Sitting-vs.-squatting will become the the next great worldwide controversy, to rival the issues of abortion, Iraq, and gay marriage.

http://www.relfe.com/toilet_seat_constipation.html
This one (incidentally where the squatting picture on here seems to have originated) claims the complete opposite.
Science is such a trickster for all of us conscientious poopers.

Squatting is the most natural crap position for mammals, including us. It's not squatting that causes problems, it's forcing. Strokes happen on the crapper too, because a person with vulnerability to stroke forced a shit.

This reminds me of the controversy on nursing/breast feeding in the '50s. All those male pediatricians telling mothers that formula was better for their babies than the breast milk that Nature had provided for eons.

Any natural thing we do is targetted for "innovation" by arrogant idiots who think they are better than nature.

Keep on squatting.

Do I poop like I preach? Of course not. I also drink beer, eat fried foods, and go out in the sun without sunscreen. I WISH I had the ambition to become a squatter. I know that it's better for me. But I'm a lazy American, and my quads are too weak anyway.

But I should squat. And Logjam and everyone else, you should, too.

Maybe we should do a mass squatting experiment -- all of us pledge to squat for a week. Who's in?

Already been there, Dave. I traveled across India and Nepal more than once, and squatting was where it was at, because Asian toilets are holes in the ground. The fanciest ones are holes in the ground with a ceramic square over them and two footprint indents for you to put your feet in as an "aim" aid. I call them "Arthur Murray" toilets, in honor of the 1940s-50s chain of dance schools that used footprints on the floor to show you where to put your feet for various dances.

Heck, I am still squatting on the job - in my part time job as a gardener for an estate, I occasionally have to excuse myself to the shrubbery to squat and deliver, since the owners don't want the help stomping through their nice bathrooms.

i don't know, i'm almost inclined to believe the study. only because when i squat (in general, not to poop, cuz i don't squat to poop), i tend to get light headed and all tingly in my legs. of course, i don't know if either of those things have anything to do with strokes or blood pressure. either way, i'll probably always be a sitter.

commentWe Caucasians have got soft and find the squatting position very tiring. Whereas an Indian finds no difficulty in squatting with his feet flat on the ground, we tend to squat on the balls of our feet, with the heel up off the ground. I have a friend who embraced Hare Krishna. He said he had been told he must squat and not sit. He always produced a nice easy flow of shit, soft and squashy, and never seemed to produce hard lumps - that could have been his vegan diet, however. Practice had enabled him to squat wih his feet flat on the poerceian of the pan - he lifted the seat. He wiped forward from behind, not between his legs whilst still squatting, but sometimes he would jump off the seat and stand up to wipe. He had been using the method for about eight years when I first met him. Before that he had shat in the conventonal way and stood up to wipe. I met a German whho had empraced Indian religion and he squatted. He kept his trousers up round his knees and his arse was virtually touching the seat (he did not lift it, but aimed very precisely. He got down off the seat and wiped standing up from behind in conventional European manner. Southern Europeans often squat in such countries as Greece and Italy, where public facilities often cater only for squatters. Hotels generally have proper sitting facilities. French squatting facilities are generally unappetising, but what else would you expect from the French, who were the only nation to fight simultaneously on both sides in the second world war. Squatting toilets are virtualy unknown in British public conveniences, except for such facilities as seamn's toilets, used by lascars (Indians; it is all porcelain thrones. Still, we Caucasians are unusual in our shitting habits - by far the greater part of the world's population squats. In one of the south sea islands, people gather to share the shitting experience of their family and friends. It is a social custom. Good manners is to shit in company and all your friends come to watch -and presumably to congratualte you on the xcellenfe of yor last turd. Rather like partitionless stalls in America - unknown in Europe.

Wonderpance,
English Gent touches on the reason why you get tingly legs when you squat -- Western cultures generally have lost the ability to squat because they have adopted the chair as the standard form of furniture. Unless you're a gymnast, practice yoga or other activity that requires regular squatting, your quads, glutes and calves are not conditioned or stretched to deal with squatting.

Squatting is an ability we're all born with, but if you spend your life sitting in a chair or on a crapper, you never cultivate that ability. Westerners also tend to be fatter and/or more muscular than most Third World folks, so the backs of the thighs and calves are meatier and make it additionally hard to squat.

Look at pictures of people in various African and Asian regions, and you will see that many of them are squatting rather than sitting when they are resting. Their legs are so thin that they practically fold in half, and that doesn't affect the circulation for them.

That's the way it goes.

I belive squatting to be the best way by far. I believe it to be the natural way because I inherently did it on my own early in my highschool years without even knowing a single other person did it that way. I have never done it any other way since.

I've been a squatter all my life. i don't remember if i ever sat, and i can't see how people can do it. I've tried sitting but it takes way to much effort and doesn't seem natural. the only thing that would turn me away from being a squatter is the embarrassment. I think if anyone knew the ridicule would be crushing. Sincerely your American friend

I was brought up in a western country and have been squatting for as long as I can remember. I tried sitting a few times, but the shit just doesn't flow as smoothly. Like the above poster, the only thing that might turn me away is embarrassment. I am seriously thinking about changing to sit poop. I can't see how I can squat poop in my old age. The legs and quads will not be strong enough.

All this talk among westerners about the benefits of squatting is a load of shit because no westerner can squat. Period. Westerners are clearly defined by an inability to perform 2 natural activities that everyone else in the world who are purportedly "less civilized" perform daily: 1) eating rice with one's fingers without finding most of one's food everywhere else but inside one's mouth, & 2)squatting for any normal human function, including shitting and child-bearing. As for the ability to eat in a squatting position, that will be a far better test of western social progress than any of its politicians' pronouncements of cross-cultural "absorption".

Your tone of dissatisfaction towards our culture Nazis might be misdirected. It can, and SHOULD, be directly attributed to the eastern hemisphere of the world, where the concepts that eating with one's fingers and squatting to defectate were first considered barbaric.

Our European anscestors thought that silverware and chamberpots defined who was civilized. People who used neither were looked down upon, so it was either adapt, roll with the times, or be seens as less than cultured. In those days there was no NAACP or the like, so if you were viewed as barbaric, it not only compromised your dealings in society but could have been the deciding factor in your family's ability to survive, period. Remember, people used to be put in stocks or beheaded for worshipping God with a different religion as the queen. The toilet was one of the differences between high society and the common man for many years.

I haven't touched on why we lay down to have kids. It was because a king in Europe was so full of himself that he made his queen lay down in the town square so everyone could see the birth of his child. And we do have birthing chairs in this country. You just have to request one. Had I known this was an option, I'd have most likely demanded one - my kids weighed 8 and 9 pounds respectively and looked like fleshy lollypops their heads were so big. It would have been nice to have a little gravity aid the birth process.

Those people came to America, shoved their views on everyone else, and voila, differences in culture.

Don't be hatin'. We're not all snobs.

P.S. I eat rice with chopsticks, both sticky and long grain, and finish my bowl every time with no spillage. The reason I don't use my fingers is because I don't like the way it feels.

_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

I have tried squatting to poop several times. I dislike it, as compared to sitting on the pot. I tried it again this afternoon, after arriving home from work with a filling-up rectum. I partly changed out of my work clothes, put up the seat, stood up on the rim, then squatted down. Since I was quite ready, I was able to move my bowels, three nice fairly long turds splashing in nicely. However, there was still poop hanging from my anus, as usual. Had I been sitting down, I would simply have pushed some more, then shaken myself a bit until at least some of the poop fell off. That's a lot harder to do in a squat, so I just had to squeeze and hope; sure enough, a little pleeper dropped in. My butt, however, was still as far from clean as if I had been sitting. By then I was very tired of squatting, so I did sit down to wipe, as I normally do. I find it much easier and more satisfying to sit in order to poop; I seem to empty myself just as well, maybe better, and it is much easier to get rid of the hangers-on, as well as to wipe. I also notice light-headedness after squatting for a long time, whether to poop or to work at something in the house or garden. I'll sit, thanks.

I firmly believe that squatting is indeed better than sitting as far as defecation goes. I have tried both methods. While for most my life i have used the seat, I can say by my own experience that squatting results in faster and complete bowel elimination. The speed that bowels fall out in squatting is amazing. On the seat it often takes quite a long time and elimination occurs in increments (that is, first its rapid. then after few minutes it comes out slowly and then again after several minutes it comes out little bit). But in squatting over 95% of bowel pops out like a volcano in one direct shot. 7 to 8 minutes is more than ample time in squatting, while on the seat who knows it could even take as much as 25 to 30 minutes. I think the reason for that is that the anus is way more more widely open in squatting then it is while being seated.

You have to try both methods before you can debate about this issue in a fair manner. It doesn't make sense for those who've never squatted to criticize squatting.

However, you need to be in good physical shape to squat. It often hurts your knees tremendously after you get up from squatting. Many times you are barely able to stand because of knee pain. So it is not recommended if you're old. Beyond age 30 to 35, it is very hard to squat.

The other disadvantage of squatting is that you can't read the paper or magazine or even talk on phone while in that posture. Its impossible. So while your anus is relaxed and fully comfortable, the rest of your body is in distress. In the seat, its other way around -- body is relaxed, but not the anus.

I'm not against the seat but it makes sense to have a faster and more complete elimination. Holding your stuck fecal matter in intestines isn't healthy during long run.

Also squatting is natural method. Before the invention of seats, how did man poop? Seat is relatively new invention of about 150 years old only.

Even today many asian cultures like india, china, japan etc etc use squat method. So it is fair to say that majority of world uses squatting (since india and china primarily use that being the 2 most populated countries).

Definitely everyone must try to defecate through squatting at least 2 to 3 times in their entire life, to get an experience of how it is.

Without experience of squatting, you're hardly in position to debate. For young people there is no health risk posed in squatting. I'm 30 and do find myself in position to squat. But i don't know if i would be able to squat after another 5 to 7 years. i doubt it.

I am in my early 30's and have been "squatting" all my life. I don't want to have knee problems when i get older. So, are there any tips on how to become "sitter"? I tried it once when i was in my teens and it took too long for the poop to come out, so i ended up going back to squatting.

Please sit on the toilet so that it is not disgusting for the next person that needs to use it. If you want to squat when you shit go out in the woods and do that. Thank you

I re-read the story to which all these comments go, and I have to agree with those who say that squatting for any length of time makes them light-headed. I can see where strokes might come from: add the light-headedness to the extra stress of pushing, and anyone with blood-pressure issues might have a problem. I find that, when squatting, I have to push a lot harder than when sitting; not only that, but I have balance problems squatting unless I'm holding onto something with at least one hand. I'll stay seated when pooping.

I would much rather sit. I've squatted when I've gone camping and went into the woods to take a dump. The problem with squatting is it's hard to keep your balance. All your weight is moving backwards, so if you're not careful, you may wind up sitting in the pile of shit you just produced.

I think I will go in there and attempt to squat so I can comment on squat or squat not.

ok. I just copped a squat and I don't like it. My knees don't hurt butt my feet did. Also, it makes a mess from pee spray on the tiolet seat. I had to hold on and I needed both hands to wipe. I didn't find it easier to empty the vault either. If I had a blow poop I would still be in there washing the shower curtain and disinfecting the entire bathroom. So ik on squat I say squat not especially on a toilet made for sitting(pretty).

I have been a sitter and always will be a sitter. I like to relax while I am shitting, In a squatting position I would be unable to do so. When I was a teenager, I was in Israel, and I was hiking with my group and had to shit really bad. The degree of it was practically diarrhea. I was directed to an outhouse, which simply was a concrete slab with a round hole in it. I had no choice but to squat. So I tried to make the best of it. Unfortunately, I did not do a very good job, got some shit on my underwear. I was in there so long that one of the chaparones came by the outhose and asked me if I was ok. I told them I was, and that I was going #2, and had to go real bad. She asked me if I had toilet paper, and then came back with some for me. I then finished, cleaned myself up as best I can, and joined the rest of the group. Squatting doesnt work for me. I am better off sitting.

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In search of the ever evasive BM

so... i can honestly say that i now squat for most of my poops. at home and outdoors (hiking, etc.) it has become the norm for me. i love it. i try never to force, but... you know, sometimes you gotta be hardcore.

i never squat when im in a public restroom because im not ready, yet. some day maybe. sometimes at someone else's house, but... again, just not completely comfortable with it yet, i guess.

by the way, hiking was one reason i was exposed to this method and its appeal, but the real reason i started squatting is because i started studying yoga, and i realized how comfortable the position pictured above can be if you're limber enough.

squatting rules, even if it's on top of the toilet seat. remember to breath and smile!

I favor neither the squat nor sit position.
I prefer to swing naked from a grapevine and let centrifical force empty my bowels while I give the Tarzan cry. I then wipe my bum on some unsuspecting forest creature.

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Eat chilies and feel the burn!!

Congratulations to ChiefThunderbutt, the first person today to make me shower my computer with my drink!

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Born right the first time.

I've never tried this (squatting, I mean). Two questions:

1) Is it not rather difficult to balance? Isn't there a chance of slipping off the rim?

2) Is the toilet actually strong enough to take the weight of a person squatting on top of it? I'm not particularly heavy (140 lbs) but I would be wary of squatting on top of a toilet in case it cracked or was damaged in some way.

These are serious questions, since I've literally never tried squatting on a normal toilet to take a shit.

Hey Herbert, as a matter of fact I'm squating on the chair as I type in an effort to inspire my bowels to get moving. Having done this before on the toilet, I can tell you that it really depends on the type of seat. Thin plastic or foam are too weak and being barefoot helps prevent slippage. At 195 lbs. I've yet to see a toilet give out on me.

How is ROTC working out, or whatever you chaps call it over there?