I found that title - just wanted to own up to that right away - but loved it, so I am using it for this post! If you click on the title, it will take you to a WONDERFUL website that will educate you fully on the benefits of squatting and how it can help prevent all kinds of ailments and disease. They also sell a pretty cool "squatter".
It has been days and days since I have properly posted - for those of you impatiently waiting :), I apologize. It has been a very hectic week.
Okay, so here goes - I start with this quote:
YIKES! :0
And since this is the case of so many people, I present an article on the benefits of
"squatting", as promised. I will offer a bibliography at the end for those who want to read more about this area of health. This
is an area often ignored but is SO IMPERATIVE to know about.
Squatting should be our birth right, but we are trained out of it at a very early age. It is amazing how far off of nature we have gone.
Up until the 19th century or so, humans used the squatting posture for elimination. In fact, we squatted repeatedly throughout the day as dictated by a ground based living environment - to socialize, work, and defecate.
Chair like toilets had only been used by the royalty and the disabled. When the throne like toilet was invented, the designers had no knowledge of human physiology and sincerely believed they were improving people's lives. They overlooked the fact that the sitting position makes elimination difficult and incomplete, and forces one to strain!
The full squat results in compression in the lower abdomen from the thigh. The right
thigh will compress the cecum (the origin of the colon), mechanically pushing the feces uphill into the tranverse colon, while the left thigh compresses the descending colon, moving feces into the sigmoid colon and ultimately the rectum.
Seven Advantages of Squatting:
1. Makes elimination faster, easier and more complete. This helps prevent fecal stagnation, a prime factor in colon cancer, appendicitis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
2. Protects the nerves that control the prostate, bladder and uterus from becoming stretched and damaged.
3. Securely seals the ileocecal valve, between the colon and the small intestine. In the conventional sitting position, this valve is unsupported and often leaks during evacuation, contaminating the small intestine.
4. Relaxes the puborectalis muscle, which normally chokes the rectum in order to maintain continence.
5. Uses the thighs to support the colon and prevent straining. Chronic straining on the toilet can cause hernias, diverticulosis, and pelvic organ prolapse.
6. Squatting is a highly effective, non invasive treatment for hemorrhoids, as shown by published clinical research.
7. For pregnant women, squatting avoids pressure on the uterus when using the toilet. Daily squatting helps prepare one for a more natural delivery.
People in developing countries who primarily use the squatting posture for elimination suffer rarely from the following diseases that are so prevalent in the Western World: appendicitis, colon cancer, prostate disorders, diverticulosis, bladder incontinence, hemorrhoids, and inflammatory bowel disease.
It is so simple to just start squatting. Everything you could read about points to the natural intelligence in this. Yet so many people feel this is "radical", when in actuality, sitting on a toilet is radical! Just because it is what we are used to or how our culture does it, doesn't make it right or ideal.
It is often suggested, and I suggest this to some clients, to use a step stool to place under the feet to mimic the posture of the full squat. It is an improvement over sitting, to be sure, but is still far from ideal, as having the feet elevated pushes the weight back into the buttocks as opposed to having direct weight on your feet, which is where you want the weight to rest to facilitate full elimination and the use of the thighs pressing against the colon.
Being a yoga teacher, I know that many people have a very difficult time with the squat position. We can train our muscles to open so that squatting becomes comfortable again. For people challenged by the full squat, a foot stool is a good start as long as you lean forward to mimic the pressure on the colon and weight on the feet. I will be posting a link where you can purchase an attachment to your toilet to so you can fully squat on the toilet comfortably, or you can do what my husband has been doing for years, and which I also use: squat directly onto the toilet seat and enjoy nature's wonder!
Remember, elimination should take ten seconds, and require no strain. Straining can potentially cause all kinds of issues, and squatting will naturally prevent this. Of course, improvements in diet - eating a whole foods diet that is ideally free of processed junk will start you on your way to better health, and of course, regular COLONICS and CLEANSING programs a few times a year is like a tune up to the body. You don't have to do it but your engine will run much smoother and you will feel so much better as a result.
Excellent health is your birthright. Why don't you start right now? Start squatting today! You can fit this in several times a day, start to open up the joints, the muscles, use a wall if you need to lean on something, place a blanket underneath your heels, and practice placing more and more weight on the four corners of your feet.
There is so much more I could write, and I did not even touch upon Dr. William Welles' wonderful article on the benefits of squatting, so do some google searches and enjoy educating yourself on squatting and watch your health improve as a result.
PLUS, squatting is great for stretching the lower back!
Bibliography:
William Welles, DC, The Biomechanics of Squatting
Paul Check
Nature's Platform website (see link on title)
Helen Wood
Gino Codato
