Deadlifts: Deadlifts work both your glutes and hamstrings.Yass recommends performing the following two exercises, twice a week for 15 minutes to strengthen your target muscles-and thus minimize the toll standing takes on the body. “Ultimately you have to strengthen the muscles that help you stand upright.” The result: less strain and less pain. “Since most people stand slightly hunched forward, their skeletons are not in a position to support them so their muscles have to kick in,” says Mitchell Yass, DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy), the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, author of The Yass Method for Pain-Free Movement, The Pain Cure, and Overpower Pain. Building muscle increases your functional capacity. T o support this weight, you need to build strength in your abdominals, glutes, hamstrings and hip flexors. Imagine holding a bowling ball in front of you all day and you’ll get a sense of what happens with poor posture. The further forward your head leans, the heavier it feels. When your head leans forward 15 degrees, the tilt makes the weight of your head feel closer to 30 pounds. The human head weighs 10-12 pounds-about the same as an adult (woman’s) size bowling ball.
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“That will really help reduce fatigue for both you and your students,” she says, “and it instills good habits at the same time.” During your off hours, build exercise into your daily routine, especially stretching activities like yoga.Ĥ. Add a stretching or moving break every 20-30 minutes, for example. “Before you start your work day, do some stretching and at the end of the day, cool down with more stretching.” You can walk to work to get your muscles warmed up or consider incorporating activities that require movement into the classroom. “Look at yourself as an athlete,” suggests Jacobs. That helps support the arch of the foot.ģ. Another tip: During your off time, flex your feet toward your shins to strengthen the muscles in front of the lower leg. “If you can envision a little string that travels through your midline, that’s good posture,” says Jacobs. You can correct this forward position by keeping your ears over your shoulders and your shoulders over your hips. That increases pressure on the arch of the foot and the muscles that support it, causing them to work harder and eventually strain.
![were you now stand i once stood were you now stand i once stood](http://www.gardensandwildlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/IMG_2881-1536x2048.jpg)
When your head tilts forward this way, it shifts your body’s center of mass forward.
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Poor posture runs rampant in our culture, particularly an imbalance known as “forward head” (also called “text neck,” “scholar’s neck,” or “reading neck”) in which your head extends forward beyond your shoulders instead of resting straight atop your spine where it should be. Watch most educators stand and you’ll see why so many have pain in the neck, back and shoulders. For added comfort, Jacob recommends wearing insoles to provide extra cushioning.Ģ. “Your best bet is to choose comfortable footwear that supports your feet,” says Karen Jacobs, Ed.D., OTR/L, program director of Distance Education Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Programs and clinical professor at Boston University College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Similarly, if you wear shoes with only of a thin strap of plastic, you alter the way you walk, shortening your stride and scrunching your toes, which increases the angle of the ankle. When you wear shoes that force you to transfer weight toward the toe and away from the heel (like pumps and high heels), your gait dramatically shifts. High heels, flip-flops, strappy sandals and even unsupportive flats (think ballet slippers) wreak havoc on the body. To get started, try these four strategies:ġ. These symptoms are telling you that your body is weak and off balance-but the good news is when you strengthen weak areas, you can say goodbye to foot pain. Your back aches, your dogs are barking and all you want to do is sit down. It’s not uncommon to feel pain, strain and muscle weakness when you’re on your feet all day.
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Experts say with a little common sense, proper alignment and muscle toning, you can train your body to cope with being on your feet all day-without pain.