The most common problems caused by traditional sitting
- Bad posture of the back cause degeneration of several tissues, pains, weakening of back muscles, shallow breathing, poor intestine activity, and poor brain circulation.
- Rounded shoulders and hanging head cause neck and shoulder tensions and Repetitive Strain Injury Syndrome (“mouse hand syndrome”).
- Poor circulation (lymph and blood) affect the whole body causing swelling, varicose veins, tiredness, and inactivity.
- Intestinal health weakens, which results in a bigger risk of hemorrhoids, constipation, inflammations in the intestine, poorer immune resistance, and cancer.
- Joint health is poorer because of the 90 degree angle in hips and knee joints; this speeds up e.g. arthritis.
- Genital health is poorer causing inflammations in the genital area for women, and erectile dysfunctions and worse sperm quality for men.
- Inner pelvic health weakens because of the pressure the seat padding pushes through the pelvic opening; this results in numerous internal pelvic health problems, including cancer.
- Rolling and reaching with the chair is clumsy, which decreases productivity.
The 90/90 degree angle sitting does not work
When you look at sitting people they all slouch. The fault is in the sitting system, not in the sitters. The 90 degree angle in the hips is too difficult to maintain. The hip tilts backwards and the back gets rounded. We lean on the backrest only when the back gets very tired. Some traditional chairs are “improved” by tilting the seat forward. This small change in the thigh angle will not improve the lower back posture but people just feel like sliding forward, off the chair, and their pants tighten up uncomfortably in the crotch.
Other disadvantages of traditional sitting
- Generally, the table height is between 72 and 74 cm (28.3-29.1 inches). This is too low for even short term tasks to be done standing up.
- The back rest of traditional chairs make them, big, heavy, and expensive.
- From the point of view of customer service traditional sitting works poorly, since the person is positioned much lower than the standing customer.
- Continuous poor back posture easily causes problems in the neck and back vertebrae.
Sitting of the youth is becoming a major problem
According to Salminen (1994), already over 50 percent of the Finnish 16-year-olds have changes in their back structure. Nowadays, the situation may be 70–80 %, as the time spent sitting has increased, average weight has gone up and time spent exercising diminished. This will develop into a huge individual and national health problem.