How Can Yoga Help You Stand All Day at Work?

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Let’s face it, work can be a bit challenging if you are in the regular 8 to 5 job in an office, but it is even more challenging when you need to stand up all day. Whenever you go to a McDonalds, you’d probably wonder how the attendants get to serve hundreds of customers while standing all day. In a potentially hazardous environment no less, because sometimes fluids get spilled, leading to slippery circumstances. Well, it’s no magic, they may have adapted to that kind of life. However, most people may not know that there are some great yoga poses that can help in easing the pain of standing all day at work. This article reviews some of the benefits of yoga for people who stand all day at work and how specific yoga poses can generally help them cope.

Hazards Of Standing All Day

Health experts insist that while desk jobs are not particularly good for your health, working on your feet for long hours might be worse. They believe that working for at least 5 hours a day may contribute to a prolonged lower-limb muscle fatigue which may ultimately increase risks of long-term back pain complications and even in some cases, musculoskeletal disorders. They go on to explain that a 2-hour standing period is ideal for people who work for long hours in a job that requires a lot of standing.

While long-term back pain and musculoskeletal disorders are considered as long-term problems, they have also identified short term problems that can come about as a result of standing all day. Examples include leg cramps and periodic backaches which disappear when a person is seated or relaxed.

Other studies go to explain just how serious the complications can be if you happen to stand all day at work. However, they also point out that sitting too much can also have negative effects on your overall health. This study, for instance, explains that there were more than 430,000 deaths from 54 countries which came about as a result of sitting down for more than 3 hours daily. At this point, you might be wondering how you can ensure you maintain a healthy life while trying to earn a living from your work. Well, the answer is simple – Yoga.

How Yoga Helps

For years, yoga has helped thousands of people to relax and generally enhance the quality of their lives. Some yoga poses could also be helpful if you spend a good part of your day standing. Yoga comes in to help areas such as your neck, back, joints, and legs as they experience most of the stress while you’re busy working. The yoga poses highlighted below do a great job of exercising these specific parts so that at the end of the day, they do not feel stiff. Of course, these poses could also be used in addition to some of the exercises you are already used to at home.

Ideal Yoga Poses For You

Yogi Squat

The yogi squat works by stretching out your tight calves and does a good job of opening up your hips. In turn, it increases the mobility of your ankles and helps in elongating your spine. Most people consider the yogi squat as a slightly different variant of the regular squat, but it does offer a slightly more compact stretch. To pull out a yogi squat, you simply put your hands together and get into a squat position for as long as you can maintain one such position. It almost always leaves you feeling revitalized because it eases tension from your locked hips.

Upside-Down Forward Fold

This may be a bit advanced and inappropriate if you lack a room with adequate space to pull it off. The upside-down forward fold greatly resembles the plow pose, but with a gentler impact on the body. Since we want to relieve the body of stress, the upside-down fold is far less strenuous than a plow pose and it works wonders by stretching out your hamstrings and your lower back as well. It is worth noting that it does not put any kind of stress on the neck.

Cat-Cow Pose

This pose produces a soothing effect because of the way it compresses your spine. It is best practiced if you have basic knowledge of yoga as you will experience great relief if you coordinate your breath during the process. Ideally, it reverses the effects of standing and elongates the spinal column for a more relaxed feeling when you resume your work.

Instant Maui Pose

Most people will relate this to the legs up the wall pose because its relaxing effects are almost similar. The only difference is that unlike the legs up the wall pose, the instant maui pose seeks to reduce all the stress in your legs since they are totally supported. Your body thus has less work to do. It is best to use a chair to get the most out of it. If you have access to stairs, that could equally help.

Supine Twist

Supine twists are great for opening the lower back and reducing any tension that may have formed up in your shoulders. Apart from being easy to pull off, it has great benefits for your spine as well. It involves lying on your back and facing up with most of your upper body while at the same time attempting to face downwards with your lower body. Just be sure not to overdo it. Easy does it with this pose.

Conclusion

You will probably experience slight relief after attempting some or all of these poses, but when done repeatedly, they could contribute to a more energetic feel despite standing all day. The one thing to remember is that while these poses help to relieve your body, they should not be used as complete replacements of normal breaks. As such, dedicating 10 minutes for the poses and then the rest of the time for relaxing would be a better way rather than spending all the time on the poses.

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