Does your job have you on your feet (and sweating) all day?

First Place: Mobility 

Second Place: Strength Training

Third Place:  Daily Activity 

You are already getting your daily steps in so your body is burning more calories during your day than the average person because of that. 

FIRST & SECOND PRIORITY

Your two primary opportunities are focusing on your mobility/flexibility and building your strength. 

People who work on their feet often develop pain around joints, usually from compensating for an old injury or simply from unknowingly standing or walking inefficiently until pain developed. And jobs that have you on your feet do not often require you to use full ranges of motion. So your muscles get really good at holding you in the limited ranges you use most, and you get very bad at feeling comfortable outside of those ranges of motion. 

Regaining range of motion and building strength to those full end ranges is what will reduce the pain and discomfort you may be currently feeling. 

Strength training also helps improve mobility so these are able to be worked on together. Being able to squat well means your muscles are healthy enough to allow you into that deep range of motion. And yes, you can regain that ability. Even doing bicep curls through a full range of motion helps to keep the bicep flexible and strong at the same time. 

THIRD PRIORITY

Finally, daily activity should not be entirely disregarded. There are surely days where you are stuck sitting more than you are accustomed to. And, although daily steps are great, we do want to build a bit of an aerobic base regardless of our goals. So getting our heart rate up but keeping it sustainable for a workout or a run every once in a while is still very useful. 

TIPS: 

 - 2 to 3 Servings of Daily Electrolytes - if you are sweating all day, you must increase your salt intake. If you have a pretty bad diet of pre-packaged goods, your doctor may have discussed reducing your sodium intake. Always consult your doctor if there is any doubt. But for those who are not told to reduce our sodium, getting an electrolyte powder or sim[ly adding some sea salt to our water each time we fill up will help you bounce back from your long days. Your brain will feel better and your muscles will thank you. LMNT is a popular brand with 0 sugar. I take Re-Lyte because it has a bit more potassium in each serving and potassium is what is needed for muscles to fire (it also contributes to your brain feeling good among many other things). 

 - Don’t try to kill it in the workout, at least not in the long ones - Most of your workouts should have short bouts of high intensity followed by enough time to recover before going again. This allows you to use the two energy pathways that you do not access during your day. 

  • The first energy system (Phosphagen) is responsible for max effort up to 20 seconds. 

  • The second energy system (Anaerobic) picks up around there and gets you through high intensity bouts of up to 2 minutes. 

  • Then your third system, the aerobic system, takes pretty much all of the responsibility for everything beyond that point. And most of life is beyond that point so that is where we stay the most. 

 - Get strong but through the full range - The stronger you are the healthier your joints will feel. Joint pain is often the muscle around the joint being scared it is not strong enough for what you might ask it to do, so it stays in protection mode all of the time. Teach those muscles they are actually strong, and they can relax. A bit simplified, but it gets the point across. 

And, not that we are looking that far ahead, the higher quality of life you will lead as you age. It is far easier to maintain muscle that you built when you were younger than trying to build muscle when you need it at 60 or 70 years old. And, as they say, the moment you cannot stand up off the toilet by yourself, your kids are throwing you into a nursing home. Don’t give them the chance. 

 - Also, not for nothing, because your job has the daily activity portion solved for you, if you tightened up your diet at all, you would likely see some pretty fantastic results. But jobs that sweat often eat quite a bit of low quality food because the cravings for salt and sugar are so high. Two fixes: 

1) The electrolytes mentioned above will help curb those cravings because you will already have replenished what you are trying to refill through those cravings. 

2) Eating earlier in your day (eat breakfast please) will set you up to have weaker cravings at the end of the day.