I’m a fabulous sitter. I don’t mean “sitting” as meditation here, but marathon sitting in uncomfortable seating.

I’m the kind of woman who flies Economy in a window seat on long distance flights and never gets up. I form myself to the plastic shell chairs at the DMV and stoically wait my turn. I sit uncomfortably in hospital Emergency Rooms and doctors’ offices without complaining.

I used to be proud of my body’s ability to “sit still” and tolerate discomfort. It’s something I got a lot of praise for in Kindergarten. No ants in my pants, missy.

But now, I’ve hit rock bottom with sitting still. I’m feeling more pain and less prestige in assuming this passive position.

Perhaps like me your body is giving you a notion for motion…an achy back, restless legs, a little creak in the knees and hips. This post is about how to relieve pain and improve your body’s balance by reclaiming a chair you may have relegated to the rubbish.

Our Recline Into Decline

Americans spend approximately 56 hours a week sitting. Other studies say it’s an average of nine hours a day. We’re in our cars, at work in task chairs, at the dinner table and on the toilet. If we’re lucky we get a few precious minutes slumped in our favorite easy chairs in the evening.

From wobbling mechanical massagers to over-stuffed recliners, we while away our free time on our well-upholstered backsides. Oh, sure, we motivate ourselves of exercise to earn our lounging time, but then we sit for hours and unwittingly lose most of the health benefits.

Research published in 2009 by Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center demonstrated that increased sitting time increases mortality from all causes. His sobering findings were highlighted in magazines and blogs for the past two years.  Some of  of the best summaries are:

-National Public Radio “Sitting All Day is Worse for You than You Think”

-Carole Jackson at www.PreventDisease.com about “The Dangers of Sitting.”

-In Scientific American online with a guest blog “Can Sitting Too Much Kill You?” by Certified Exercise Physiologist, Travis Saunders, of the University of Ottowa

Experts from anthropologists to chiropractors suggest that sitting is the cause of many of our chronic aches and pains.

Sitting, as opposed to squatting native style, uses fewer core muscles and encourages poor posture that contributes to spinal problems in later life.

You can read more of what sitting expert Jean Couch (no joke), Director of The Balance Center in Palo Alto, CA, has to say about our modern standing and sitting postures here.

Some innovators have created bouncy balls and gas filled cylinders to inject motion into sitting still. My Swopper ™ is just perfect for quick up and down tasks with a pop and spin.

Still others have abandoned chairs altogether and work at standing desks. Blogging expert Leo Babuta Guest blogger Corbett Barr wrote about his Standing Desk Experiment on ZenHabits.

You can even visit an expert chair fitter…a person who makes a living matching our hindquarters to the perfect sitz spot.

But at the end of the day, when we long for our special leisure time lounger it ought to have some features that give us a little bang for our whole body as well as our butts.

Whistler’s Mother Got It Right

I’m craving a rocking chair. Is that symptomatic of my place in our human life cycle? Have I come full circle from rocking my babies to sleep to my own senescence slightly off my rocker?

I’m talking about a chair that not only looks good, but also feels good, and is good for you. If this sounds like whole wheat bread or broccoli, forgive me. But every-body deserves a chair…for reading, dozing, daydreaming, for enjoying peaceful private space.

“I’m too young for a rocking chair!” I hear you cry?  No, it’s a cryin’ shame that these wooden beauties are branded as the domain of the very young or the very old.  Their stalwart support and restful rocking yield too many benefits to ignore for half a lifetime.

Five Reasons to Rock On

By choosing to rock on in a rocking chair, you will

1.  Soothe your body tension and melt away stress

2.  Relieve lower back pain by interrupting pain impulses that travel up your spinal cord to the brain

3.  Improve digestion after meals

4.  Burn extra calories by opting for gentle motion over slumped stillness

5.  Enjoy a safe haven for quietude, moving meditation and contemplation.  (Sitting in your chair is an unmistakable signal that you’re “in the zone” and not to be disturbed.)

As American As Apple Pie

The first purpose-built adult rockers appeared on the American East Coast in the late 1700’s and were likely for nurseries, not parlors. As with all good design, the new rocking chair technology was widely copied, especially in Europe.

Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries their popularity grew, mostly among women, as sources of “comfort and ease…wooden narcotics.” You can read more about your Grandma’s favorite at Collector’s Weekly.

Chairs That I Cherish

Feeling affection for an inanimate object is not usually a good sign, but some rocking chairs still move me.

-My grandparent’s 1940s spring-form steel chairs were painted sea foam green with white trim. These bouncy wonders were usually positioned on the front porch or along the driveway in those pre-patio days for the best street-side view on a sultry summer evening.

-In the 1950s I had my own child-sized rocker. It was black with hand-painted golden details. My younger sister’s was smaller and that was only right.

We had “front row seats” at the new cabinet television set. If we were lucky we got Swanson’s TV dinners on tippy folding TV trays for watching Lassie and  Rin Tin Tin. If we stopped rocking, it was bedtime.

-The Ethan Allen Early American replica rocker in my mother’s living room was rarely used, except for stage-y prom photographs with tuxedo-clad high school boys gripping the back with white knuckles.

Dad always said that the rocker and the truckload of matching solid hardwood maple furniture were “the antiques of the future” and so they are.

-I reupholstered a cast-off Danish Modern Teak rocker in anticipation of becoming a nursing mother. It was my one and only upholstery project, done with a hormonal zeal only possible in pregnancy.

The warm fuzzy fabric, wide low wide arms and gently curved backrest cradled us close and comfortably for hour after hour.

It’s a shame it didn’t go with a single other piece of furniture that we owned. We retired it to a good all-Danish-Modern home more than six years later.

What’s in Your Attic, Basement or Garage?

Chances are you already own a rocking chair and have stashed it away somewhere. Well, now is the time to retrieve those rockers and resort to a more active relaxation.

I’ll keep you posted on my quest for my own ravishing rocker. Like this one that I spotted at a local art show by re-invention artist, Nancy Woods.

You can see more of Nancy’s reclaimed treasures at www.oneofdesigns.com.

Let me know how you plan to get your daily “to and fro” fix! Comment away.

Tags: active leisure, body, brain, chairs, comfort, connection, human development, meditation, motion, multisensory, pain relief, relaxation, rocking, sitting, whole body, work