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Aching LegsRecovery-Nurses are Accidental Athletes Fatigued Leg recovery using anenvironmentally friendly recoverysystem

“Oh My aching legs!” The nurses’ cry towards the end of a busy shift“Oh my aching legs!” The long distance walkers’ cry towards the end of a twenty-hourwalking dayBoth of these are two different breeds of people, yet the cries of both of them are similar-Iknow this because I do a day job in a hospital, and at the weekends I work with long distanceathletes as a recovery specialistHaving worked on the legs of nurses and athletes, other than the cry of distress they have incommon, there are other areas where their interests merge-they are both long distance athletesNurses do not see themselves as this, and most of them would not even consider going in for afun run or marathon or half marathon, but on an average day would cover nearly this distanceon their feet anyway.Not only do they do this, they do it without training or special supplements, without coaches orwithout even a gold, silver or bronze medal to encourage them at the finish line at the end of the day-just a pay check-not only do they do this, they may even go back a few hours later todo it all over again!These swollen ankles are mine after I was testing out a theory on long flights but it is a fair betthat many nurses have them like this at the finish of

their

dayWhen you are on your feet all day the calf muscles start to fatigue, power stops being suppliedto the pump and the blood just pools around the ankles-the water (or lymph fluid) separatesfrom it and migrates into the tissues in and around the anklesAs it is not being pumped away fast enough from the lower legs, the ankles swell and if itwasn’t for the ends of the toes it would all flow out of the body all over the groundRecovery from swollen feet and ankles does not come just with just sitting down resting assoon as the shift is finished-if it did, then when the nurse gets in the car for the drive home afterwork, then as soon as they got into the driveway, they could leap out of the car and go for agame of football or basket ball with the children.

But they can’t

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Like these guys who have just run for 3 days they can barely move!

These are 2 people who have just been running for 3 days around a running track in allweathers and they have aching legsWhat usually happens is when the car is driven into the driveway and the engine is stopped itcan be hard to even move as the muscles have stiffened and tightened-it can take a few minutesbefore normal walking can even start to happen

To compare between a nurse‘accidental athlete’and an ultra marathoner

To show how fatigue can compound, we can visit a 24-hour relay event where the athlete runsfor ½ an hour, has 5 hours break and goes back for another ½ hour legIn all they do 4 half hour periods on the track in the 24 hours.Easy no problems, ½ an hour of running and five hours to recover should be ample, yet eachtime the athlete goes back after having sat down, ate and slept for 5 hours, it gets more andmore difficult to go back out and start moving as the muscle set and stiffen up.The nurse can work for 7 ½ hours or even 12 hours and have only a few hours extra than theshift is long to recover, and be back in the hospital for another shift.Over the long term, this compounding aching leg fatigue can interfere not only with the leghealth, but with general health too-(seewww.hazards.org/standing) for some of these problemsthat aching legs can contribute toBeing a nurse is a professional occupation, being an athlete can be a professional occupationand yet the nurse is closer to being a professional athlete than they realize-they both havesimilar problems in recovery, but the athlete is more aware of how to treat the body to preventoccupational problems.The nurse should become more aware

If you are like the ultra marathon runners and walkers and do not have time to wait forpassive recovery to work at relieving those aching legs theactiveoption is better

http://aching-legs.org/the_nurse_aching_legs-recovery.html 3Aching legs are easy to develop and unless they have a medical contribution to them (and thereare many medical reasons so they should be investigated by a medical professional) they canbe relatively easy to relieveIf they are put in a position where they constantly ache, they can actually be the cause of medical problems (seewww.hazards.org/standing)

The Calf Muscle Pump

The calf muscle pump is a major part of circulation in the lower legsAll the fluids in the body gravitate down towards the lowest part of the body; the feet-gravityholds it there and prevents it from going back up to the body for recycling and recirculation asfresh bloodThe calf muscles are the motors for a pump called the

calf muscle pump

that forces usedblood against gravity through one-way valves in the veins back up the body, but to provide thepower for this they need to be moving-it they don’t, they can’t contribute to circulation-so usedblood stays in the ankles and feetBecause the muscle tissues are not being refreshed with supplies of fresh blood, the musclesfatigue and they ache with the legs increasing in weight as the fluid builds up-they are heavy tocarry around

AchingLeg Relief

The relief of aching legs can be approached in different ways and the decision of which way togo is dependent on a number of factors-the biggest one being what other commitments youhave in your life at that present time and the time you have to commit to itThere is the

passive

way for those with time to spare and the

active

way for those without

PassiveRelief

The

‘passive’

option is the most recommended way to relieve aching legsFind a quiet area and lie down with the legs elevated to let the fluid flow back

(Been there-done that-didn’t seem to work too well-I was stiff when I stood upand went light headed)