In January, we featured the tribe of true-believers in the powers of the standup desk. But thanks to FastCompany’s Drake Baer’s post and Feyyaz Alingan’s Bitehype.com’s post, our eyes have been opened to another alternative to slouching at work: squatting.

Quote from FastCompany:

The squat is awesome for a number of reasons: It opens up your hips, which as any yoga teacher will tell you helps prevent lower back pain and aids you in taking care of your knees. As researchers from the Harvard Business School have found, our postures affect our behavior. The inference we can make about squatting, then, is that it allows us to rest–unlike standing–while still remaining open–unlike sitting. Together, squatting is like the postural equivalent of a cup of green tea: you’ll be both calm and alert.

If you are a beginner with tight hips, we recommend practicing with just one 1-minute squat a day. Depending on your ability to squat, you might try squatting once or twice during the workday anywhere between 3-10 minutes.

While we won’t be giving up our standup desks anytime soon, we’ll have to admit that the squatting option is a lot cheaper than purchasing new office furniture.

(Photo: ThinkStock)

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