Floor Sitting

Do you sit on the floor at least once a day? Does your child sit on the floor for activities such as art & crafts, or for eating snacks and meals? 

Do you sit on the floor multiple times in a day? How long do you sit on the floor each time?  When was the last time you sat on the floor? I urge all young adults and middle-aged individuals to reflect on these questions. With older adults, and people with joint issues (hip-knee-ankle-low back pain), it becomes a different scenario.

Why do I emphasize sitting on the floor frequently or often through the day? The number of times you rise from the floor, with or without hand support, has a positive effect on your heart and lungs. The capacity to engage in physical work in terms of frequency and duration is known as endurance, and reflects the health of your cardiopulmonary system. The number of times you get down to the floor and rise up into standing reflects your endurance.

Multiple benefits of sitting on the floor Sitting on the floor for work or sitting on lower surfaces that are shorter than regular chairs provides a different feeling or emotional groundedness. This is something that cannot be described in words, but is an experience to be realized. 

Better flexibility in all the joints of your lower body is a huge plus in a few days after you periodically get down to the floor and later rise up. 

Regular habit of sitting on the floor positively influences your gut health and the digestive system, and provides a deep sensory input to your abdominal cavity.  

You will feel lighter in your body and supple in your general movements.

Benefits of floor sitting will take you a long way physically and emotionally.

                                              Photo Credit : Freepik.com 

Individuals who have no joint problems and wish to start floor sitting, need to do it gradually. You can start by sitting on lower surfaces such as a 12” height stool or a ‘peedah’ or ‘modha’ that are old-style furniture still seen in many Indian homes. For work, you can put your laptop on the center table or coffee table.

In my practice, I see so many children in grade school who either have difficulty with sitting on the floor or can’t sit on the floor for at least 8-10 minutes. These difficulties are either due to decreased flexibility of hips & knees or due to lack of habit (practice) or both.

 

Myth: Sitting on the floor is not important anymore, we don't need it.  In the contemporary world, we think about anything through the objective lens, trends, and scientific evidence. We quickly accept or reject something based on a bunch of papers and numbers. As a physical therapist, I wish to point out the value of sitting on the floor, it is a topic that is debatable and holds limited scientific evidence. However, when viewed in a different perspective, sitting on the floor has been a common practice across all the ancient cultures of the world. In India, we sit on the floor for all our religious functions. Although the Indian toilet that required squatting has disappeared from the middle and upper classes, the squat position is commonly used by laborers, farmers, and domestic helpers. 

Look around in your immediate environment. The domestic helpers, cooks, and gardeners may be older than you, but are able to get down to the floor with ease. It is because they do so frequently in their life throughout the day. This is called ‘practice’ or ‘repetition’ or being used to it. 

So remember to sit on the floor if you still can,  or sit on a pillow or a cushion, or sit on a lower height of 10-12”.  There is nothing wrong in taking hand support of any furniture while getting up. But do not give up on floor sitting while you are in your 30s and 40s. If you do have pain in any joints, contact a physiotherapist and take charge of your flexibility. Do not forget the habit of sitting on the floor. 

More importantly, get your children to sit on the floor for many tasks. Make it a habit - frequently throughout their time at home. They can sit on the floor in various ways, but not in W-sitting! Remember that frequently sitting on the floor provides you with a feeling of connection to gravity, to Mother Earth! It is a great feeling that is fast being forgotten.