Is Your Sedentary Lifestyle Taking a Toll On Your Feet?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends sixty minutes of regular physical activity to keep weight in check, enhance the strength of bones and muscles, and reduce the symptoms of anxiety and stress.
So if you spend a large portion of your day behind a computer, lying down, or just watching movies, your overall health is at risk. A lot of this has to do with the fact that our workplaces are designed to minimize the amount of movement and muscular activity that we engage in.
Moreover, a sedentary lifestyle not only affects your fitness and quality of life, but also takes a toll on your feet. Let’s talk about the latter in more detail.
Muscle weakness
A sedentary lifestyle doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re lazy. This ‘sitting disease’ just means that you’re not being active enough, to the extent that it’s started affecting your health.
Staying inactive for too long makes you lose the muscle strength that you’ve developed over time. This issue manifests in weaker ankles, lower legs, and feet. As a result, you may experience stiffness, weakness, acute pain, and fatigue.
Muscular weaknesses in the lower extremity of your legs may also increase the risk of injuries.
Swelling
Experiencing swelling in your feet can greatly impact your mobility.
If you don’t use your feet and ankles as much as you ought to, there’s a risk of increased fluid accumulation and water retention.
Although water retention can happen as a result of a number of reasons, physical inactivity is a major contributing factor. This is because hours of sitting in the same position reduces blood flow to these areas. As a result, you’ll find it uncomfortable to put on your shoes or walk straight.
To avoid the problem, either take short exercise breaks from work every now and then or wear compression stockings. Swelling isn’t a problem if it happens once in a while and goes away on its own. However, if the issue persists, you need to visit a foot surgeon.
Plantar Fasciitis
This condition affects at least 10% of the total US population, as stated by the CDC. According to the same source, the biggest cause behind this condition is physical inactivity and not moving around much.
Plantar Fasciitis is characterized by stabbing pain when a person wakes up in the morning and takes their first few steps. This pain usually goes away after a couple of hours but can be triggered as a result of long hours of standing. This disease is more common among individuals who are overweight or have jobs that require them to maintain the same position for long intervals.
If no treatment is sought, the pain could spread on to the ankles, heels, hip, and back.
Feet and ankle issues need and deserve your immediate attention if you don’t want your work life to be affected. The key is to remain active and consult a foot and ankle surgeon to get your symptoms checked.
At the Foot and Ankle Institute of Miami Beach, we offer simple non-invasive surgical methods and customized treatment options to help you deal with issues like these. Contact us for further information.