Why We Stand on One Leg to Rest.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 24 July 1914, Page 2

Why We Stand on One Leg to Rest.

Watch the people waiting for a train or for a car at the end of a day's work ! How many of them are standing on one leg ? All ? Well, nearly all. Yet, when you come to think of it, it is queer that it should be more restful to put your whole weight on one leg until it is tired, then on the other, and so foilh, moving backward and forward constantly, instead of supporting the weight all the time on two feet, which would then, one would imagine, not grow as tired. Yet that this one-leg plan is a true and wise plan for securing a rest is made clear by the fact that in all the armies of the world "stand at ease" is a position in which all the weight is put on the one foot, and the knee of the other leg is flexed. The whole matter depends on the fact that man is not yet sufficiently accustomed to the upright position. As a relief from standing upright he will lean against a pillar or lamp-post, and if it is possible to find a. projection slightly above the level ofibhp ground he will put his foot on it. Witness the low brass boot-rail of the har-rooin. which is placed here fur tfi.tl. purpose, and that purpose only, because men will stay longer and be more comfortable if they can put their feet in such a position that one of them gives the idea of a hand holding on to something. And if our feet were bare, instead of booted, they would curl around that brass rail in just the same way that our hands close instinctively on anything they touch. Because man as yet cannot stand upright without difficulty, the muscles have a greater piece of work to do than they can bear. The erect position is only maintained by a very complicated cross-strain,, one set of muscles pulling forward and the other backward, and every movement we make causes a new adjustment. Of course, if the hi]) bone (femur) fitted vertically into the bones of the pelvic girdle, instead of at an angle, and if that was directly under the spine, we could stand erect without any more muscular strain than a certain amount of balancing. But these joints work at angles, just as does the knee, and absolutely all that keeps us from tumbling down is the strength of the muscles that hold these joints in position. When we stand on one leg, however, in order to give the muscles a chance to ease up, we naturally throw the weight of the body on one side, and this places such joints as the hip more directly up and down, . reducing the width of the angle,' and therefore giving less trouble to 1 the muscles, even while the whole I weight is on that leg. In- the meantime, the other leg is getting a much-needed rest. Then, as soon as the long-continued weight of the whole body has tired the leg that is bearing it, the other foot is ready to take up the strain, and we shift the feet, throwing the body to the opposite side. Unfortunately, unlike the storks, we cannot stand on one leg indefinitely, and this for two reasons—that we have more weight to carry in proportion to our muscle, and that, the muscular structure itself is more fatty and less elastic. But it is wise to use the plan as much as possible, and few things will help more to prevent fatigue than the device of standing on one foot as long as one can, using the other merely as a balance. And, by the way, if passenger facilities grow much worse in London, the tubes will soon be putting up signs, "Standing Room lon One Leg Only !"