Watched a video this week that finally explained something that’s been bugging me – why standing still at one spot wears my legs out more than walking the whole floor, even on a shorter shift.
The person in the video (a physical therapist, I think) said your calf muscles work almost like a second pump for blood coming back up from your feet. A couple things stuck with me:
– flexing your ankle or shifting your weight makes the muscle squeeze and push blood back up
– standing completely still skips that pump, so blood just pools instead
– walking, even slow walking, apparently keeps it going the whole time
Which lines up with what I’ve noticed. On days where I barely move my feet, my ankles are way tighter by closing than on days where I’m walking the whole shift, even if that one runs longer.
So I tried something small. Every time I caught myself stuck in one spot for a few minutes, I did 10 heel raises, just rocking up onto my toes and back down. Easier to keep up than I expected…
Didn’t fix the swelling, ankles were still puffy by the end of the night. But getting my shoes off felt a little less like peeling off something two sizes too small, and that’s small enough to actually keep doing.