Many jobs require you to be on your feet all day. While there is an argument that standing all day takes less of a toll on your body than sitting all day, any sustained activity without breaks and stretches can cause pain or even injury.

Our physio Andrew Olson says many patients experience prolonged pain as a result of their daily activity. Here he discusses how to counteract standing all day.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

“If you stand all day for work often what you’ll find is you’ll start to become tight in the muscles around your neck and your back and your legs.

“This can become a problem, causing pain and potentially injury. If you do stand all day for work you can counteract this tightness in the muscles by regularly moving the body and also by doing some specific targeted stretches for the muscles that become tight.

“If you do stand all day I encourage you to take a break every 30 minutes – moving from the position that you’re in so going for a walk maybe a walk around the block going for a coffee or a glass of water and just moving from the position that you’re constantly in for your day-to-day work.

“The exercises you can do to reduce the muscle tension when you’re standing all day for work include doing some stretches for your lower back doing some stretches for your chest than doing some stretches for your leg muscles which are quite often the ones that become stiff or become painful when you do stand all day.”

By Cape Byron Medical Centre