The long-standing advice to "sit up straight" has been turned on its head by a new study that suggests leaning back is a much better posture.

" I always told my children to sit up straight with their feet on the floor." said Janice Schuerenberg who is a mother of two daughters.

"When I was younger, my mother would always continually reminding me to sit up straight on the chair." said Sally Barans.

But the researchers found that sitting up straight strains our back unnecessarily. Ideally, you would lean slightly back, at an angle of about 135 degrees.

"If you sit completely 90 degree angle, there is more pressure place on the disk, sitting in the slouching position which is less than 70 degrees basically means a lot of pressure in disk as well. But the research shows that when you lean back there is less pressure on the discs." said, Dr. Kyle Bowers.  

Researchers analyzed different postures and concluded that the strain of sitting upright for long hours is a perpetrator of chronic back problems. For that, Bowers also suggests to sitting posture with 135 degree.

"Whenever you are sitting back at the positions, there will be less pressures that is actually on the disk, which means there will be less pressure on the muscles as well." said Bowers.

To relieve back pain, setting posture is important as well as simple exercises with a chair. Back pain is the most common cause of work-related disability in the United States. It costs Americans nearly $50 billion annually. Sitting appears to be a major cause of this ailment. To relieve back pain, setting posture is important as well as simple exercise with a chair.

"Good stretch while you are sitting in the chair is basically place your hand back part of your hips and than just bend stretch backward extenuation because that will stretch the lumbar erector muscle as well. The most important stretch to do is to stretching hamstring. You can put your foot on the chair and bend in and hold that for eight seconds." said Bowers.

Doctors also suggests to do leg lifts and stenches while doing other office work such as taking calls or running errands.