鑽石舞台

有時候就是那麼巧，你現在是不是右腿搭在左腿上

今天，#不要再翹二郎腿了#的話題登上熱搜，嚇得我趕緊默默收起了腿。

那麼，蹺二郎腿是否有害健康呢，我們今天就一起來看看。

無注釋原文：

Is crossing your legs bad for you?

BBC

14th October 2015

How do you like to sit on a chair? Many people prefer to cross one leg over the other. In the 1980s, British comedian Kenny Everett even made it his trademark – extravagantly crossing, uncrossing, then recrossing his legs while dressed in a skirt and high heels, declaring it was 「all in the best possible taste」.

Others prefer not to cross their legs at all and even to 「man spread」 as it’s become known, sitting with their knees wide apart on public transport while the people either side of them are squashed. These men might have liked a rather curious publicity campaign launched in the US in 1999 called 「The Great Cross-Out」 where a dietary supplement company encouraged people to keep healthy by not crossing their legs for a whole day.

But is it really any healthier to avoid crossing your legs? The list of suggested consequences of spending too much time with one knee crossed over the other includes raised blood pressure, varicose veins and nerve damage, but each of these deserves close examination.

Of course it is true that if you spend too much time in exactly the same position, eventually your leg or your foot can go numb. This is because crossing the legs can put pressure on the peroneal nerve behind the knee, which supplies sensation to the lower legs and feet. But if you do give yourself pins and needles this way, it is only temporary.

Maintaining a particular posture for many, many hours can however lead to a condition called peroneal nerve palsy resulting in 「foot drop」 where you can’t lift the front part of your foot and toes. But when a study from South Korea examined a series of patients』 notes in order to identify the chief causes, sitting on a chair with one knee over the other didn’t feature. Sitting cross-legged on the floor for hours at a time did. In reality long term numbness is an unlikely consequence of leg-crossing because as soon as we feel uncomfortable we tend to move.

So how about blood pressure? When you get it checked, the doctor or nurse tends to ask you to rest your arm on the chair or table and to uncross your legs, putting your feet flat on the floor. The fear is that crossed legs might skew the reading by temporarily raising your blood pressure. By 2010, seven studies had indeed found that leg crossing does result in a higher blood pressure reading, while another study found it made no difference. However, many of these studies were small and relied on taking a blood pressure reading just once. One of the larger studies was conducted at a hypertension clinic in Istanbul. Researchers there took several readings with legs crossed and uncrossed. Again, blood pressure was higher when legs were crossed, but crucially when the measurements were repeated just three minutes after uncrossing the legs, blood pressure was back to the earlier levels. The greatest rise in blood pressure occurs in people already being treated for high blood pressure.

Two possible mechanisms have been proposed to explain why leg-crossing might lead to a temporary rise in blood pressure. One is that the action of putting one knee over the other sends blood from the legs up to the chest resulting in an increased quantity of blood being pumped out of the heart, raising blood pressure. An alternative explanation is that blood pressure rises because isometric exercise of the leg muscles (exercise without the joints moving) increases the resistance to the blood passing through the vessels. This might explain why crossing legs at the ankles doesn’t have the same effect.

In order to establish which of these explanations was the most likely, a study in Nijmegen in the Netherlands took a number of physiological measurements. The team found that resistance in the blood vessels didn’t rise when the heart rate was low and the legs were crossed, but the amount of blood leaving the heart did, suggesting that the increased blood pressure is due to crossed legs pushing blood up to the heart.

So crossing the legs does appear to cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, but the evidence for any long-term consequences simply isn’t there, with one exception. People at high risk of blood clots are advised not to cross their legs for long periods of time because for them, impeding the flow of blood could increase their risk of a deep vein thrombosis.

But even if crossing your legs doesn’t give you high blood pressure in the long term, what about the idea that it can give you varicose veins? The reasons why some people suffer from varicose veins and others don’t is something of a mystery. Usually tiny valves in the blood vessels prevent blood from flowing back in the wrong direction, but if those valves become stretched and weakened the blood can pool, resulting in the enlarged veins we call varicose veins. Crossing the legs has not been demonstrated to be a crucial factor. Whether or not you get varicose veins seems, partly at least, to be down to genetics.

So if veins, blood pressure and nerves are not affected by leg-crossing in the long-term, how about the impact on our joints? One study found that people who sat with their legs crossed for more than three hours a day were more likely to lean forward and to round their shoulders. But the research relied on people’s own estimations of how long they crossed their legs for. As I write this, I’m sitting at my desk and happen to have my legs crossed, but I would have no idea how many hours a day I spend sitting in this way. More recent research published this year found that if people were instructed to sit up straight while they crossed their legs the postural problems were overcome. Of course whether that’s maintained when you have no experimenter standing over you is another matter. Incidentally almost twice as many people reported crossing their right leg over their left knee than the other way around.

Slouching doesn’t sound good, but if you are a fan of leg-crossing, you might like a rather curious study from the University Medical Centre in Rotterdam which found that it could bring benefits. Researchers examined young men and women as they sat with their legs either straight, crossed at the knee or crossed at both the knee and the ankle at once. They then simulated the exact angles of the posture in four embalmed pelvises, which allowed them to measure exactly what our muscles do when we cross our legs. They found that crossing the legs at the knee increased elongation in the piriformis muscle running behind the hip joint by 11% when compared with sitting with legs uncrossed, and by 21% when compared with standing (interestingly the tension was slightly less if the legs were crossed at the ankle too). The authors believe that this increases stability in their pelvic joints in a similar way to tensing the abdominal muscles does.

So if you like crossing your legs Kenny Everett-style then you’re unlikely to do yourself any damage, provided you don’t stay in the same position until your legs are numb. And whoever is sitting next to you on the bus or the train will be grateful to you for taking up less room than the man-spreaders.

- ◆ -

註：中文文本為BBC官方譯文，僅供參考

含注釋全文：

Is crossing your legs bad for you?

蹺二郎腿是否有害健康？

BBC

14th October 2015

How do you like to sit on a chair? Many people prefer to cross one leg over the other. In the 1980s, British comedian Kenny Everett even made it his trademark – extravagantly crossing, uncrossing, then recrossing his legs while dressed in a skirt and high heels, declaring it was 「all in the best possible taste」.

你喜歡什麼坐姿？很多人都喜歡翹二郎腿。在20世紀80年代，英國喜劇演員肯尼·埃弗雷特（Kenny Everett）甚至把它作為自己的標誌--在穿着裙子和高跟鞋的時候，隨意地翹起二郎腿、收回，然後再翹起，宣稱這是「最好的品味」。

cross your arms/fingers/legs 表示「交叉雙臂／手指／雙腿」，英文解釋為「to put one of your arms, fingers, or legs over the top of the other」舉個🌰：

She sat down and crossed her legs.

她坐下蹺起了二郎腿。

1）表示「商標」，英文解釋為「a name or symbol on a product that shows it was made by a particular company, and that it cannot be used by other companies without permission」

2）表示「（某人的）標記，特徵」，英文解釋為「something very noticeable that a person typically has or does」舉個🌰：

He was wearing one of the brightly coloured ties that are his trademark.

他戴着一條他標誌性的亮色領帶。

形容詞性 extravagant /ɪkˈstrævəɡənt/ 1）表示「無節制的；過分的；放肆的；不切實際的」，英文解釋為「very extreme or impressive but not reasonable or practical」；

2）表示「spending a lot more money or using a lot more of sth than you can afford or than is necessary」，英文解釋為「奢侈的；揮霍的；鋪張浪費的」。

Others prefer not to cross their legs at all and even to 「man spread」 as it’s become known, sitting with their knees wide apart on public transport while the people either side of them are squashed. These men might have liked a rather curious publicity campaign launched in the US in 1999 called 「The Great Cross-Out」 where a dietary supplement company encouraged people to keep healthy by not crossing their legs for a whole day.

還有人根本不蹺二郎腿，甚至會像廣為人知的那樣「大爺式占座」，在公共交通工具上岔開大腿坐着，而他們兩邊的人則被擠開。這些人應該很喜歡美國1999年發起的一項名為「The Great Cross-Out」的宣傳活動：出於健康考慮，當時有一家膳食補充劑公司鼓勵民眾不要整天蹺二郎腿。

表示「（男性在公共交通工具上）岔腿而坐」，英文解釋為「the act of a man sitting, especially on public transport, with his legs spread wide apart, in a way that means that the people next to him have less space」

squash /skwɒʃ/ 1）表示「把…壓扁；把…擠扁」，英文解釋為「to crush something into a flat shape」舉個🌰：

He accidentally sat on her hat and squashed it.

他不小心坐在她的帽子上，把它坐扁了。

2）表示「（使）擠進；（把…）塞進」，英文解釋為「to push yourself, a person, or thing into a small space」舉個🌰：

The room was so full you couldn't squash another person in.

房間裡擠得滿滿的，再也擠不進一個人了。

表示「飲食的」，英文解釋為「relating to your diet」舉個🌰：

Dietary habits can be very difficult to change.

飲食習慣很難改變。

表示「補充物，增補物」，英文解釋為「something that is added to something else in order to improve it or complete it; something extra」舉個🌰：

The doctor said she should be taking vitamin supplements.

醫生說她應該服用維生素補充劑。

But is it really any healthier to avoid crossing your legs? The list of suggested consequences of spending too much time with one knee crossed over the other includes raised blood pressure, varicose veins and nerve damage, but each of these deserves close examination.

不蹺二郎腿真的更健康嗎？據說，長時間蹺二郎腿產生的不良後果包括血壓升高、靜脈曲張和神經損傷，但這些結論都值得商榷。

varicose vein /ˌvær.ɪ.kəʊs ˈveɪn/ 表示「（尤指腿部的）靜脈曲張」，英文解釋為「a swollen and often painful vein, especially in the legs」舉個🌰：

Pregnant women often get varicose veins.

孕婦常患有靜脈曲張。

Of course it is true that if you spend too much time in exactly the same position, eventually your leg or your foot can go numb. This is because crossing the legs can put pressure on the peroneal nerve behind the knee, which supplies sensation to the lower legs and feet. But if you do give yourself pins and needles this way, it is only temporary.

當然，如果你保持一個姿勢的時間過長，腿腳都會感覺麻木。這是因為蹺二郎腿會壓迫膝蓋後面的腓神經（peroneal nerve），這條神經專門負責為小腿和腳提供感覺。但如果你因為這種姿勢感覺發麻，那只是暫時現象。

numb /nʌm/ 作形容詞，表示「（身體部位）麻木的，失去感覺的」，英文解釋為「If a part of your body is numb, you are unable to feel it, usually for a short time.」也可以表示「（由於過度震驚或恐懼而）麻木的，思維遲鈍的」，英文解釋為「not able to feel any emotions or to think clearly, because you are so shocked or frightened, etc.」舉個🌰：

I was lying in a weird position and my leg went numb.

我躺臥的姿勢很奇怪，結果腿都麻了。

作動詞，1）表示「使木呆；使麻木」，英文解釋為「If an event or experiencenumbsyou, you can no longer think clearly or feel any emotion.」舉個🌰：

For a while the shock of his letter numbed her.

收到他來信的驚愕讓她木呆了好一會兒。

2）表示「使失去知覺」，英文解釋為「If cold weather, a drug, or a blownumbsa part of your body, you can no longer feel anything in it.」舉個🌰：

The cold numbed my fingers.

寒冷使我的手指失去了知覺。

1）表示「轟動；譁然；引起轟動的人（或事物）」，英文解釋為「very great surprise, excitement, or interest among a lot of people; the person or the thing that causes this surprise」舉個🌰：

The band became a sensation overnight.

一夜之間，這支樂隊名聲大振。

📍此前，戳爺Troye Sivan被傳已分手數月？文中出現過，pop sensation可以理解為「流行巨星」，「流行天王」。還有，63歲中國爺爺成油管網紅文中標題就是Master carpenter's ancient Chinese skills are a YouTube sensation.

2）作可數名詞，還可以表示「感覺；知覺」，英文解釋為「a feeling that you get when sth affects your body」，如：a tingling/burning sensation 刺痛/燒灼的感覺。

3）作不可數名詞，可以表示「感覺能力；知覺能力」，英文解釋為「the ability to feel through your sense of touch」，舉個🌰：

She seemed to have lost all sensation in her arms.

她的兩條胳膊好像完全失去知覺了。

🎬電影《困在愛中》（Stuck in Love）中的台詞提到：I was overcome by the oddest sensation. 我像是被一種怪異的衝動（感覺）驅使着。

表示「（身體某部位的）酸痛，發麻，針刺感」，英文解釋為「If you have pins and needles in a part of your body, you feel slight sharp pains in it, usually just after you have moved from being in one position for a long time.」

Maintaining a particular posture for many, many hours can however lead to a condition called peroneal nerve palsy resulting in 「foot drop」 where you can’t lift the front part of your foot and toes. But when a study from South Korea examined a series of patients』 notes in order to identify the chief causes, sitting on a chair with one knee over the other didn’t feature. Sitting cross-legged on the floor for hours at a time did. In reality long term numbness is an unlikely consequence of leg-crossing because as soon as we feel uncomfortable we tend to move.

然而，長時間保持某個姿勢會導致腓神經麻痹（peroneal nerve palsy），從而引發「足下垂」，令你無法抬起腳的前部和腳趾。韓國的一項研究調查了一系列的病例，希望找出主要的病因，但卻發現，蹺二郎腿並非其中之一，反倒是長時間盤腿坐在地上有時的確會引發這一疾病。事實上，蹺二郎腿不太可能造成長時間的麻木，因為一旦感覺不舒服，我們往往都會改變姿勢。

So how about blood pressure? When you get it checked, the doctor or nurse tends to ask you to rest your arm on the chair or table and to uncross your legs, putting your feet flat on the floor. The fear is that crossed legs might skew the reading by temporarily raising your blood pressure. By 2010, seven studies had indeed found that leg crossing does result in a higher blood pressure reading, while another study found it made no difference.

蹺二郎腿對血壓又會產生怎樣的影響？當你測量血壓時，醫生或護士通常會讓你把胳膊放在椅子或桌子上，他們還會要求你不要蹺二郎腿，而是把腳平放在地板上。這是因為他們擔心蹺二郎腿可能導致血壓讀數暫時升高。到2010年，已經有7項研究發現蹺二郎腿的確會導致血壓讀數升高，而另外一項研究發現此舉不會產生任何影響。

表示「歪曲；曲解；使不公允；影響…的準確性」，英文解釋為「to change or influence sth with the result that it is not accurate, fair, normal, etc.」如：to skew the statistics 影響統計數字的準確性。

These last-minute changes have skewed the company's results.

這些最後一刻才做出的改變影響了公司的業績。

表示「讀數（一件測量設備所顯示的數字或量值）」，英文解釋為「the number or amount that a piece of measuring equipment shows」，如：a thermometer reading 溫度計讀數。

However, many of these studies were small and relied on taking a blood pressure reading just once. One of the larger studies was conducted at a hypertension clinic in Istanbul. Researchers there took several readings with legs crossed and uncrossed. Again, blood pressure was higher when legs were crossed, but crucially when the measurements were repeated just three minutes after uncrossing the legs, blood pressure was back to the earlier levels. The greatest rise in blood pressure occurs in people already being treated for high blood pressure.

然而，很多研究的樣本都很小，而且僅依賴於一次的血壓讀數。其中一次規模較大的研究是在伊斯坦布爾（Istanbul）的一間高血壓診所里進行的。那裡的研究人員針對蹺二郎腿和不蹺二郎腿兩種坐姿測量了多組數據，結果發現，蹺二郎腿後的血壓的確會上升。但關鍵在於，如果蹺二郎腿3分鐘後重複測量，血壓讀數又會恢復到之前的水平。血壓上升幅度最大的是那些已經因為高血壓而接受治療的人。

表示「高血壓」，英文解釋為「a medical condition in which your blood pressure is extremely high.」

Two possible mechanisms have been proposed to explain why leg-crossing might lead to a temporary rise in blood pressure. One is that the action of putting one knee over the other sends blood from the legs up to the chest resulting in an increased quantity of blood being pumped out of the heart, raising blood pressure. An alternative explanation is that blood pressure rises because isometric exercise of the leg muscles (exercise without the joints moving) increases the resistance to the blood passing through the vessels. This might explain why crossing legs at the ankles doesn’t have the same effect.

有兩種機制或許都有助於解釋蹺二郎腿為什麼可能導致暫時的血壓上升。一種是，將一條腿的膝蓋架在另一條腿的膝蓋上時，會將腿部血液向上擠壓到胸腔，導致心臟壓出的血液量增加，從而令血壓升高。另外一種解釋是，腿部肌肉的等長運動（不活動關節的運動）增加了血液流過血管時面臨的阻力，導致血壓升高。這或許可以解釋為何交叉腳踝不會產生同樣的效果。

1）表示「抽送；用泵（或泵樣器官等）輸送」，英文解釋為「Topumpa liquid or gas in a particular direction means to force it to flow in that direction using a pump.」舉個🌰：

The money raised will be used to dig bore holes to pump water into the dried-up lake.

籌到的錢款將用來挖井眼，再將水抽入乾涸的湖中。

2）表示「洗胃」，英文解釋為「If someonehastheir stomachpumped, doctors remove the contents of their stomach, for example, because they have swallowed poison or drugs.」舉個🌰：

One woman was rushed to the emergency room to have her stomach pumped.

一名婦女被緊急送進急診室去洗胃。

isometric /ˌaɪsəʊˈmetrɪk/ 表示「等角的；等軸的；等距的」，英文解釋為「Isometric drawing uses a method of drawing a shape with three dimensions using two dimensions.」如：isometric projection 等角投影。

表示「關節」，英文解釋為「a place in your body where two bones are connected」如：an elbow/hip/knee joint 肘/髖/膝關節。

表示「阻力」，英文解釋為「a force that acts to stop the progress of something or make it slower」舉個🌰：

The car's speed was reduced by air/wind resistance.

汽車速度因為空氣/風的阻力而下降。

vessel /ˈvɛsəl/ 1）表示「（盛液體的）容器，器皿」，英文解釋為「a container used for holding liquids, such as a bowl, cup, etc.」如：a Bronze Age drinking vessel 青銅器時代的飲具。

2）表示「船，艦」，英文解釋為「a large boat or a ship」如：a cargo/fishing/naval/patrol/sailing/supply vessel 貨船/漁船/海軍艦艇/巡邏艇/帆船/補給船。

In order to establish which of these explanations was the most likely, a study in Nijmegen in the Netherlands took a number of physiological measurements. The team found that resistance in the blood vessels didn’t rise when the heart rate was low and the legs were crossed, but the amount of blood leaving the heart did, suggesting that the increased blood pressure is due to crossed legs pushing blood up to the heart.

為了判斷哪一種解釋更符合實際，荷蘭奈梅亨市（Nijmegen）的一項研究採用了多種生理測定指標。該團隊發現，血管阻力並未在心率放慢和蹺二郎腿時增加，但心臟壓出的血液的確增多了，表明血壓升高是因為蹺二郎腿這個動作將更多的血液推向心臟所致。

physiological /ˌfɪz.i.əˈlɒdʒ.ɪ.kəl/ 表示「生理學的」，英文解釋為「relating to the way in which the bodies of living things work」舉個🌰：

Touching causes a physiological reaction.

觸摸引起生理反應。

So crossing the legs does appear to cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, but the evidence for any long-term consequences simply isn’t there, with one exception. People at high risk of blood clots are advised not to cross their legs for long periods of time because for them, impeding the flow of blood could increase their risk of a deep vein thrombosis.

由此可見，蹺二郎腿似乎的確會導致血壓暫時升高，但仍然沒有充足的證據可以表明這個動作會產生長期影響。不過，仍有一個例外：血栓風險較高的人群最好不要長時間蹺二郎腿，因為對他們來說，阻礙血流可能增加深靜脈血栓形成的風險。

表示「血栓；血凝塊；血塊」，英文解釋為「a thick mass of blood that forms in a blood vessel and may block the flow of blood in the blood vessel」如：a blood clot on the brain 大腦中的血塊。

thrombosis /θrɒmˈbəʊ.sɪs/ 表示「血栓形成」，英文解釋為「a medical condition in which the flow of blood in the body is blocked by a clot (= half solid mass) of blood」

impede /ɪmˈpiːd/ 表示「妨礙，阻礙；阻止」，英文解釋為「to make it more difficult for something to happen or more difficult for someone to do something」舉個🌰：

Although he's shy, it certainly hasn't impeded his career in any way.

儘管他很害羞，但這顯然一點兒也沒有妨礙他的事業。

1）表示「靜脈」，英文解釋為「a tube that carries blood to the heart from the other parts of the body」

2）表示「（說話、寫作）風格；方式」，英文解釋為「in a particular style of speaking or writing about something」舉個🌰：

A number of other people commented in a similar vein.

其他一些人也以類似的腔調評論。

But even if crossing your legs doesn’t give you high blood pressure in the long term, what about the idea that it can give you varicose veins? The reasons why some people suffer from varicose veins and others don’t is something of a mystery. Usually tiny valves in the blood vessels prevent blood from flowing back in the wrong direction, but if those valves become stretched and weakened the blood can pool, resulting in the enlarged veins we call varicose veins. Crossing the legs has not been demonstrated to be a crucial factor. Whether or not you get varicose veins seems, partly at least, to be down to genetics.

但即便蹺二郎腿不會令血壓長期升高，它又是否會導致靜脈曲張呢？靜脈曲張的形成因素並不神秘。通常而言，血管內有許多微小的瓣膜阻止血液向錯誤的方向倒流，但如果這些瓣膜被拉伸，引發功能受損，就會導致血管體積擴大，也就形成了我們所說的靜脈曲張。還沒有證據表明蹺二郎腿是形成靜脈曲張的關鍵原因。事實上，靜脈曲張在一定程度上與遺傳因素有關。

valve /vælv/ 表示「閥；活門；（心臟或血管的）瓣膜」，英文解釋為「a device that opens and closes to control the flow of liquids or gases, or a similar structure in the heart and the veins that controls the flow of blood」舉個🌰：

The valve failed to open/close.

閥門打不開/關不上了。

1）表示「伸出；伸長；拉伸」，英文解釋為「to cause something to reach, often as far as possible, in a particular direction」舉個🌰：

She stretched out her hand and helped him from his chair.

她伸手將他從椅子上扶起來。

2）表示「展開，鋪開；延伸」，英文解釋為「to spread over a large area or distance」舉個🌰：

A huge cloud of dense smoke stretched across the horizon.

一大團濃煙在地平線上蔓延開來。

3）作名詞，表示「（連續的）一段時間」，英文解釋為「a continuous period of time」舉個🌰：

The elderly generally need far less rest than the young, and tend to sleep in several short stretches.

年長者一般需要的休息時間比年輕人要少得多，而且往往會分成幾個小段時間睡覺。

表示「由…決定；是…的責任」，英文解釋為「to be someone's responsibility or decision」舉個🌰：

It's down to me to find a suitable person for the job.

找到合適的人選做這項工作是我的責任。

So if veins, blood pressure and nerves are not affected by leg-crossing in the long-term, how about the impact on our joints? One study found that people who sat with their legs crossed for more than three hours a day were more likely to lean forward and to round their shoulders. But the research relied on people’s own estimations of how long they crossed their legs for. As I write this, I’m sitting at my desk and happen to have my legs crossed, but I would have no idea how many hours a day I spend sitting in this way. More recent research published this year found that if people were instructed to sit up straight while they crossed their legs the postural problems were overcome. Of course whether that’s maintained when you have no experimenter standing over you is another matter. Incidentally almost twice as many people reported crossing their right leg over their left knee than the other way around.

如果蹺二郎腿不會對血管、血壓和神經產生長期影響，那麼這種姿勢是否會對關節構成傷害呢？一項研究發現，如果一天蹺二郎腿的時間超過3小時，就更有可能導致身體前傾和肩部變圓。但這項研究依靠的是人們對每天蹺二郎腿的時間展開的自我評估。我寫這篇文章時恰好也蹺着二郎腿，但我並不知道我一天會有多長時間保持這種坐姿。今年發布的一項研究顯示，如果人們在蹺二郎腿時筆直坐立，便可克服姿態問題。當然，你身邊能否有專門的人始終提醒你保持筆直的坐姿是另外一個問題。值得一提的是，習慣把右腿架在左腿上的人，幾乎是習慣把左腿架在右腿上的人的兩倍。

postural /ˈpɒs.tʃə.rəl/ 表示「姿態的，儀態的；姿勢的」，英文解釋為「relating to posture (= the position in which the body is held)」舉個🌰：

Postural changes and weight gain cause some women to experience musculoskeletal pain during pregnancy.

姿態變化和體重增加可能在一些婦女身上造成肌肉骨骼疼痛。

Slouching doesn’t sound good, but if you are a fan of leg-crossing, you might like a rather curious study from the University Medical Centre in Rotterdam which found that it could bring benefits. Researchers examined young men and women as they sat with their legs either straight, crossed at the knee or crossed at both the knee and the ankle at once. They then simulated the exact angles of the posture in four embalmed pelvises, which allowed them to measure exactly what our muscles do when we cross our legs.

無精打采的姿態肯定不好，但如果你喜歡蹺二郎腿，或許會對鹿特丹伊拉斯姆斯大學醫學中心（Erasmus University Medical Centre）的研究結論很感興趣。他們發現，蹺二郎腿也可以帶來一些好處。研究人員對男性和女性兩類人群的三種姿態展開了研究，包括：雙腿放直、蹺二郎腿、在蹺二郎腿的同時交叉腳踝。他們隨後對組成骨盆的4塊骨頭在對不同姿勢下的具體角度進行了模擬，以此了解我們蹺二郎腿時的肌肉狀況。

slouch /slaʊtʃ/ 表示「低頭垂肩地站（或坐、走）；沒精打采地站（或坐、走）」，英文解釋為「to stand, sit, or walk with the shoulders hanging forward and the head bent slightly over so that you look tired and bored」舉個🌰：

Straighten your back - try not to slouch.

挺直後背——別沒精打采的。

表示「模擬」，英文解釋為「If you simulate a set of conditions, you create them artificially, for example, in order to conduct an experiment.」舉個🌰：

The scientist developed one model to simulate a full year of the globe's climate.

這位科學家研製出一個模型，能模擬全年地球的氣候。

pelvis /ˈpel.vɪs/ 表示「骨盆」，英文解釋為「the bones that form a bowl-shaped structure in the area below the waist at the top of the legs, and to which the leg bones and spine are joined」。

They found that crossing the legs at the knee increased elongation in the piriformis muscle running behind the hip joint by 11% when compared with sitting with legs uncrossed, and by 21% when compared with standing (interestingly the tension was slightly less if the legs were crossed at the ankle too). The authors believe that this increases stability in their pelvic joints in a similar way to tensing the abdominal muscles does.

結果發現，與不交叉雙腿相比，蹺二郎腿會將髖關節後的梨狀肌（piriformis muscle）的拉伸率提升11%，與站立姿勢相比則增加了21%（有趣的是，蹺二郎腿並同時交叉腳踝時的拉伸率反而略低）。研究人員認為，這可以增強骨盆關節的穩定性，效果與拉伸腹肌類似。

elongation /ˌiː.lɒŋˈɡeɪ.ʃən/ 表示「伸長；伸長率；延伸率；延長」，英文解釋為「the process of becoming or making something become longer, and often thinner」

abdominal /æbˈdɒmɪnəl/ 表示「腹部的」，英文解釋為「Abdominal is used to describe something that is situated in the abdomen or forms part of it.」

So if you like crossing your legs Kenny Everett-style then you’re unlikely to do yourself any damage, provided you don’t stay in the same position until your legs are numb. And whoever is sitting next to you on the bus or the train will be grateful to you for taking up less room than the man-spreaders.

所以，如果你喜歡蹺二郎腿，這並不太可能對自己構成傷害，只要別長時間保持一個姿勢不變導致雙腿麻木即可。另外，當你乘坐公交車或地鐵時，坐在你身旁的人肯定會因為你少占了一些空間而感激不盡。

- 今日盤點 -

cross your legs

trademark

extravagantly

man spread

squash

dietary

supplement

varicose vein

numb

sensation

pins and needles

skew

reading

hypertension

pump

isometric

joint

resistance

vessel

physiological

blood clot

thrombosis

impede

vein

valve

stretch

be down to sb

postural

slouch

simulate

pelvis

elongation

abdominal

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