Stress position

A stress position, also known as a submission position, places the human body in such a way that a great amount of weight is placed on just one or two muscles. For example, a subject may be forced to stand on the balls of their feet, then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates an intense amount of pressure on the legs, leading first to pain and then muscle failure.

A Viet Cong prisoner captured in 1967 by the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) awaits interrogation. He has been placed in a stress position by tying a board between his arms.

Forcing prisoners to adopt such positions is an enhanced interrogation technique (torture technique) that proponents claim leads to extracting information from the person being tortured.[1]