How to Read a Book Comfortably? – 5 Postures

Sometimes we are forced to do our activities indoors due to bad weather, lockdowns and many other reasons.  Reading can be the best indoor activity in such a scenario.

However, it is not easy to maintain a good reading position for comfortable and extended reading all the time.

Sitting position while reading a book is more important than you may think. If you adopt an improper posture, you may end up with a nasty shoulder, back, or neck pain. A good posture will increase your reading time with focus and good concentration.

Below are five easy to follow postures that you should try for comfortable reading. Check them out!

• Sit with Your Leg at the Correct Height

Your leg height while sitting is very important whenever you are reading. Reading with your leg height other than the recommended will cause pain and your reading won’t be comfortable any more.

Blood flow to the legs is important during reading. You should ensure that the chair edge does not bar normal blood circulation to the legs.

This can be done by ensuring your thighs are parallel to the floor and your legs are ninety degrees to the floor.

• Proper Support to Your Feet

You cannot sit comfortably by hanging your feet. This will cramp your muscles soon and the pain will discomfort your reading.

You can make your reading comfortable by taking a cushion and putting it under your feet. This will make you feel much better through your reading.

You can also use a platform to lift your legs and stop your muscle pains.

Lifting your legs will make you feel relaxed and comfortable as you enjoy capturing the intrinsic details of the scenes in your book. Also, it will ensure that your legs remain safe and healthy due to normal blood circulation.

• Hold up Your Back

As you sit to read, you ought to properly support your back for a seamless reading of your book.

Hunting forward while reading will generate a lot of back and neck pains. This pain will make you uncomfortable; reduce your focus and concentration. It will also slow your reading speed.

Repeated pain can be fatal as it will lead to back and neck damage.

You can support your back by creating a ledge at the base of your spine and above your sacrum using a pillow to keep up a forward tipped pelvis

•  Upright Sitting

For a comfortable reading, you should sit upright trying as much as possible to maintain a neutral spine.

Upright sitting can be achieved by ensuring that you have the right chair. See the best reading chairs on Hooked to Books.

You can do this by simply sitting on a chair with your sacrum at the back of your chair and then straightening your spine. You can also do this by keeping your feet flat on your floor.

In this posture, you should avoid hunching your shoulders or overcasting your head to avoid possible spinal or neck injuries.

Sitting on a bed will lead to slouching of your shoulders and so it should be avoided.

• Maintain Eye Contact Level

Sitting in a position that allows you to maintain eye contact level is crucial for comfortable reading. In this posture, you won’t have to strain your eyes while reading.

This can easily be done by raising your book to your eyes level. This will ensure a neutral spine during reading. Meanwhile, you can use pillows to support your elbows for a more comfortable posture.

Every time reading a book comes into your mind, always remember that your book must be raised to your eye level for the best reading angle without having to bend your neck.