The Bad Politics of Bad Posture | Hacker News Reader

The Bad Politics of Bad Posture

newrepublic.com

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I have found that in addition to causing pain, many years of sitting for extended periods and bad posture has also increased my blood pressure, and standing/walking more as well as improving posture and ergonomics markedly reduces pain and lowers my BP. But I guess I should throw all that out and be gaslit by a bunch of rambling from an article that weirdly tries to invoke identity politics.

You're conflating sitting and bad posture. Sitting will have bad effects even if you sit straight

I’m not, I mentioned both. My blood pressure is measurably worse with bad posture. Sounds like BS, but if I sit forward and slouch it’s several points higher than if I sit all the way back in the chair and straight up. And bad posture is the primary correlation to pain.

i also didn't get past the lede, there's a lot of evidence that slouching is unhealthy, that bad posture has all kinds of effects on musculature, ossification, organ displacement. i actually started to develop a hump in my 30s from being a techie which took a lot of work to undo, but now i see those hump precursors on teenage girls. looking into the background of the author, Daniel Felsenthal, "Daniel Felsenthal is a fiction writer, poet, essayist and critic with work in The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Nation". how is this person at all qualified to comment on these subjects? why does he think he is? imho journalism has utterly discredited itself at this point.

What helped you undo it? I see so much advice floating around and I know 90% is bs but not sure how to identify the 10%.

my advice is not universally applicable, sorry. i had a very strong mysore style ashtanga† practice in my 20s, that i at some point abandoned. i simply picked it up again, and it still took me close to a year to get my spine dynamic enough, get my muscules moving to arest and maybe revert some of the ossification? it's not visibly there at this point, but through close athletic observation i know it's not ever going to be 100%. i've complemented it with an occasional chiropractic adjustment and massage, but that's about it. i didn't start it exclusively for the purposes of fixing the hump, i realized that i'm getting old (in my 40s now) and that i will greatly regret slowly degrading into old age without having the experience of fit working body again.

†https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore_style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtanga_vinyasa_yoga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUgtMaAZzW0

Thank you. Love the video.

> how is this person at all qualified to comment on these subjects? why does he think he is?

TBH I think most journalists from these publications are more qualified to write about posture health benefits than they are qualified to do actual journalism.

>There’s little evidence slouching is unhealthy

There isn't? From what I understand slouching means the muscles are not supporting the joints as they are supposed too leading to increased wear and people who slouch tend to let chair backs support them which leads to decreased muscle mass exacerbating the problem. Makes sense to me but I am not a doctor. Personally I just find slouching to be uncomfortable.

Whenever I'm interested in something, like hacking on something and get really into it, my posture immediately straightens unconsciously, I will begin to sit bolt upright and will continue in that manner until I reach a stopping point. Also, I am much more attracted to people with correct posture vs. kyphosis. Just two personal observations on posture.

Slow news week, huh. I sit up because its easier to breathe that way. I have asthma and straightening my posture helps me focus long-term. It's so simple.

Also, if you've ever had back pain at a desk job then you probably know the value of lumbar support. Sitting hunched over or fully reclined is just not a feasible way to sit for 5-7 hours a day, 5 days a week.

This article is full of ideas that are not backed by science. Bad posture most definitely can have bad health outcomes for you, there's a reason many types of neck and back pain are most common in office workers. Take care of your body, you're gonna need it for a while.

I'm only a couple years older than the person writing this and they are going to retract this article when they are my age lol

"There’s little evidence slouching is unhealthy. So why do Americans believe so firmly in sitting up straight?"

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