this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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I unfortunately had a surgery a few years ago and I recently got bursitis on my right foot. The only relief was wearing the orthotics so I thought I’d benefit a lot from wearing them while standing long hours. I’ll look into better posture, dynamic stretching, and more you’ve mentioned below. Thank you!!
Well I am not a doctor, things like my first comment is what I would say to myself if I could go back 20 years. It's been my experience that the more support my feet got from the shoes the weaker they became. Weakness traveled upwards until my hips started misbehaving. I mean, at some point it was painful to even walk without hip pain. But I wouldn't even recommend switching to barefoot shoes if you are using too much support at the moment. Yes, barefoot shoes enable the feet to get stronger (and function as they are supposed to), but it takes time to adjust. Wide toe-box though is important and carries no risk. What I will note, again from my personal experience, is that supportive shoes are useful only in cases of injury and should be temporary as they increase weaknesses (I tend to think of them the way I thought of casts used in bone fractures -the longer I used the support, the more work my muscles and fascia needed to recover). So, with that in mind
maybe consulting the doctor that diagnosed the bursitis, on what is needed to recover optimally would be a good place to start.
As for posture, the thing is that our brain constantly re-aligns everything so we can keep functioning the best way possible even in non-optimal conditions (i.e. chair, or standing but looking down). And it's really a very complex sum of way too many details to consciously control. At least for me, even though I know quite a few things about proper posture. This is why a little time doing something repetitive like running, that requires good posture in order to run properly and without pain, creates a habit of standing better without thinking about it. Walking (with little or no support on the feet) can be a place to start after you recover. A nice walk can be stress relieving too!
Dynamic stretching is nothing more than moving (as opposed to holding a lengthening position) certain parts of your body to the full range of motion, without placing load on the movement, slowly and slightly increasing the range in each repetition. If you want to try this, you 'll have to look for the movements that relieve tension created by assuming a certain position for a long time. Tension is created when muscle tissue is shortened for an extended period of time. For example, I bet you can feel some relief if you do 10 circles with your shoulders. Simple movements like this.
Finally, I know that in the beginning it can already be too much to handle the load from the time spent at work. This will get easier, as long as you rest well and eat healthy, adequate, nutritious food. The rest of what I wrote, I wrote because you asked how you could get a more resilient body. It doesn't have to be at the same time with the initial adaptations to the new work environment ;-)