Seating Arrangements

When we first got the PlayStation, I decided that rather than sit in a soft comfy chair to play, I would just sit on the floor in front of the TV.

I had this vague idea that maybe that would keep my playing time to a reasonable amount. I'll only play as long as I can sit on the floor, after all.

It turns out I can sit on the floor for a looooooong time.

I tried to find out if sitting on the floor was either good or bad for you, but couldn't find a MeSH term for 'sitting.' Apparently this is not a hot topic in PubMed.

However, using 'sitting' as a keyword with the MeSH "Floors and Floorcoverings" I found an article (PMID: 19790110) titled "Squatting, sitting on the floor, or cycling: are life-long daily activities risk factors for clinical knee osteoarthritis? Stage III results of a community-based study."

The abstract offers the following helpful information: "Prolonged standing, sitting on the floor, and walking up/downhill were not risks for knee osteoarthritis."

There's also this article (PMID: 17393761), "Effect of traditional floor sitting on postural control after standing," although I don't understand exactly what it's saying those effects are, or whether they're positive or negative.

Something about 'center of pressure sway,' which seems to be increased by sitting seiza (legs folded under you). Maybe you sway more after standing because your feet have fallen asleep or, as the abstract says, lost 'voluntary toe flexion strength'?

Anyway, as far as we can tell, no increased risk of knee osteoarthritis. Based on the extremely limited information available.

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