The Best Thing That You Can Do For Your Whole Body Mobility? Sit Down More!

Didn’t see that one coming, did ya? While you may have heard the phrase “Sitting is the new smoking” thrown around over the past handful of years, the fact is not all styles of sitting are created equal. No one type of sitting is inherently bad, though sitting in the same exact position all day everyday is where we oftentimes wind up in trouble. That said, Ground Sitting(also known as floor sitting) is one that provides SO much value for each and every one of us, and perhaps even more notably, those of us who enjoy fly fishing, hiking, and adventuring in the great outdoors. What makes ground sitting so useful and how can we go about incorporating it into our lifestyle? Keep reading.

Why Ground Sitting?

Sitting on the ground manages to accomplish several tasks all at once. It’s worth noting that if we want to maintain our ability to get up and down from the ground with relative ease, the most obvious answer is to simply spend intentional time getting up and down from the ground on a regular basis. What tends to take place while we’re seated on the ground is a frequent shifting of positions. Why? Because for most of us it is indeed a bit uncomfortable to sit on the floor in the same position for more than a few minutes at a time. What you’re likely to find while ground sitting is that you unconsciously move through a variety of ranges of motion particularly in your lower body, and perhaps within the entire shape of your body. Sitting cross legged, straddling legs outward, low kneeling, and lying down in a variety of orientations are all common. While you continue to move from time to time you’re exposing your joints to various angles and shapes, all the while mobilizing and lubricating those respective tissues.

How Should I Begin?

I always recommend creating some consistency while beginning to incorporate a new way of moving and engaging with our bodies. While sprinkling your ground-sitting into your daily life wherever it happens to fit is great, utilizing a regular daily routine can be one of the more effective ways to transform this type of movement into a new habit. For example, sitting on the floor for ten minutes each morning while drinking my cup of coffee is a perfect way for me to start each day with some very basic functional movement. I also frequently find myself on the floor playing with my dogs, reading magazines, and organizing my fly fishing boxes and gear.

How Can I Modify Ground Sitting for Greater Accessibility?

While simply sitting on the floor may seem straightforward enough, the truth is it does indeed require a certain degree of mobility that not all of us necessarily possess. The good news it that there are many ways that we can go about using props to leverage support while beginning to spend more time accessing the ground. For those who may experience difficulty getting down to the ground, I recommend the use of props(think yoga bolsters, blankets, pillows, couch cushions, etc.) to bring the floor closer to you and lessening the gap between yourself and the ground. Additionally, if getting back up from the ground proves to be challenging it’s important to set yourself up for success, ensuring that you’re positioned near a piece of stable furniture or something similar that you can use as a resource to help yourself back up to standing. Over time you may find that you’re eventually able to omit the use of some of your props as you build more strength within your functional ‘get-up’ capacity.

Be sure to watch my Short YouTube Video Here that shares more about Ground Sitting and demonstrates the how and why, along with ways to use props to customize your approach.

Try…

As you find your way into a seat on the floor, make note of how many positions you move through. What you’ll likely notice is that you end up changing the angles of your ankles, knees, and hips with a certain degree of frequency. You may even find that you change the entire position of your body many times over. Remember, the more positions you wind up moving throughout the better off you are. That might even look like laying down for a stint and sitting back up again(surprise, this is actually just an organically occurring sit up!). You may also notice that many of the shapes that show up in your body while ground sitting replicate those found in the gym, yoga studio, or pilates class. Kinda cool, huh?

Your Ground Sitting practice is actually just a sneaky way to incorporate more functional movement and mobility into your daily life, even while seated. So get to it!