New Advice: Don't Sit Up Straight!

I can now lean back in my chair without feeling quite as guilty.

LiveScience.com:

"Using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers studied 22 volunteers with no back pain history. The subjects assumed three different positions: slouching; sitting up straight at 90 degrees; and sitting back with a 135-degree posture—all while their spines were scanned.

'A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal,' said study author, Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada. 'Sitting in a sound anatomic position is essential, since the strain put on the spine and its associated ligaments over time can lead to pain, deformity and chronic illness.'"