Health & Immune Boosting with Squatting

                                                - By Dr Mahesh Kamal, BNYS, Acupuncture & Drug-free Pain Rehab, 

                                                    Consultant at WELLBEEING Integrated Health Services, Bangalore

We gave up squatting, sitting on the floor for the sake of a dignified and comfortable living. When you look back or if you ask your grandparents, they will tell you about this. Some of the examples are: both males and females used to squat while defecating and urinating and they understood it for the sake of hygiene and not splashing to sides. But today we have commode/closet, squatting and cooking, cleaning floors, washing clothes or utensils until old age, having their beverages (coffee, tea, juices) squatting in a corner, sitting in floor to eat meals, grinding or grabbing the chakki between knees, sweeping and moping, and many more things.

Compared to today, menstrual disturbances were minimal. Hygiene could have been more frequent than the disturbed menstruation or menopausal issues, infertility, erectile dysfunction among men in the early forties. Back and knee issues were minimal. Men and women could walk miles even in their 70s or 80s. Digestive problems like constipation, indigestion, gas, acidity, etc. were not common. Similarly bladder discomfort or prostate problems were minimal. If you observe, most of the above mentioned problems are categorised under lifestyle problems.

While pandemics like contagious diseases due to infections like malaria, cholera, TB, many viral or bacterial were common in those days, lifestyle diseases were minimal due to their active lifestyle which included lot of bending, twisting, stretching and squatting on a daily basis.  Hence, they had strong pelvic and abdomen muscles which was unknowingly due to their active postures while doing various activities in their daily life. Due to which their spinal alignment was always proper unless and until they had any injury due to a fall or an accident.

Now don’t think I intend to make you squat and hurt your knees or make you fall and injure yourself. Just adopt these simple measures and you can get back those results of squatting. Do it for the next 90 days and see the difference.

1. Sit this way (visual 1) for 20 mins a day. Sitting in this position is a full-body exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips, and buttocks, as well as strengthening the bones, ligaments, and insertion of the tendons throughout the lower body.

2. Use a potty stool in your washroom (refer visual 2) - This helps improve gastric motility and keep your puborectalis muscle relaxed and hence most of your large intestine is cleansed not just stool collected in the rectum area. This helps gain back your health by avoiding stool retention long hours/days which can cause a lot of abdomen discomfort and related ailments.

3. At least twice a day flex your knees while you drink water (refer visual 3) - on doing this in your empty stomach there are more possibilities of water lubricating your large intestines as the entire digestive tract will be empty. This helps in better cleansing.