The best position to poop is a modified squat, where your knees are raised above your hips and your torso leans slightly forward. This position straightens the natural bend in your rectum, making bowel movements faster and easier. On a standard Western toilet, you can achieve this by placing a small footstool under your feet.
Why Posture Matters for Bowel Movements
Your body has a built-in mechanism that controls when stool can pass. A sling-shaped muscle called the puborectalis wraps around the lower rectum and pulls it forward, creating a roughly 90-degree bend known as the anorectal angle. This kink acts like a natural valve. When you’re standing or sitting upright, the muscle stays active, keeping that bend tight and helping you maintain continence.
When you bear down to have a bowel movement, the puborectalis muscle is supposed to relax. As it loosens, the anorectal angle widens from about 90 degrees to around 125 to 135 degrees, straightening the path for stool to exit. The more completely this muscle relaxes, the less effort you need to push. Posture directly influences how much the muscle can let go.
How Squatting Changes the Angle
In a full squat, your thighs press closer to your abdomen, your pelvis tilts, and the puborectalis muscle relaxes more completely than it does when you sit upright at a standard toilet height. The anorectal angle opens wider, creating a straighter, more direct channel from rectum to anus. Think of it like unkinking a garden hose: once the bend is gone, everything flows with less resistance.
Sitting upright on a typical toilet keeps your hips at roughly a 90-degree angle to your torso. That’s enough to partially relax the puborectalis, but not fully. The kink in the rectum remains partially in place, which is why many people feel the need to strain. Over time, repeated straining can contribute to hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and a sense of incomplete emptying.
What the Research Shows
A clinical trial conducted at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center tested whether a simple toilet stool could improve bowel habits. After four weeks, 71 percent of participants experienced faster bowel movements, and 90 percent reported less straining. Two-thirds of participants said they would continue using a toilet stool after the study ended. Participants also reported improvements in constipation, bloating, and the feeling of incomplete emptying.
These results are notable because the intervention was so simple. No medication, no dietary changes. Just raising the feet on a stool while sitting on a standard toilet was enough to produce measurable improvements in comfort and speed.
How to Set Up the Position at Home
You don’t need a specialized product, though options like the Squatty Potty are designed for this purpose. Any sturdy stool, step, or stack of books about 6 to 9 inches tall will work. The American Physical Therapy Association’s pelvic health division recommends the following steps:
- Sit on the toilet comfortably and place your feet hip-width apart on the stool.
- Raise your knees above your hips. This is the key change. Your thighs should angle upward, not sit level.
- Lean forward slightly and rest your elbows on your knees.
This “supported squat” mimics the biomechanics of a full squat while letting you use a Western-style toilet. The forward lean increases abdominal pressure gently and helps tilt the pelvis into a more favorable position. You shouldn’t need to hold your breath or push hard. If the position is right, gravity and your body’s natural reflexes do most of the work.
Breathing and Relaxation Techniques
Position alone won’t help much if you’re tensing your pelvic floor muscles while trying to go. Once you’re in the supported squat position, take a slow breath in through your nose, letting your belly expand. Then exhale slowly through your mouth, allowing your pelvic floor to relax and drop. Some people find it helpful to make a gentle “sss” or “shh” sound on the exhale, which naturally engages the abdominal muscles without bearing down aggressively.
Aggressive straining, where you hold your breath and push hard, does the opposite of what you want. It can actually tighten the pelvic floor muscles rather than release them. A relaxed, breathing-focused approach paired with the right posture is far more effective than forceful pushing in any position.
Timing and Duration on the Toilet
Sitting on the toilet for more than 10 minutes can compress the sciatic nerve, causing numbness and tingling in your legs. Squatting compresses the blood vessels and nerves behind the knees even faster. The practical guideline is to keep toilet visits to about 5 minutes. If nothing happens in that window, get up, walk around, and try again later.
Scrolling your phone on the toilet is one of the most common reasons people sit too long. Beyond the nerve compression issue, prolonged sitting with even mild straining increases pressure on the veins around the anus, which over time raises the risk of hemorrhoids. The supported squat position typically shortens toilet time enough that this becomes less of a concern.
Pelvic Floor Considerations
How deep you squat affects your pelvic floor differently depending on your situation. A partial squat, like what you get with a moderate footstool, shortens and lightly activates the pelvic floor muscles. A full deep squat lengthens and releases them more completely, separating the sitting bones and allowing the muscles to stretch.
For most people using a toilet stool, the supported squat position provides enough pelvic floor relaxation for comfortable bowel movements. If you have a condition involving pelvic floor tightness (sometimes called a hypertonic pelvic floor), a wider, deeper squat position may be more helpful. On the other hand, if you’re managing pelvic organ prolapse or significant pelvic floor weakness, a more moderate elevation with gentle technique is typically a better fit. A pelvic floor physical therapist can help you find the right setup for your body.
What About People With Mobility Limitations
Not everyone can get into a squat or place their feet on a stool. For people who are bedridden, the key is getting as close to a sitting position as possible, even on a bedpan. Bending forward while bearing down helps widen the anorectal angle from any seated position. If you can sit on a bedside commode rather than using a bedpan flat in bed, that’s a meaningful improvement in mechanics.
For those who can sit on a standard toilet but have limited hip or knee flexibility, even a low stool of 3 to 4 inches provides some benefit. The goal is always to get the knees at least slightly above the hips. Leaning forward and resting your forearms on your thighs compensates partially when you can’t raise your feet very high.