Standing stationary for 30 minutes: Leg pain
Walking for 30 minutes: No leg pain
In: 11178
Standing still: same muscles and pressure points
Walking: alternating muscles and pressure
It’s all about blood circulation. If you’re standing still, blood will accumulate in your legs/feet, because your leg muscles aren’t using much and thus gravity takes over and the pressure causes pain
Whereas walking keeps the blood circulating because your leg muscles need fresh blood in order to move (they need oxygen rich blood) and thus allow the pressure from gravity be relieved.
Eli5: not moving? Valves shut -> pressure buildup -> pain
The muscles in your legs are designed to squeeze the veins when you are walking, this helps pump the blood back up to the heart against gravity. No walking, no muscle assist.
British bobbies were taught to occasionally lift their heels and stand on the balls of the feet for a few seconds to help with this.
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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The human body is not built to be stationary. The human body is full of complex muscles, veins, tendons, arteries that all work together to keep you alive and keep your blood flowing.
As you’re walking, you’re increasing blood flow and oxygen levels. When you’re stationary, this still happens but at a much slower rate, the muscles and veins in your legs have to work much harder to push that blood back up to your heart, whereas when you’re moving, these areas increase in size and increase the force of the flow.
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> Standing stationary for 30 minutes: Leg pain
How I wish. My feet are flat as pancakes. More like meat slabs, really.
The pain starts about 30-60 seconds in.
In addition to other’s comments about blood flow, many people change their posture when standing for long periods compared with walking. It is worth checking that your posture is good if you have issues standing especially if you have back pain. I used to have lower back pain after 30-60 minutes of standing until someone corrected my posture. It disappeared straight away.
When you’re walking the muscles that are working switch (when your leg is liften vs when not), when you’re standing the same muscles are forced to work without resting
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