Standing stationary for 30 minutes: Leg pain
Walking for 30 minutes: No leg pain
In: 11178
It’s about blood. Your heart pumps blood outward, but what gets the blood back to your heart? Your head can just rely on gravity, but everywhere else your muscles pump the blood back.
When you move your muscles–legs, arms, etc–it squeezes the veins and moves a bit of blood back to your core. Your veins have one-way valves in them, strategically located so that just about any motion makes progress. And, of course, your body is optimized so that the movement patterns you normally make, like walking and running, provide really good return circulation.
If you stand still for a while, blood starts to pool in your legs. It hurts because your body needs you to do something about it. You feel the need to shift your weight, stretch, walk a few steps, or something to get the extra blood back to your heart.
If you stand completely still long enough you’ll actually pass out. This used to be a problem in various militaries before they understood what was going on. In some places it probably still is.
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