The doctors explained why it is useful to stand. Why standing a lot is as harmful as sitting Where to store your car - choose the best option

Modern life becomes more and more hypodynamic, and we spend less and less time in movement and physical labor. But even with this lifestyle, situations often arise when you have to stand on your feet for a long time. Perhaps it is in more As for women: they go to clinics and other institutions more often, standing in queues, they spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing meals for their households, and also many of them are forced to be on their feet due to the nature of their professional activities.

Prolonged standing is tiring and not harmless for any person. What can we say about pregnant women, who sometimes get very tired even from a few minutes of staying on their feet. And if you have to stand for several hours in a row? .. Of course, they will certainly ask themselves whether it is harmful to stand for a long time during pregnancy and what to do if it is difficult to stand in principle. And they will do it right, because in this case, indeed, "there is no truth in the legs."

Any gynecologist and obstetrician will tell you that leisurely walks on fresh air extremely useful for pregnant women. Concerning motor activity in general, then, ideally, one should strive to maintain a balance: to provide oneself with a full-fledged night sleep and a short day's rest, but at the same time also engage in moderate physical activity. That is, light work and even sports are definitely useful and harmless for expectant mothers, unless they are shown absolute bed rest.

But what no doctor will advise is to stand on your feet for a long time during pregnancy.

Scientists around the world agree that prolonged standing can adversely affect the health of the future mother and child, and the more likely and stronger the longer the period. However, they assess the degree of such harm in different ways.

Most of all, American researchers are concerned, who came to the following conclusions in the course of observations:

• Pregnant women who work 4 or more hours a day on their feet should go on maternity leave from the 24th week of pregnancy.
• Women engaged in heavy standing work are advised to go on vacation at the 20th week of pregnancy, if the work is moderately hard, at the 28th week.
• If a pregnant woman engaged in standing work has the opportunity to interrupt and change the position of the body (sit down, walk around) every half hour, then she can work quietly up to 32 weeks of the term.
• The highest risk of having a child with low body weight due to standing work exists in lean pregnant women with little weight gain.

Other scholars believe that the dangers of standing work are greatly exaggerated. However, it still exists. In particular, if you stand on your feet for a long time during pregnancy, you can provoke the formation of edema and varicose veins (including hemorrhoids), a decrease blood pressure and the appearance of associated headaches, fainting.

British scientists believe (and their research confirms such a possibility) that standing work during the period of gestation can cause intrauterine growth retardation and the birth of a child with low body weight.

Difficulty standing during pregnancy

In no case should you think that it is generally impossible to stand during pregnancy, and in every possible way avoid this. Women who work standing up are most at risk: they really should think about how it is possible to go on maternity leave early, or at least find a way to reduce the duration of such work as much as possible.

However, sometimes mothers have to stand in line or in the kitchen for a long time. Some women even experience pain in their legs and severe fatigue, as soon as they stop for a few minutes, they feel good while walking. If you find it difficult to stand during pregnancy and to minimize the associated consequences, use the following recommendations:

• Ask your doctor about wearing a brace: this device is able to support your back, prevent pain and fatigue in the back, lower back, legs, relieve them of some degree of stress and generally prevent unwanted conditions (pain, swelling, etc.).
• Step from foot to foot, alternately transferring body weight to one or the other.
• You can also "wiggle", rising on tiptoe and again lowering to the entire foot.
• From time to time, do a little "exercises": squeeze and release the buttocks, bend to the foot and relax the toes.
• If you have to stand for a long time, then it is better to keep one leg on a small hill (that is, on some kind of stand), bent at the knee, leaning on it. Change legs periodically.
• Give yourself a 5-7 minute break by walking or sitting down after every hour of standing work.
• Avoid a position in which you want to bend your back, pushing your stomach forward: this position of the body during pregnancy leads to pain and fatigue due to improper distribution of the load on the musculoskeletal system.
• If you have to stand for a long time during pregnancy, ask your doctor to choose a compression garment for you.
• Wear "low" shoes, but not with a solid sole: heels during pregnancy should be, however, low and in no case stilettos.
• Rest more in your free time and eliminate hard work for the entire period of pregnancy.

In addition, do not forget that it is better to sleep and lie on your side (moreover, on the left). And you should also provide yourself with a complete balanced balanced diet, with a mandatory breakfast, lunch, dinner and small healthy snacks.

There may be only one case when standing during pregnancy is useful: if you stand on all fours, more precisely in a knee-elbow position. This position helps relieve pressure from the inferior vena cava and all internal organs, constrained by the uterus, improve blood circulation in the uteroplacental circle, facilitate breathing. It is recommended to stand on all fours during pregnancy in cases where the fetus needs to turn around in order to take the most physiological position for childbirth - head down.

Doctors advise all pregnant women to get into the knee-elbow position every day, starting from the 20th week of the term.

Especially for - Margarita SOLOVIEVA

On a typical day, I walk at least 10 kilometers: that's how it works. But sometimes you have to forget about walking and focus on work. After an active week, even being chained to a chair for a couple of hours, sitting without movement is simply unbearable.

Plus, it's pretty bad. There is a way out - standing workplace. Although he also has flaws that affect mood and well-being. You always need variety.

I managed to create it in the form of my workplace. The main thing is to combine, and combine both. How?

The harm of sedentary work is serious

Each of us has heard about the dangers of sitting work, although in fact it is harmful to just sit without changing positions for too long. The mechanism is simple: prolonged immobility leads to muscle weakness.

The whole body suffers: muscles degrade, heart and vascular diseases appear, there is a risk of strokes, heart attacks and obesity. And this is just the beginning of the list of troubles that a sedentary lifestyle can bring.


Ergonomic comfortable chairs and all kinds of supports for hands and feet do not solve the problem. The option to combine a desktop and exercise equipment does not work because of simple human laziness: pedaling and working is more difficult than just working.

In addition, a chair, even the most ergonomic one, carries a great danger. It always has a desire to hunch over, no matter what lumbar supports and armrests the manufacturers offer.


And this is logical, because man is not created to sit. Such a way of life has become massively widespread only in the last 30-50 years, a maximum of a century. Prior to this, a person spent most of his life standing - this is how almost all workplaces were organized (remember desks and drawing boards).

Hence all the problems of a sedentary lifestyle.

I can’t even imagine the feeling of a constantly sitting person: my legs become numb after 15-20 minutes, I want to turn around or at least change the position of my back. How do you live without getting up from your chair?

Benefits of standing

And all because for human body a standing position is more familiar than a sitting position. In an upright position, many muscles have to work, blood circulates more actively throughout the body. Even hormonal background changes: so the body produces more testosterone and less cortisol, which contributes to mental and emotional activity.

And what is the result? Surprisingly, in a sitting position, the load on the back is almost 2 times higher than standing. Vessels work better, it is easier for the lungs to drive air - they absorb more volume, the brain is fed more actively.


A standing workstation seems like a great solution. In the ideal case of a spherical table in a vacuum. If you create the right workplace, similar to sitting, the forearms are on the table at an angle of 90 degrees, and the shoulders go back, straightening the back and opening the chest.

Correct posture significantly improves well-being. The action is almost instantaneous.

What's wrong with standing jobs?

This would be the case if there was a universal solution for standing work. But the human body is imperfect: standing in one place for a long time is almost worse than sitting.

A long time spent standing in one place without moving leads to pain in the feet and leg muscles, all kinds of vein diseases up to varicose veins, increased load on the joints of the legs.

In the end, at some point you just want to sit down and stretch your legs. For how long? No. How to be?


And that is not all. Standing tables are divided into 4 categories:

• ordinary tables with a stand for a laptop (or monitor and keyboard),
• tables with a fixed height for standing work,
• tables with manual height adjustment,
• tables with automatic height adjustment.

The first one is the worst. Usually coasters are made flimsy, unreliable. There is not enough space, it is shaking - in a word, uncomfortable. Or ugly, if made from serious materials. Ideally, screw it tightly to the table, but then what's the point in a non-removable stand?


The following categories have one property in common: they are used only in one position. Laziness, inconvenient and impractical to unscrew the legs of the table every hour to change the height of the tabletop.


The problems of the latter high price with little choice. The easiest way to get one is from IKEA, but it only comes in 1 size. Do you want another? Buy the finished table and countertop separately.

I decided to do otherwise.

How I built a universal table

So, get acquainted: it is on this table, divided into 2 zones, that my materials for reviews and articles for the site are created.


A one-piece table 3 meters long is set at a height of 85 centimeters: an intermediate value between standing and sitting. There is an adjustment, but it is not used.

On the left is the computer area. If you stand up, the monitor rises to eye level, the keyboard is slightly below the correct position. It’s convenient for me, but just in case, a stand 25 centimeters high is hidden nearby.

Sitting - a little higher than officially recommended, so for comfortable work I had to increase the height of the chair. As a result, the hands are completely on the table, the support goes to the elbow (by the way, there are fewer problems with tunnel syndrome).


The right side of the table is for soldering, photographing and other handmade. It is mainly used for standing work, so a transformer laptop serves as a display tool.

As a kind of ottoman for this part of the table, I use a combo amplifier, which does not allow me to sit down completely, but gives my legs a rest for a couple of minutes. Under them I recommend a massage or fleecy rug.

P.S.: everything superfluous is in the boxes.

How to combine incongruous

By combining these 3 positions, you can work out for quite some time. The main advantage lies precisely in the possibility of changing the posture: as soon as my arms or back get tired of typing, I switch to the standing half, where I read the news feed, reference materials and work with photos.

Even if you do not believe in the benefits of standing work, changing the position of the body for 10-20 minutes and warming up a little is useful. If you work in orthopedic shoes, it will be even more useful.

Many of us, if not most, have a sedentary job. If you are reading this right now, then you are sitting in a chair more or less motionless. Half an hour, an hour, then it becomes uncomfortable, not comfortable. Even if you have a good expensive chair. But this post today on the site is not about chairs, but about why it is harmful for any person to sit for a long time.

The first reason, it is also the main one - stagnation of blood in the legs and pelvic area. Blood supplies the organs and muscles of our body with oxygen and nutrients for tissue growth and renewal. On the way back, the blood carries away the accumulated toxins, products of work, waste, in short. If even microscopic inflammation is present somewhere - The best way to cure it - to provide a good flow of blood there.

What about the seated person? Blood stasis begins in the lower part of the body. It hardly breaks through the motionless, clamped muscles. The body begins to numb, you become uncomfortable. Organs stop receiving necessary substances. The consequences of this are prostatitis in men, female diseases- among women. Let's add here hemorrhoids, a flat ugly ass. Not fun.

When you are motionless, the body stores resources

Girls, think about your waist! You will sit a lot, you will not find it on your body, in the end you will have to look for and torture your body with methods. It would be funny if it weren't so sad! This also applies to men, of course, although to a lesser extent - they have their own sources of obesity.

In general, education provokes a lot of things in life. excess weight. Modern food, drinks, . Therefore, you need to try to minimize all these factors in life.

Why not sit still? Posture distortion!

The spine is the conductor of your body's energy. He is like a trumpet. And if this pipe is curved, has turns and "knots", the energy starts to flow worse. You get tired faster, it becomes more difficult for you to enjoy life. Not to mention the fact that the back hurts, the lower back hurts, the muscles are clamped. It's scary to move fast.

If you do have to sit still for a long time, at least try to keep your back straight. Also, don't cross your legs. This point is more related to the first point, but not the point. Crossed legs - a complicated movement of blood, we have already mentioned the consequences.

Need more reasons? OK.

Life passes you by if you sit too long. Here we are talking primarily about sitting at a computer or watching TV. "The soldier is sleeping - the service is on." In our case, life goes on. The sun is moving, the weather is changing, something is happening, and you are in contact. Get out, get outside, get some fresh air!

I hope you received the answer to the question “why it is harmful to sit for a long time”. How can you make life easier for your body? Make a rule for yourself - get up from your workplace every half hour for 1-2 minutes. And every two hours for 10-15 minutes. And not just get up, but actively move, warm up, jump,. Well, at least walk! By doing this, you will render an invaluable service to your beloved body, and it will definitely thank you ...

Avoid all harmful, and good health to you!

The most common problems that a sedentary, inactive lifestyle can reward us with are spinal problems. Basically, the emphasis is on posture problems, pain in the shoulders, neck, back and headaches. But the bonuses don't end there.

This also includes problems with the lungs, heart and stomach. Do you want to know what happens to your body when you stay too long at work or on your favorite couch watching TV?

Head

Blood clots that form as a result of long, immobile sitting can travel through circulatory system and reach the brain, causing a stroke.

This can also include headaches caused by poor blood flow and problems with the neck and spine. Due to headaches, concentration worsens, vision problems may occur.

Fluid that is retained in your legs from a day of sitting moves into your neck when you exercise. horizontal position i.e. go to bed. And it can cause obstructive sleep apnea - a sudden stoppage of breathing.

Previously, problems with sleep apnea were associated with obesity, but according to medical data, about 60% of people suffering from this syndrome were not overweight. According to the latest study conducted by Canadian scientists, it turned out that people who spend most of their working day sitting, fluid accumulates in their legs, which then moves to the neck when a person takes a horizontal position (that is, sleeps). This fluid is the cause of nighttime breathing problems.

A heart

A sedentary lifestyle can lead to cardiovascular diseases. In people who suffer from heart failure and obstructive sleep apnea fluid builds up in the lungs and neck at night.

Lungs

In people suffering from heart failure and other heart problems, fluid can build up in the lungs, leading to breathing problems. You can also add pulmonary embolism here. The problem is even more annoying than its name.

Stomach

A sedentary and sedentary lifestyle can lead to obesity and problems with gastrointestinal tract(up to colon cancer). Enzymes that are responsible for the functioning of the muscles of the blood vessels, which, in turn, are responsible for burning fat, are turned off. And the way metabolism is regulated, by which the body burns its fuel (especially glucose and lipids), goes astray.

As a result, your butt takes the shape and size of your desk chair.

Here you can add constipation, hemorrhoids and "other joys of life."

Legs

As mentioned above, during prolonged sitting, fluid accumulates in the legs, which leads to swelling. Another problem is varicose veins.

Phlebeurysm- peripheral vascular disease, during which their walls expand, and the veins stretch and lose elasticity. People suffering from this disease feel heaviness in the legs, pain, itching. If the disease is too advanced, then the skin over the venous nodes becomes thinner, and even the smallest injury can cause heavy bleeding. However, the greatest danger of this disease is the formation of blood clots. The consequences can be tragic.

Doctors distinguish several risk groups

First group - pregnant. In connection with pregnancy, the load on the legs is rapidly increasing, the volume of circulating blood increases, the pressure in the vessels increases, and the blood flow slows down. There is stagnation of blood in the legs, due to which the walls of the veins are stretched, and they themselves lose their elasticity.

Second group - those who have at least one of the parents suffered varicose veins veins.

Third group - representatives of "standing" professions (teachers, hairdressers, surgeons, salesmen).

Fourth group - overweight people.

Factors provoking the onset of the disease are a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and the abuse of sunburn.

status information venous system a phlebologist will help to give, using angioscanning equipment. This procedure takes a little time and is completely painless.

leg enemies

There are several bad habits that harm our feet the most:

1. Position, sitting, throwing a leg over the leg, or "interlacing" of the legs, one around the other or behind the legs of a chair.

2. Hot baths, abuse of tanning in a solarium, because during these procedures the veins overflow with blood, and as a result, the load on the vessels increases dramatically.

3. Long static loads. If you have to stand for a long time, change the position of your legs, bend them slightly at the knees, take a few steps if possible. If you sit for a long time, make sure that the height of the chair corresponds to your height and that your legs do not “dangle” above the floor. If necessary, place your feet on a footrest so that the seat of the chair does not press on your thigh muscles.

4. Shoes without backs are smaller than the foot size. If the heel hangs down, the Achilles tendon is overloaded and heel spurs form.

5. Soft bed. In this case, the muscles in your legs don't relax and you don't rest normally.

6. Smoking. Harmful smoke reaches the feet in the sense that most of the 3000 harmful substances tobacco smoke affects the vasculature through blood flow. Blood circulation worsens, blood vessels narrow.

Influence of shoes

Our shoes are also important for the health of our feet. Unfortunately, we do not always take the issue of purchasing shoes seriously and responsibly. After all, fashionable shoes can be uncomfortable and do not respond to the feet at all, and, wanting to look beautiful, we create a lot of problems for them. When choosing shoes, prioritize the one you feel most comfortable in. If you constantly wear tight shoes, your toes will hurt.

And the fact is that while wearing such shoes, the bones of the fingers are compressed. They suffer from high blood pressure, and you get the feeling that you are walking on small stones. Therefore, you should pay attention: do you have such sensations. If so, you need to urgently start looking for shoes that have a wide toe to fit your toes. This will remove the sensitivity of the pads.

Be sure, as soon as you become responsible for the issue of buying shoes, your legs will be very grateful to you, and debilitating fatigue will disappear.

Leg exercises

The best way to strengthen the legs is, no doubt, walking. During it, metabolism improves, muscle activity is activated, and blood circulation improves. However, prolonged walking leads to muscle strain, stagnation and accumulation of lactic acid, which causes severe pain.

Keeping your feet clean is not enough to keep your feet in good condition. It is necessary to perform exercises for the capillaries, to cleanse the cells and saturate them with energy. It is necessary to ensure that the feet are always warm and have a pink color.

1. Waking up, stretch in bed. Then, lying on your back, put your hands under your head, stretch your legs, make 30-60 “fish” movements, as a fish does when swimming in a pond, from side to side. Exercise frees cells from toxins that have accumulated in them.

2. Lying on your back, lift your legs and arms up, shake them in the air also 30-60 times. This exercise opens small blood vessels.

3. Lie on your back, connect your palms and feet. With your knees bent, slide across the bed and at the same time move your arms away from your chest. After that, sit down and well, until you feel warm, rub your feet with the palms of your hands.

Don't forget to do physical exercise even if there is little time for it. These ten minutes will not be wasted, because you are working for your health. Take care of yourself, your legs, and even the most stressful day will not seem so long to you.