Should I Squat to Poop?

Are you sitting on the toilet while reading this? Great timing, but not so great posture. Let me explain.

Although The United States has been quite attached to their modern commode, many countries around the world have squatted to poop for centuries, and science is starting to catch up. Your body relies on a bend in the colon, (where your poop lives) and the anus, (where your poop says hi) to keep everything stored until showtime. Your Puborectalis Muscle helps keep your poop in place by kinking your colon, much like a bend in a garden hose stops the flow of water, when you’re sitting or standing. This muscle is helpful for when you’re sitting and don’t want to poop, but unhelpful for when you’re sitting and do want to poop. Your colon’s sweet spot comes with the squat. This tells your Puborectalis Muscle to fully relax. Squatting straightens the kink and allows for a complete elimination.

Need the facts? We got ’em.

A researcher named Dov Sikirov asked groups of study participants to poop while squatting. He compared how long each bowel movement took and the effort required. Sikirov published his results in Digestive Diseases and Sciences and found that in a squatting posture, subjects required, on average, only one-third the time to poop. Plus, subjects who squatted rated the experience as much easier than those who sat.In Japan, researchers took this quite a bit further. Six patients had their rectums filled with a contrast solution that could be seen under X-ray. The patients then ‘released’ the fluid from a squatting or a sitting position while being filmed with X-ray video. The videos showed that the anorectal angle increased significantly from 100 degrees to 126 degrees, from a sitting position to a squat, making elimination much easier in the squat.

With this knowledge, Squatty Potty’s founders created a solution: a stool that works hand in hand with the modern toilet. Squatty Potty is designed to tuck in under the toilet when out of use, is the correct height to simulate the squat depending on the height of your toilet, and allows for healthier elimination for people of all ages.
Select Squatty Potty models are sold in stores at Bed, Bath & Beyond, Costco, Target, and Ace Hardware. Squatty Potty sells online at the Squatty Potty website, Ebay (make sure to read this if buying through ebay), and Amazon. We refer our Canadian patrons to Canadian Tire, Cayne’s, Bed Bath and Beyond online, or Amazon.ca. You can search for a retailer near you here.

Just wait, there will come a time when people will scratch their heads at that strange dark time in history when folks sat straight up to poop.