Essentially, there’s this thing called the Puborectalis muscle that puts a kink in your rectum while you’re standing or sitting. This is necessary, frankly, so you don’t accidentally poop while going about your daily business.

When it’s time to relieve yourself, you need this muscle to relax. But it doesn’t fully release its grip on your rectum when you’re in a standard sitting position (for reasons detailed above). As such, you might find yourself straining a little as you try to “go,” and this can lead to hemorrhoids and other unpleasantness.

So how do you skirt this issue? Many experts believe the Puborectalis muscle fully relaxes, releasing its grip on your rectum, when the body is in a squatting position—after all, humans had to squat for hundreds of years before the modern toilet was invented. So when you prop your feet up on a stool like the Squatty Potty, it imitates a squatting position, allowing things to flow more freely.