Uncross those legs! After reading this, you will never sit cross-legged again

Sitting cross-legged? Well you'd better not at least that is what the experts of one scientific study say.

One piece of information to take into account (which is relevant to the study we are going to talk about): 62% of people cross from right to left, while 26% do so in the opposite direction. The remaining 12% does not have a preference.

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The aforementioned percentages are included in a study carried out by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, in which they warn of the dangers involved in this habitual way of sitting.

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First of all, the research determines that crossing the legs when sitting increases the misalignment of the hip, leading to one side being higher than the other.

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Also, because the hip is out of balance, the speed at which blood circulates through the blood vessels of the lower extremities changes, increasing the risk of clots.

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This study, titled 'Leg-crossing: incidence and inheritance' notes that there are two ways of crossing the legs when sitting: at the knee and at the ankle.

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Despite not recommending either position, research points to knee crossing as more damaging than ankle crossing.

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In fact, by crossing your legs at the knees, you can increase your blood pressure, due to an accumulation of blood in the veins, making the heart work harder to counteract it. This extra work can lead to damage to blood vessels.

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Simple proof of the malpractice of crossing your legs when sitting down is that when a nurse takes someone's blood pressure, the person taking it always reminds the patient to keep their feet flat on the floor.

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The more time spent cross-legged, the greater the risk of long-term changes in the length of the muscles or the arrangement of the pelvic bones.

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In fact, this unrecommended posture, according to the study, can lead to a misalignment of the spine and shoulders, that is, scoliosis.

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What happens is that the spine, to maintain the center of gravity above the pelvis, can also end up misaligning the neck bones.

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Even the pelvis itself, having the gluteal muscles stretched unnaturally, can be affected and its muscles weakened.

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And in case anyone doubted it, crossing your legs also affects the quality and production of sperm in men.

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The ideal temperature of the testicles should be should be around 5.4ºF (3ºC) below the standard body temperature, but when we sit down, the temperature in the area increases by 2ºC more. If you sit cross-legged, you can increase the temperature of the area even more.

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The National Center for Biotechnology Information points out that raising the temperature in the groin area so much can affect the count and quality of the sperm.

Thus, and taking into account the amount of time that everyone spends sitting, it is convenient to know which positions are more or less recommended and crossing your legs is one of the ones that can generate the most problems.

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