I’ve always wondered, if walking involves more movement and presumably more energy, why does standing in one place feel more exhausting than walking for the same amount of time? How does our body differentiate between the two, and what’s happening in our muscles and circulatory system that makes standing still feel so much more tiring?
In: Biology
Imagine rowing a boat. Big stretch forward, big pull back, and repeat. This is like your normal walking motion. Each part engages a different muscle group, so there’s a nice back and forth of muscles working and relaxing.
Now imagine trying to keep a rowboat perfectly stationary in a lake. Waves are pushing you forward, so you paddle back a little bit… to much, paddle forward, now your spinning a bit, paddle left, too much, paddle right, now back, more back, left, forward, left.
All of those tiny twitchy movements will tire you out much faster. That’s what happens when you stand still. Your muscles are constantly bouncing back and forth tiny bits to keep you upright.
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