Multiple Sitting Positions While Working

I personally have had back issues and other health problems stemming from sitting too much either at work or commuting to/from work. Since these issues first came about, I've been on a search to better understand the cause and what I can change about my posture, habits, and lifestyle to stay pain free.

One key learning is that, not surprisingly, the body is not meant to stay in one single position for an extended length of time. There is an appropriate saying for this that I picked up from someone somewhere along my personal journey. "The best sitting position is the next one." What this means is you need to constantly be shifting to different positions throughout the day to keep your body moving and muscles loose.

People have realized this on their own with the gaining popularity of stand-up desks, but now you go from sitting all day to standing all day which could cause other issues. Shifting from sitting to standing throughout the day is better but still that is only two of positions your body can be in throughout the day.

My proposed solution is to create a workspace that involves multiple positions to work from. The following positions are all fair game and key in my opinion:

• Traditional chair setup
• Standing up
• Laying on your back like on a bed or sofa
• Laying on your stomach kind of like a massage table
• Squatting position kind of like a baseball catcher's pose
• Kneeling position - both having two knees on the ground and one leg up and one leg down like a coach.
• Floor sitting position - both legs crossed and legs straight out.
• Barrel stretch - I particularly like this one. It comes from pilates where they have a giant barrel shaped contraption that you drape your body over to create space in your pelvis and lower back.

All of these are great positions to be in and it should be easy to work on a laptop in each of these positions. Certainly some of these can be done without needing a particular chair/desk/contraption, but it sure would be nice if there was an workstation invention so it became easier to be in these various positions (and more acceptable kind of like the stand up desk has become).