May I wish you all a very happy and active and productive 2025. Production is the basis of morale. Morale from Latin: the emotional state of an individual or group with regard to a task or a goal to be accomplished.
As we begin to shake off the holiday season and get back to work exercise is probably the last thing we want to concentrate on.
As you sit at work your legs are getting little or no movement. As the years roll on this can lead to blockages in your leg veins and to varicose veins (meaning your blood circulation in your legs is poor, the word varicose means twisted and results in increased blood pressure in the veins).
The veins have a built-in pump that is powered by the action of your skeletal muscles, basically the leg muscles. The heart pumps the blood all over the body, getting the utilised blood back to the heart from the legs takes some doing.
Your leg muscles help power the blood back through the veins. Every time you use a large muscle, that muscle simultaneously presses on veins, which pushes the blood along. Your veins have one-way valves which prevent the blood from falling back due to the pull of gravity when there is no muscle contractions.
So, if you are reading this and have no pain or swelling in your legs or varicose veins, unless you start doing leg exercises it might occur in the future.
Tips
The Single-Leg Squat:
- use a table or bench for support with one hand on the bench.
- keep your upper back straight.
- Simply bend down to the ground on one leg, if you can’t get down all the way because of discomfort or pain just go as far as is comfortable and no more.
- begin with 5 reps on one side and 5 reps on the other side once a day.
- then build it up on a gradient to 10 each way.
(note this is always a good one to do during your lunch break in the office or working from home)
Chair Leg Exercise:
- Sit on a chair and move a little towards the front of the chair.
- put your hands on opposite shoulders.
- Stand up with good posture and control.
- Then sit down again.
- Do as many as is comfortable in a 30 second period. (note if you get tired after a few then leave it at that for that day.
- Make a note of how many reps you did in the initial 30 seconds.
- Continue to do the exercise over the next week and see if you are able to improve from your first day.
Yours in Health,
John Keane, Spinologist