Good to know
Why we should stop crossing our legs
A woman sits in a café with her legs crossed: This position can harm the body in the long term
© Berzane Nasser/ABACA/ / Picture Alliance
Our body is a single wearing part that needs to be cared for. We have to exercise him enough, get enough sleep, eat healthy – and sit properly. Unfortunately, one of the most popular sitting positions is not good for our bodies.
How do you actually sit correctly? You shouldn’t have your legs wide apart, it’s not appropriate. Slumped sitting is also not welcome, nor is slouching on a chair. So your legs are crossed – at a business appointment as well as in a restaurant.
Incorrect sitting posture: these can be the consequences
- The hip: If the legs are crossed, asymmetry occurs. The pelvis is rotated, tilted to one side and the weight is no longer evenly distributed. Since the pressure is one-sided, the hip muscles and the sciatic nerve are also put under greater strain. They are responsible for diffraction.
- The spine: It is well known that poor sitting posture can cause back pain. But it’s not just unfavorable slouching that can damage the spine, the aforementioned misalignment of the pelvis can also do so. This can cause overloading of the ligaments that connect the pelvis and sacrum, which is the lower part of the spine. This can cause the spine to lose stability and become deformed. “This formation of the legs can also increase the likelihood of scoliosis, when the spine twists and curves to the side,” Adam Taylor, director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Center at Lancaster University, tells DailyMail. If the natural curvature gets out of place, it can have an impact right down to the neck.
- The head: As the spine tries to compensate for the misalignment of the hips to maintain the center of gravity, this can lead to a change in the neck bones. This in turn influences the position of our head, which can also shift.
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Sperm don’t like crossed legs
- The sperm: There is evidence that crossing your legs is detrimental to sperm production. The background is an increase in temperature in the testicles. This sitting position can increase this by up to 3.5 degrees. According to Taylor, the elevated temperature can “lower a man’s sperm count and reduce sperm quality, which can make natural conception more difficult.”
- The knee: If we cross our legs, we strain two nerves at the same time Common fibular nerve and the Tibial nerve. The pressure on the nerves can cause feeling in the leg and foot to be cut off and the leg to become numb.
- The blood vessels: There is research that suggests that crossing your legs can increase blood pressure. This is explained by the fact that when you sit in this position, the blood accumulates in the veins, which the heart tries to compensate for. The risk of blood vessel damage increases. However, other studies have concluded that the increase in blood pressure is only temporary.
Sources: Study 1, Study 2, Study 3, ScienceAlert, DailyMail
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