Ok, so sitting is a reality in our lives…can we make it work better for our body?

The most obvious solution is to sit as little as possible in your daily life – walk to do errands, walk your kids to school, take regular movement breaks at work.

But, when you have to sit, here are some things to explore:

Sit on the floor – there are a myriad of ways you can configure your body on the floor (I think I’ve sat in no fewer than 11 different positions as I’ve written blog posts this morning). The hardness of the ground lends itself well to making your body shift, which means lots of different joint configurations. It can take time to transition to floor sitting, so maybe start with only a few minutes on the floor a day and slowly add more time, and don’t be afraid to build the floor up – this means sit on bolsters or pillows that get you closer to the floor and take them away as you get more comfortable.

Sit on the floor when:

• watching tv
• talking on the phone
• eating dinner (indoor picnic anyone?)
• your kids are at the playground
• playing with your kids
• working
• waiting at a child’s sports event or in a waiting room

I’m sure you can think of other places you can get your behind out of a chair and onto the ground. Please share in the comments!

Sit better: when you have to sit on a chair or some other raised surface try these suggestions to get you out of a tucked pelvic position

• If the seat is bucketed (like in your car), fold a towel to fill in the bucket, bringing the seat level
• Sit forward in a chair so you can sit on your sitz bones
• Use something like sitonthewedge.com
• If your legs are long, sit forward and drop one knee toward the floor
• If your legs are short, put a block or a small step stool under them

You can view a video on how to sit better here.

Create an active standing workstation:

• You can turn a box upside down on a desk that brings your computer to the right height.
• Don’t just stand there! Put things at your feet – tennis balls to roll and step on, half foam roller for calf stretching, a cobblestone mat to step on (something like this one, or make your own in a boot tray filled with river rocks).
• Take breaks from standing and move.

Create a low workstation:

• Place your computer on a coffee table or other low desk
• Lie on your belly (create a small bolster with a hand towel that runs across the front of your pelvis to keep your low back from getting crunched – it’s all unhappy from all that sitting, remember?) to write.