Ladies, if you’ve always sat with your legs politely together, you may want to reconsider according to a US orthopaedic surgeon who is urging her patients to S.L.A.M. or ‘sit like a man’.
Barbara Bergin, 65, has told The Washington Post that she realised her bursitis symptoms – hip pain causes by inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs cushioning joints and soft tissue – improved when she opened her legs while seated.
“Developmentally, women have a wider pelvis than men,” she says, which means the femur, or thighbone, rotates internally from the hip joint. That rotation can cause the knees to line up inside the hips (the medical term is genu valgum) and result in a knock-kneed stance, which can then lead to pain in the knees or hips.
To fix this, Ms Bergin recommends taking what she calls an ’11 and 1 o’clock’ spread – rather than the full take up two seats on public transport that so many men feel they are entitled to.
The surgeon hopes to make women realise that how they sit can be a risk factor for musculoskeletal problems, and they may be able to avoid aches, pains and conditions by refusing to sit with their legs pressed or crossed together.
As you would expect, Ms Bergin is also not a huge fan of high heels.
“If you see 100 people with painful bunions or hammer toes, 95 of them are women, and it’s from jamming [their toes]down into tight, pointy shoes,” she said. “We are definitely better off not wearing heels or wearing them as little as possible.”
Don’t worry, I’m happy to take one for the team and get rid of my heels.
