Philip George Hayward
Nov 6 · 3 min read

I’ve got some valuable learned lessons on this subject. I’ve written elsewhere about my 20 years getting worse and worse with Fibromyalgia, and then the last 5 years where I’ve worked out what reverses it. Believe me, I’ve had to learn about everything that affects me musculo-skeletally.

I agree with what the above essay says. In cultures where they squat or sit down on their heels a lot of the time, they retain a ridiculous ease of remaining in these positions a long time — and it is amazingly good for their whole musculo-skeletal condition. But us westerners who have spent most of our time sitting, have literally lost the ability to squat or sit on our heels — it is painful!

But here’s my argument: work, work, work towards squatting and sitting on your heels. Make it like a several-times-a-day workout routine. Go to a Feldenkrais practitioner and learn step by step how you need to deploy your muscles to “do it right”. It is absolutely true that forcing the lumbar lordosis by means of “support”, is pointless — you should train your musculature to relax in the right places (particularly in the pelvic area) so that the lordosis “happens anyway”. Feldenkrais did this for me. A simple muscle reprogramming “lesson” consists of teetering on the very front edge of your seat (with just your pelvic points supporting you on the front edge of the seat) and “playing with” your pelvic angle; hang your guts out between your legs by “rocking” with everything relaxed; and rock back again. Don’t push it out and pull it back in, just “rock”, totally relaxed. See what happens, how it feels when you stand up again, and when you sit again.

I agree that your chair should allow your knees to be below the level of your hips. I obtained something years ago called a “Mulligan Chair” which is slightly horse-saddle shaped, so that you partly straddle it with thighs sloping downwards. But I also strongly advocate for placing your feet flat on the floor, as far back under the seat as possible. This way, you are “working back towards” the squatting position. I’ve been slowly getting my feet further and further back, and my seat lower while still allowing the thighs to slope downwards. Don’t sit with your heels up and your toes jammed into the floor.

I actually alternate between my Mulligan chair, a kneeler chair, and standing. I’m very interested in the idea of a chair that allows for “active sitting”. Sometimes I experiment with sitting on a large foam roller on the seat of a chair. Both east-west, and north-south (straddling it). Sitting straddling a foam roller (as if it was a log) and clenching and releasing the butt muscles is therapeutic.

When standing, I periodically do “knees-ups” and kicking my heels up.

The medical science knowledge gap in all this relates to muscle fascia and the interstitial fluids that keep the fascia hydrated and lubricated. Squatting helps “squeeze” these fluids around the body. There are clear biological reasons why Yoga positions are beneficial. It is a pity that the weird metaphysical BS around it has been allowed to predominate in western perceptions of it; you can leave all that out and understand why it works, if you understand muscle fascia and interstitial fluids.

Recent research on the insterstitial spaces in the body, concluded that “standardized tests of interstitial fluids could have major diagnostic power for many conditions”. Blood tests and other standard tests often are useless for diagnosing “what is wrong” with people with “mystery syndromes” and the answers are probably to be found in the interstitial fluids. Stagnation, adhesions and toxicity in these “spaces” probably explain a lot. Also, transfers from one part of the body to another (eg of cancer cells) can be via this fluid, bypassing the blood and lymph vessel system and hence not being detected.

    Philip George Hayward

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