Prepping when ill or infirm

[GillyBee]

If your posture is already shot due to too much sitting, you can retrain those postural muscles by spending a decent length of time in a standing position with good posture. You will need to use a mirror or a helper to get there in the beginning and will only be able to manage a few minutes before everything starts aching so will need to build the time up slowly.
It worked for me and dramatically improved things within a few weeks.
If you want to try this at home.....
The basic exercise if found in Tai CHi as "Standing Tree". The keys are to keep your knees very slightly bent, tuck your bottom in (not stuck out) and imagine a thread at the crown of the head pulling up. then relax everything you can and make sure your shoulders do not hunch. Arms stay down with hands near or touching your thighs. No leaning onto one side. Weight should be in the middle of your feet which should face as straight forward as you can get. Ankles will need to flex slightly to do this
You should be able to stand competely still for 30 minutes like this but beginners may struggle after 5 minutes and may only be able to approximate the pose.

[diamond lil]

That's a very useful post- that really applies to me. I spend 90% of my time sat in a recliner thanks Gilly.

[GillyBee]

Just spotted this on You Tube. This is my instructor and it shows what I am on about without too much of the "woo woo" element of Tai CHi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z2xUrc5ddE

[Arzosah]

Thank you Gilly! That's really useful - I'm a bit active during the day, but by 5pm I'm more or less useless physically, so this will be good to do later in the evening.