Positions for reading and working?

[prince_muishkin]

Hi all,

I'm interested to know everyone's opinion is on what are "good" postures for reading?

There are a lot of topics here on how to sit for meditation, but when reading you are stuck with having your neck strained or your arm strained in holding the book high. Recently I experimented with sitting on the ground and moving around while reading. When sitting in each position started to feel uncomfortable, I'd move to a different form of sitting (kneeling to half pigeon for example). However I found I was still getting a lot of strain on my arm from holding the book aloft. As I've recently got some tendinitis in my elbow and shoulder I'd like to relieve the pressure without just swapping to the other arm.

I'm also curious as to how people sit for working at computers. I know Kit has a small table and sits on the floor, but for an office dweller like me this seems less optimal. Anyone have nice postures for sitting at a desk? (Of course avoiding sitting as much as possible is the main aim of the game.) One of my friends has a perfect lotus and can sit for a long time at a desk in the position however I don't think I'll ever reach that level of comfort in the position.

[Olga]

I am surprised this has only come up! This has been bothering me since I started to study for a masters degree and had to read and write an enormous quantity of texts. This is my most hated part of the study - sitting down in front of the computer for hours. This is what I do:

I have no chairs at home and my only sitting furniture is two wooden benches, both without back support.  I sit with one leg bent or both legs bent (cross-legged) on that bench and change positions very often. The other leg is usually stretching along the longer end of the bench   This keeps my back straight/neutral, makes me want to change positions often and gets my hamstrings and adductors into stretch - while I am straining my eyes and my brain in front of that much hated machine called computer...

PS I realised my post above was not about reading but reading, writing and what else you do on the computer. For reaching books, I just lie down on the bed (have no sofa) and have spiine as close to neutral as possible. I try to avoid sitting as much as I can, I would either walk, stand or lie down. Having no sofa or chair at home helps.

[jaja]

I've arranged a stand-up desk by putting books under keyboard and mouse, my dream is to own a desk which can be moved (and fixed) in any position from the ground to eye-level. I don't know if it exist, though.

On a side note: I wonder if working in a standing position and be mostly still in one place is really much better than sitting.

[Nathan]

19 hours ago, jaja said:

On a side note: I wonder if working in a standing position and be mostly still in one place is really much better than sitting.

It's not. They have done studies on this. You might burn a few extra calories, but nothing worth mentioning. The answer is not to change your static position, but rather to add movement into your day.

[jaja]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Anyway, my goal would be to avoid tension in my HFs when possible.

[Bumanov]

Love the idea behind the desk! I find the floor the most versatile space to do any sort of work. Sitting in a chair limits you to maybe 2-3 positions with the legs while the upper torso basically remains static (with the exception of the occasional thoracic backbend over the back support). Standing doesn't offer much variety either unless you have a counter at about hip height where you can place your lower leg into a figure four or place the foot on top for a hip flexor stretch on the standing leg. 

However, from sitting I am able to transition from at least 10 different positions with the legs. You can also have the spine in extension like in a sphinx pose. I tend to do all my work from the floor, and often create a small surface to place my computer and a notebook on that's low to the ground with a stack of books, although something a bit more sturdy and elegant would be great You can also modify with a yoga block if the flexibility is an issue. 

[Nathan]

I spent an extended period of time in the US a while back. During that time, I bought adjustable-height desks (drafting tables, actually) and used them as standing desks. My wife used a tall stool to avoid adjusting and often just sat at hers  Standing desks are not really a "thing" here in Japan and we already had working desks, so when we returned I looked at alternate styles of chairs instead. I ended up going with kneeling chairs, which take away the arm/back supports and force you to support yourself. But in the end, there really is no perfect solution. Choose a setup that forces you to reposition yourself often, and try to step away and move as often as possible. Obviously that's much easier for someone like myself who works at home, but there will always be ways to improve.

[Jonas W]

There are probably some (or a lot of) health benenfits to standing up compared to sitting down.

As for burning calories, as stated above by Nathan, it doesn't seem to make a big difference. A review article (Miles-Chan & Dulloo 2017) summarized a lot of the research on energy expenditure in sedentary vs standing positions. It seems like the standing itself doesn't make much of a difference, but if you add frequent movements to it (i.e. "stepping") it can add up to 1.5 times the EE.

However, Gibbs et al. 2017 compared sitting, sitting-standing and standing for 30 minutes each and found that sitting-standing resulted in a 5.5±12.4 kcal/h (7.8% increase) compared to sitting, and continuous standing resulted in an 8.2±15.9 kcal/h (11.5% increase) increase. Their conclusion was that "alternating positions to achieve the recommended 4h/day of standing could result in an additional 56.9 kcal/day for an 88.9kg man and 48.3 kcal/day for a 75.5kg woman."

Energy expenditure aside, there are negative effects from sitting down in itself, although the mechanisms are not clearly understood. Honda et al. (2016) is a good read in that regard. They found that 30 minutes or more of continuous sitting can be associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome. Some possible mechanisms: "Hamilton and colleagues suggested that the activities of lipoprotein lipase, which locally regulate the uptake of triglycerides into muscle and the HDL-cholesterol concentration, were suppressed by prolonged periods without muscle contraction ".

Personally I vary a lot a normal day. I don't even have a chair in my office, but an office treadmill ("officewalker 2.0"). In my treatment room I usually stand up. When I go to "fika" (it's in our daily schedule twice a day here in Sweden) I sit down normally, or in a seiza or asian squat. I probably only sit down 1,5 hours a day in small portions throughout the day.

Did I mention I love my office treadmill?

Gibbs BB1, Kowalsky RJ1, Perdomo SJ1, Grier M1, Jakicic JM1. Energy expenditure of deskwork when sitting, standing or alternating positions. Occup Med (Lond). 2017 Mar 1;67(2):121-127. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqw115.

Honda T, Chen S, Yonemoto K, et al. Sedentary bout durations and metabolic syndrome among working adults: a prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health. 2016;16(1):888. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3570-3.

Miles-Chan JL, Dulloo AG. Posture Allocation Revisited: Breaking the Sedentary Threshold of Energy Expenditure for Obesity Management. Frontiers in Physiology. 2017;8:420. doi:10.3389/fphys.2017.00420.