I stopped sitting with my legs crossed for 30 days and realised one important thing about optimal desk posture

I've worked at a desk for more than five years and sitting hunched over my laptop every day has taken its toll on my body.

I deal with stiffness in my shoulders, neck and, most frustratingly, my hips.

Another contributing factor to the physical strain is a habit of sitting cross-legged on my chair, rather than with both feet on the floor.

While sitting cross-legged occasionally isn’t a problem, doing it for longer periods can cause issues.

“As with any position, sitting for extended periods of time can cause discomfort, simply because we function best when we move regularly,” says Helen O'Leary, physiotherapist at Complete Pilates

After a particularly bad period of hip stiffness, I decided to kick the habit for good and challenged myself to avoid this position for 30 days.

What I noticed when I stopped sitting cross-legged

1. I developed greater body awareness

Changing my desk posture meant I had to be more aware of my position throughout the day.

It was easy to slip back into my familiar cross-legged set up but the goal was to find an alternative that was also comfortable.

There was lots of fidgeting and more getting up (never a bad thing) but overall I became more intentional over how I was sitting, and how often I was getting up for a break.

2. I experienced less hip stiffness

One of the reasons I prefer to sit cross-legged is because I’m hypermobile and the position opens my hips, which feels good on my joints.

You’d think that all that stretching would keep my hips feeling mobile, but for hypermobile people, too much stretching can lead to injury and discomfort. A physiotherapist once described my ligaments and muscles to me like an elastic band that was too loose. This meant I was flexible but lacked strength.

I suspect that too much stretching and not enough strengthening weakened my joints and contributed to me experiencing a lot of discomfort in my hips, especially while exercising and walking.

After a month of trying to reduce the time spent in a crossed-leg position, my hip stiffness has definitely reduced, both while sitting and when moving my body.

3. My knee pain got better

Sitting cross-legged puts your knees into flexion and with a long-standing knee injury, I didn't realize that sitting like this for long periods could be exacerbating my knee pain.

Since changing up my desk posture, I’ve experienced much less achiness in my knees. Win-win.