5 Easy tips to help if you stand all day

  • Wear comfortable and supportive shoes, and make sure they fit your feet well. This is probably not your time to break in new shoes– stick to the tried and true.
  • Keep moving in different ways: your body is really meant to move, so your back, legs and feet can gets stiff and sore if you’re standing still for sustained periods. You can delay this with shifting your weight side to side, or bending your knees up, or coming up and down on your toes repeatedly. Just try to keep your body moving around consistently.
  • Consider compression hose/ socks: these socks can help encourage blood flow back up your legs toward your heart, and prevent pooling of fluid in your feet and ankles.
  • Stand on a cushioned mat or carpet if possible, as a softer surface can be helpful to delay soreness in your feet and legs.
  • Try to sit when you can: this ties in with point number two, to just change your position. When you’re taking a break or having lunch, try to sit– just putting your body in another position can be very helpful!

Arch is the new round

In, life– every singe day– we spend so much of our time with our spine rounded forward: brushing our teeth, stting on the toilet, washing our feet, reaching in the fridge, loading the dryer. Even looking down all the time to read, or cook, or do just about anything. Here are some nice moves to get out of that position and get your spine to move in the opposite direction! These should feel pretty good and should not be painful– if they are, you might need to modify. Speak with your physiotherapist about how to make it appropriate for you!

4 Reasons to Work on Your Balance… Not That You Need Reasons.

Balancing is a fundamental aspect of any movement we perform. It is one more of those things that you don’t realize its importance until you don’t have it. You need balance in every day movements like standing up from sitting, or to lean forward and reach for something, and certainly to dance!

You work stabilizing muscles to balance, and it also challenges stability in our joints and our vestibular system. Here are 6 more reasons to work on balance:

  1. You start to lose balance with aging: your brain, your muscles, and your inner ear are all coordinating together to balance. If you don’t practice balance, the integration between these systems can decline over time, making it harder for you to stay upright with good posture. Practicing balance activities keeps everything working much more smoothly and prevents much of this age-related loss.
  2. You can help prevent falls: with better balance comes the ability to more quickly react to unexpected slips. Knowing that you are adept to react to sliding or uneven terrain can help with the confidence needed to leave the house in winter!
  3. Make your body do something different! As adults, we live in the forward/backward plane of movement, and don’t regularly do movements side-to-side or rotations. Over years, this can make our joints and muscles stiffer or tighter when we do have to get out of our usual positions. Balance exercises make our bodies react, engaging different muscles and working our joints in new ways.
  4. Balance can help you recover faster from injury: not only have balance drills and exercises been shown to help prevent injuries, research shows that balance exercises in rehab can help you recover faster from injuries in the leg and foot.

You Now Have a Standing Desk for Work. What Now?

Do you have a standing desk ? Here are some considerations for your work day.

We’ve now all heard that sitting is the new smoking, and you found that sitting for hours on end during work made your back and neck sore. You now have a standing desk, but how long should you be standing? What height is best? What about how you’re standing? So many questions!

Some of these questions are covered in the short video above, but it would be important to gradually build up your standing tolerance at the desk. Start with about 15-20 minutes, then sit for a time, and alternate positions through the day. Eventually try to stand for 40-50% of your work day.

It can also be helpful to have a small step in front, and have the option to put one foot up for some of your standing time. Obviously, you would want to switch feet at times while standing.

A standing desk can be a great option to break up periods of sitting, and still be productive in your day!

Tired of Sitting all Day? Try This Option when Working at Home

Even if your work station is set up ergonomically, it is best to change up your position during your work day. Our bodies are meant to move, and so many of us have jobs that require us to be sitting for extended periods of time.

These days it is common to have a standing desk or platform, and that is a great way to change your position during work. Here is a nice variation to the standing option that isn’t an obvious solution. Give it a try!

Want to Kick Up Your Walking? Here’s How.

When you’re walking for exercise, there are a few ways that you can change the intensity:  you can walk faster, you can walk up a hill, or you can add an external weight—hand weights, wrist or ankle weights, or a weighted vest.

If you’re interested in increasing the intensity of your walking workout, here’s how to do it safely:

  • Use weights that are 3 pounds at the most. This will allow you to keep your regular walking pattern
  • Don’t exaggerate your movements. Using small weights is intended to increase the intensity of your cardio routine, it is not to turn the walk into a strength training workout.
  • You could hold a full water bottle in one hand if you don’t have dumbbells or wrist weights. It is fine to hold something in just one hand, it doesn’t have to be even on both sides.
  • Use a weighted vest, if you can find one! Some researchers believe this is better as it adds weight to your trunk, where it is more natural to move with it. They feel that a vest that adds 10-15% of your body weight helps to burn more calories without necessarily feeling like you are exerting more.
  • Don’t walk with weights every day—begin with 2-3 days per week with light weight, and progress to more frequent or longer walks over four to six weeks

Have fun with it! The goal is to keep your body moving, and using weights can add variability to your workout. It should not be painful or overly strenuous, and certainly should not be heavy enough that it changes your gait pattern. Go see what you can do!

After Months of Working at Home, How is Your Back and Neck Feeling?

So many people are working at home at the moment, and have set up their work station at the dining room table. All of these months later, perhaps your neck or lower back has become stiff or sore. Our bodies are meant to move, so if you are sitting for many hours for work, and not getting out like you typically would, then you could be too sedentary for these past months. You no longer have a commute, and outside of work you’re sitting in front of the television or reading—over all of this time, that can lead to a stiff or sore back or neck.  It can be easy to employ some strategies to make your work day efficient, and keep yourself moving as well:

Set up your chair: You do not need an expensive chair with all the adjustments to be helpful.  Important features would be a chair that is height adjustable, so that you can keep your feet on the floor. It is easy to add a supplemental lumbar support—even roll up a towel—and place it in the small of your back to support the natural inward curve that is in your back when you stand.

Fig. 1- standing back extension

Regularly move in your work day: They say that “your best posture is your next posture”, so set a reminder to beep at you every hour, and stand up momentarily and stretch your spine backward (Fig. 1), or lean backward over the top of your chair (Fig 2). Both of these movements are positions that should not be painful, but get you out of the common rounding forward position in which we tend to live. If you have a meeting with one or two other people over Zoom, why not make it a “walking” meeting?Move around the block to have the meeting, and then write any notes when you get back.

Fig. 2- neck extension

Vary your working position: As odd as it sounds, a nice alternative to sitting could be working on your stomach with some pillows under your chest to keep a slight arch in your back. You would keep your laptop on the floor or bed, and this position is nice to get your spine out of the typically rounded forward posture (Fig. 3). You can also stand for part of your work day by putting your laptop on a higher surface, or an external keyboard and mouse that allow you to work at the correct height. You could also make it a practice to stand every time you take a telephone call. If you have a wireless headset, you could walk around as you’re on the call.

Figure 3- prone on elbows

All of these practices are easy to establish in your work day to allow for more position changes and movement. As we continue to be at home more than ever before, your spine will thank you for it!

We look down too much! Here’s how you can help your neck:

In life, we look down all of the time– our hands are in front of us and we are constantly looking down at what our hands are doing, right? Over time, your neck might become sore, and here is a nice exercise to help counteract that. Ideally, this neck movement should feel like nothing… really. It should feel smooth and easy– if your neck feels stiff or tight, keep doing this neck movement to try to make it easier. It should never be painful– if it is, consult with your physiotherapist to make sure it is appropriate for you.

Neck retractions are awesome!