Our feet are amazing! Each one of them is made up of 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. Can you believe it? It’s no wonder they are so complicated though. Our feet provide us with essential support, balance and mobility as we move (or dance) through life. So today I want to look at 4 ways of sitting that may affect your feet.
How does sitting affect our feet
Weakness, stiffness and inflexibility
Because we sit a lot and don’t use our feet as much (and when we do, we put them in shoes), they can become weak, stiff and inflexible. This may lead to imbalance in the feet. How we position them on the ground is very important because it translates further up the body. Thus, using our feet in an unbalanced way may also mean that we are using some parts of the body more than others. This can result in more wear and tear in some parts and ultimately in discomfort and pain. We might also have difficulty balancing, squatting or walking up and down the hill or the stairs. Having weak and stiff feet can make it easier to sprain an ankle as well.
Bad circulation
They say that the calf muscles are our second heart. This is because once the blood reaches our veins there is no pump to push it back to the heart. So the calves do the job when we are moving. If we are inactive for a long time, our circulation is worse and this can lead to varicose veins, swelling in the feet and lower legs and to thrombosis and nerve entrapment in the long run.
Pain
Plantar fasciitis is a condition in which there is pain on the sole of the foot. The causes for this can be many but one of them is tightness in the calf muscles.
So let’s look in the different ways that we sit that can cause these unwanted effects for our feet
Resting on the balls of your feet
Sitting with the heels up in the air and resting on the balls of the feet is very common. It’s basically like wearing high heel shoes which are notorious for distorting your natural foot posture and can lead to some serious issues including hammer toe (due to imbalances in your muscles and ligaments surrounding your toe joints), shortened achilles tendons, muscle spasms and yes, plantar fasciitis.
Resting on the outer edges of your feet
This is another common pose which can bruise the sides of your feet, cause arch pain, pain in the pinky toe as well as cause ankle weakness and discomfort.
Sitting ON your foot.
Believe it or not, this is more common than you would think! Often this happens when your chair is not high enough, so you sit on your leg and foot to boost yourself up. Sometimes it is because you are trying to relieve some discomfort in your back. However, this can lead to distorted foot positions and of course, you are bearing weight directly onto your foot compounding the risk of causing weakness and pain to your foot, ankle, knee, leg and lower back.
Sitting with your legs stretched out and your ankles crossed.
Ah, the pose of relaxation! But is it? In addition to putting stress on your lower back and causing your neck to bend forward, this position can cause a great deal of stress on your ankles and feet, can cause problems with your circulation, and compress nerves in your feet.
So if you are sitting right now or the next time you find yourself seated, put your feet back on the floor under the knees. They will love you for that.
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