When spending an entire day working in an office or on school projects, sitting for more than five hours in a row in front of a screen becomes easily tiring. Not moving your legs for a long period of time gets dull, it also deadens your legs – and when your legs get numb, that’s where the problems begin. You can either get leg cramps, muscle twitches or the “restless leg syndrome”. These “conditions” are not scary at all, they simply mean you’ve been sitting still for too long!
Usually, leg cramps are triggered by involuntary muscle spasms and can cause unexpected pain or soreness in one or both legs. Similarly to leg cramps, muscle twitching is caused by the same factors. Muscle twitching gets provoked by minor muscle contractions in the area – the leg in this case – or uncontrollable jerk of a muscle group that is served by a single motor nerve fiber. On the other side, the “restless leg syndrome” is a disorder associated with the nervous system that spawn an urge to move the legs. When experiencing the “restless leg syndrome”, you get disagreeable sensations in the legs and an irrepressible urge to move them. The feelings are often times described as “itchy,” “pins and needles,” or “creepy crawly”. That syndrome can be associated with many conditions or illness, but it usually simply means that you’ve been lying or sitting for too long.
To avoid these kinds of discomfort there are a few easy tips to follow when sitting at a desk. Doing them regularly is an easy way to save our legs from hurting and keep you working for a longer length of time.
1. Change your position
By changing your position frequently, you avoid fixed working position as it squeezes the blood vessels in your muscles. When that happens, your blood supply in your working muscles gets reduced, and that’s how your muscles gets prone to injury. Insufficient blood supply accelerates fatigue and leg discomfort. Although sitting involves much less muscular effort than physically demanding jobs, it still causes fatigue.
While sitting, your limited mobility requires lower demand on your circulatory system. As a result your heart activity and blood flow slows down. Therefore, by changing your position every 10 to 15 minutes, you activate your blood circulation, giving a little boost to your body.
2. Elevate your legs
Along with changing your position, elevating your legs can help improve blood circulation. Leg elevation has been proven to improve the health of your veins and circulation. Of course, you don’t have to be unprofessional by elevating your legs at work or in public spaces. Use a footrest, stretch your legs, or, when nobody’s watching, elevate your legs on your desk or another chair! These little gestures can make a huge difference in your legs’ health.
3. Check your posture
Adopting a good sitting posture is not only highly beneficial for your legs, it also is essential for a healthy back and spine. Particularly when sitting in front of a screen, posture is something really easy to achieve but quite hard to maintain. Good posture implies that the key parts of your body are correctly aligned.
Quick tips in order to achieve a proper sitting position:
- Keep your feet flat on the floor
- Avoid crossing your knees for a long period of time
- Maintain a small gap between the back of your knees and your chair
- Position your knees and ankles in a straight line
- Basically, don’t twist your body!
Doing mental checks every 10 to 15 minutes to see if your posture is still correct can help maintain good sitting habits. With time, awareness, and commitment, you can easily adopt a better posture and avoid leg cramps or back injuries.
4. Take breaks
Ideally, you should be taking at least a 10 minute break for every hour spent sitting. Obviously, that isn’t always instinctive, but we can motivate ourselves by using that break to grab a coffee, get some fresh air or simply stretch. Moving around is the key point in preventing any kind of muscle or joint pain.
All in all, sitting at an office doesn’t have to be a pain. There are many ways to keep your body in shape, even if your movements are limited. Avoiding leg cramps and injuries can highly improve your productivity and performance. Good posture is not only beneficial for your physical shape, it also makes you feel much more confident!