Why do people cross their legs unconsciously?
I believe you have the same experience as rong’er. You often sit and think about it and find that your legs are turned up. You can’t remember it at all! Then he put down his legs silently (after all, he was afraid of leg deformation) and sat upright.
An interesting statistic said that the number of people who habitually put their right legs crossed on their left legs was twice that of those who put their left legs on their right legs (children’s shoes with crossed left feet should be reported in the message board).
There are a lot of arguments about the health hazards of cross legging. Some people and research results disagree with this, thinking that “I often cross my legs, but I don’t see any harm. It’s a big deal.”
But do you know that cross legging is cumulative and chronic to human health. Cross legging for a long time will indeed increase many disease problems!
risk 1: affect male reproductive health
When you cross your legs, your legs will usually be clamped tightly, which will raise the temperature around the skin and reproductive organs on the inner thighs. For men, this high temperature can damage sperm. The most suitable temperature for sperm to survive is about 35 ℃. When the temperature rises by several degrees, the sperm vitality will be greatly reduced, and even infertility may be caused.
In addition, cross legging for a long time will increase the pressure of the perineum, significantly affect the blood supply of the prostate, and reduce the secretion function. At the same time, the temperature of the pudenda and urethral orifice increases, which is conducive to bacterial reproduction, retrograde infection of the prostate, and prostatitis.
risk 2: it is easy to form high and low shoulders
First of all, when the legs are crossed, the hip joint is high and low, which will cause the pelvis to tilt seriously. Secondly, the strength of both shoulders is different. When you are nervous and relaxed, you will have high and low shoulders over a long period of time. In addition, when you cross your legs, your body needs to look at the lumbar vertebrae to find balance, which will cause uneven pressure distribution between the lumbar vertebrae and the thoracic vertebrae, causing the spine to become “C” shaped, bending the spine for a long time and easy to strain. In serious cases, it will lead to prolapse of the lumbar intervertebral disc, induce ankylosing spondylitis, and form slow back pain. Among them, ankylosing spondylitis often occurs in young people who are long-term tired, stressed, often sedentary and seldom exercise.
risk 3: lead to calf thickening and bending
Walking on the street, looking around, many people have O-shaped legs and X-shaped legs, which actually affect their beauty. Both men and women want to have a pair of slender and straight legs. Wherever they go, they will turn back.
There are many reasons for the deformation of both legs, one of which is to cross your legs. When you cross your legs, one leg is different from the other, and you mainly rely on your lower leg, which will become thicker. The upper leg is subject to uneven force and deflects inward, which may increase the pressure in the medial knee joint space and aggravate cartilage wear. In the long run, it will lead to deformation of our legs and even serious differences between our legs.
risk 4: early onset osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease, which is caused by aging, obesity, strain, trauma, congenital joint abnormalities, joint deformities and many other factors, such as articular cartilage degeneration and injury, joint edge and subchondral bone reactive hyperplasia.
When you cross your legs, it will increase the pressure on the internal structure of the knee joint, the nutrition of the cartilage in the joint will not be supplemented in time, and it will accelerate its wear. Especially for the elderly, their cartilage structure has been degraded to varying degrees, and often crossing their legs will increase the risk of osteoarthritis.
risk 5: lead to varicose veins in legs
If you sit with your legs crossed for a long time, because your legs overlap each other, you will not only twist your legs, but also hinder the blood circulation of your legs, and your legs will become numb after a long time. Over time, it is easy to cause varicose veins in the legs, and in serious cases, it will cause other diseases such as poor blood return, blue veins, ulcers, phlebitis and bleeding.
In addition, individuals may suffer from long-term compression and ischemia of the common peroneal nerve (one of the main branches of the sciatic nerve, which is close to the periosteum and is most vulnerable), resulting in impaired motor and sensory functions, numbness, soreness and even sudden inability to walk.
the biggest risk of cross legging is this
If you cross your legs for a long time, you will feel numb in your legs. This is because crossing your legs compresses the common peroneal nerve behind your knees. If you maintain it for several hours, it may even lead to paralysis of the common peroneal nerve, making it impossible to lift the soles of your feet and toes. But as long as the normal sitting posture is restored, the symptoms will disappear soon.
In addition, crossing your legs may cause a temporary rise in blood pressure. At present, there are two explanations. One is that when one knee is placed on the other crosswise, it is necessary to lift the knee to the chest first, which increases the blood supply burden of the heart and causes the blood pressure to rise. The other is that the rise in blood pressure is due to the contraction of leg muscles, which increases the resistance of blood flow in blood vessels.
But it is sometimes beneficial to cross your legs. There is evidence that this action can reduce the pressure on your abdominal muscles and increase the stability of your pelvic joints.
In fact, the biggest risk of cross legging is that if someone’s physical function is damaged due to this sitting posture, it can only show that the sitting time is too long. Sedentary is the largest pathogenic factor in the world, and it may even cause cancer. Therefore, if you feel uncomfortable because you cross your legs, it means that you have been sitting for too long. It’s time to leave the chair and move more.
how to change the habit of often crossing legs
I’m afraid that if you want not to cross your legs completely, everyone has more than enough heart but less strength. Rong Er, who can’t control her legs, can’t guarantee that she can do it. We can only reduce the number and time of cross legging as much as possible.
1. Sit straight.
Improper posture will cause tension of lumbosacral soft tissue. Correct posture can actually suppress the desire to cross your legs. But don’t straighten your body. You can put pillows on your waist and neck to increase your comfort.
2. Shake your legs
Shaking your legs properly can promote the venous blood flow, accelerate the blood reflux, alleviate the feeling of acid swelling and fatigue, and prevent the risk of thrombosis and varicose veins.
3. Slap.
When the legs are numb or sour, you can beat the legs to promote blood circulation.
4. Walk around.
Sitting still for a long time will lead to poor blood and Qi, muscle relaxation, reduced elasticity, lower limb soreness, fatigue and weakness. Therefore, the best thing is to get up and walk regularly to alleviate fatigue.
5. Stretching movement.
Keep your upper body stable, your right leg still, and your left leg straight forward. Repeat 5-10 times for both legs. This can loosen the tension of the waist.
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