES meets the women who believe chucking out your chairs will improve more than just your posture
ARE YOU sitting comfortably? Well, don’t stay that way too long. Because, according to health experts, that comfy couch could be the death of you. Research suggests many of us sit in chairs between eight and 10 hours a day, with studies linking this sedentary behaviour to a whole host of health problems.
As well as putting us at risk of poor posture, lower back and joint pain, it’s also associated with issues including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of cancer.
And even those of us who do the recommended 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise each week are at risk if we spend most of our days sitting at a desk and evenings in front of the telly.
Now an emerging “groundliving” movement is encouraging people to ditch the humble chair for good.The problem, it seems, isn’t purely about sitting, it’s about how we sit – usually still, for long periods, in the same “chairshaped”, supported position, whether that’s on a couch or in an office chair.This requires us to use only a small range of muscle groups, says Jeannette Loram, biologist and movement coach. “A repetitive position puts your joints, muscles and blood vessels at risk of stiffness and stress,” she explains.
It also lowers our cardiovascular fitness and prevents our lymphatic system from flushing toxins out effectively. “What is underappreciated is the fact that movement has localised positive effects,” says Jeanette. “The lymph glands are dependent on movement to transport immune cells and remove waste.Without it, they can’t function properly.”
SHE,AND other experts, including US biomechanist Katy Bowman, author of Move Your DNA, are proponents of “ground living” (or becoming furniturefree) and want to see people create “dynamic” living spaces for floor sitting, squatting, kneeling or sitting on cushions at low tables and workstations which promote more varied movement.
“Our bodies adapt to what we do and don’t do: our muscle lengths and connective tissue in joints adjust to our most frequented postures,” says Jeannette. “If we spend the bulk of a day in a chair, our bodies modify so that the 90-degree angle in hips and knees becomes easier while other positions and ranges of motion become unavailable.
“Humans are huntergatherers – our physiology is set up to work optimally under conditions of lots of varied movement.”
The key, she says, is not only to move more, but to move all of our body parts more. And this is where ground-living can help. “There is less incentive to move when our homes are full of soft, squishy supportive things,” says Jeannette.
“A low table, mattresses, cushions and sitting on the floor all require a bigger range of movement of the hip joint (and often knee and ankle too) and more muscle use to get you down and up from the floor than a regular chair or bed.
“Sitting on the floor also automatically requires more core musculature engagement – your muscles and bones, rather than your sofa, have to support the weight of your torso – and you will need to change positions more frequently, helping to keep joints mobile and circulation moving.”
Michelle Muldoon, 57, from Hampton Hill (pictured left), knew things had to change when she realised she was filling just small pockets of her day with activity. “The turning point for me came when I was approaching 40. I bent down to tie my son’s shoelaces and couldn’t get back up. My back had seized and I had to be taken to hospital in
an ambulance. My mother had chronic back problems and I didn’t want to face the same issues. So began my ‘movement journey’. I started with Pilates and eventually came across Katy Bowman.”
Michelle, who used to be desk-bound working for Reuters in business information and data training, started training with Katy in 2013 and now teaches her own restorative exercise classes through Heart And Sole Movement. She has also embraced ground-living, having less – and more movement-friendly – furniture in the home she shares with her husband and three grown-up children.
Michelle’s workstation is usually a low table where she sits on a bolster. “What would normally be ‘still’ time in a chair is now a time of movement as I naturally switch from kneeling, to crosslegged, to semi-squats,” she says.
Her old bed has been replaced with a low platform, futon-like bed with a slim mattress topper, which requires a lot of body movement to get down to, in and out of.
Michelle gave away a sofa (while keeping another for guests or relatives to sit on) and replaced it with a low, backless platform made by a carpenter friend, which was fitted with a long cushion. “The result is a seat that requires you to squat to get on and off it,” she says.
“I made the leap to change the kitchen table last winter.The same carpenter friend sawed its legs down to 18 inches.We now eat at it every night, sitting on banana fibre floor stools, yoga blocks, bolsters or the bench that came with the original table, which has also been cut down.” Michelle admits that, at first, ground-living was a challenge. “It was uncomfortable and every part of my body was screaming to get back onto the sofa. But with perseverance, I’ve become much more flexible, mobile and stronger, with no joint or muscular pain – and I aim to stay that way into late life.The rest of the family feel the benefits too.
“Now I can’t get comfy on the sofa. If I want to watch a film, I’ll lie on the floor with cushions under my head and neck. If I find myself coveting the couch, I realise it’s my body’s way of telling me I probably need to go to bed!”
● For more information go to nutritiousmovement.com, jeannetteloram.com and heartandsolemovement.com