Sit to Stand exercise (variation)

The exercise

The Sit to Stand exercise is a great all round exercise to do. It targets many joints and muscle groups and it is a function that we should continue to do throughout all of our life stages.

At Get Strong physiotherapy & osteopathy in Kew we practise this movement a lot with our patients. Patients with plantar fasciitis is one example, the idea is to connect the feet to the ground but also to connect the feet to the rest of the body. This may sound strange as the feet are connected to the body, but feet often get neglected and forgotten about. The Sit to Stand exercise in one way of reminding the brain that the feet exist.

Try getting on the floor and back up again without using your arms and with emphasis on pushing through your feet. It takes a while for your brain, feet, floor and the rest of your body to communicate the intent.

The Sit to Stand exercise is a good exercise to do because it moves your ankles, knees, hips and lower back through a lot of their range of motion. You are literally squashing these joints and joints like to be squashed. They like that close impact position because it gives them sensory feedback about the quality of the joint and the quality of the movement, it also pushes a lot of WD40 type fluid called synovial fluid in there to nourish and feed the joints and the surrounding tissues.

We like to practise it with our patients because it is fun, challenging and covers a lot of joint movements. Going back to the plantar fasciitis example, because we wear shoes and walk on flat concrete surfaces for most of our lives the muscles in our feet can become disconnected and less responsive. This means that they will still do their job of standing, walking and running for us but there is a risk of muscles becoming weak resulting in; plantar fasciitis, big toe weakness, big toe stiffness, calf strains, knee and hip injuries. This is just one example of the benefits of the Sit to Stand exercise, there are many more, which we will cover some other time.

How to do it

In the meantime, have a look at our video and give a few different variations a try. All you need to do is, stand with your feet shoulder width apart or a bit wider, bend down either with your legs crossed or not, control your bottom towards the floor until you are sitting. To get up, push through your feet, pull in your core and allow your feet and quads do most of the work. You will need a lot of lumbar flexion to get your centre of gravity past your hips. Try it. Please take caution if you have instability or injury. Call or book online for an appointment.