Good Posture Leads To Longer Life And Better Sex

posture

I work from my couch six to seven days a week. My laptop is my workstation. I love what I do, but when it comes to posture I’m basically an amoeba. Seriously, I’d be better off as an invertebrate. And it doesn’t help matters that I’m super flexible, so positions that would be super uncomfortable for someone else are the most convenient for me to complete my work. And it’s working for me, for now.

Then I get this assignment to write about posture’s effects on the body. And I realize I’m so screwed. Apparently, according to a recent Australian study, every hour of slouching while watching television—which I assume means slouching positions on the sofa, TV or not—reduces life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. Damn, I spend 18 hours a day on the couch in front of the tube, working, watching soaps and Grey’s Anatomy marathons on Amazon. So I’m losing two and a half hours a week, or five and a half days a year! By the time I’m ready to retire, I’ll have cut my life span by almost six months. I may need to re-evaluate my “home office” environment.

But the Australian study isn’t the only one claiming a strong link between posture and health. Some English researchers claim that people who sit the most more than double their risk of diabetes and had a 147 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease, even if they exercise.

How on Earth does sitting or slouching cause diabetes or heart disease, you might ask? I wondered the same thing. Well, neuroscientists at the University of Leeds found a link between neck muscles and an area of the brain the controls blood pressure. According to their 2007 study, if neck muscles are damaged from too much slumping, blood pressure problems could result. And we already know that high blood pressure is linked to other conditions.

So apparently there’s a lot more to posture than we first thought. But what else might it impact? Believe it or not, poor posture can cause incontinence. You know those women that piss every time they laugh or sneeze? Their problem may not just be from birthin’ babies. Studies form the University of Queensland show that women with the condition tend to have less curve in their lower spine than women who don’t piss their pants. Apparently, sitting upright with the spine in its natural curved position engages pelvic muscles and supports the bladder.

If you’re sitting in a slumped, C-shaped posture, there’s more weight bearing down on your bladder and pelvic floor muscles, which will weaken them over time and make you more likely to leak,” said Sammy Margo from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. “Apart from this, good posture can enhance your enjoyment of sex, as strong pelvic floor muscles are associated with more and better orgasms.

Wow. Who knew good posture could lead to better sex? Sure, moms and grandmas always nagged at us to stand up straight, and gave us a host of reasons. But that was stuff like, it makes you look more confident, you’ll give yourself a headache, or it helps you digest your food better. And you know what? Studies have proven all those reasons to be true. But what if they had told us we’d have better sex? You think we might have paid better attention?