A More Appropriate Exercise for Those of Us With Cripped Bodies

[jesse_the_k]

Yipes! I’m afraid I opened a can worms yesterday. Like many of you, I can’t do the sit-to-rise from crossed legs. I tried! Because I don’t have the balance, I wobbled a lot–and hurt my back. No more!

Instead, I’ll share some good advice my PT gave me about “sit to stand.”

As shown in the video below, sit to stand begins seated.

1. Spread feet as wide as your hips
2. Feet must be behind your knees: either tuck them back or scoot your butt forward
3. Clasp your hands
4. Nose over toes
5. Tighten your quads (front of upper thighs)
6. Push those quads to get vertical

Watch on YouTube

It’s great to be able to sit down and stand up without using my hands. This means I don’t put too much weight on my wrists or arthritic fingers. My PT stepped me through this technique, which minimizes the strain on my lower back and strengthens the quads. It’s especially helpful in reverse. Before I built up strength in my quads, I would just plop down in my chair. That jarred my back and caused more pain. Now I’m doing sit-to-stand with a “tap”–that is, I sit but don’t rest, then stand again. (I do it 3 times, several times a day.) With stronger quads I can control how I lower myself into my chair.