This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/ck_1LTVRdB0
Brad: If you are having problems with leg circulation, swelling, and blood flow, you are not alone.
Mike: We're going to give you some excellent options, and ways you can treat this simply lying down.
Brad: Exercising your legs, a contraction of the muscles is an excellent way to get more blood flow and circulation in your legs. However, we understand many people have limitations or are compromised and are unable to exercise on a regular basis.
Mike: So we're going to give you three options that require no exercise or little exercise and you can do them lying down. And some of them are even high-tech options.
Brad: That's right. For example, what we're wearing on our legs right now, people may have seen these. We're going to tell you what you need to know before you actually consider purchasing these and find out if they work for you or not.
Mike: I feel like a kid in a snowsuit. So the simplest method you can do to help with circulation and is free is to simply lie down on your back and elevate your legs above your heart. To do this, you'll need some pillows. Brad is nice enough to place them underneath my legs here and we are up, we're above my heart level.
Mike: If this works for you and is beneficial, you can start with this. However, it gets uncomfortable and you need a lot of pillows after a while, so sometimes something like a leg wedge could be a good option. Brad actually has one of these at home that he likes all the time and you simply place that there instead.
Mike: You could just find these on Amazon. They're relatively inexpensive. Now once you're here, we'll show you some exercises you can do to help with circulation: We're going to start distally. So meaning at our feet here, simply do some ankle pumps. You can do 10 to 15 repetitions, 30, whatever feels good for you.
Mike: Then we're going to work on the knees. So we're going to just do little kicks. This is kind of nice to have the leg wedge here because it just holds my knees in place good for this exercise.
Mike: Again, you can do 10, 15, 30 repetitions on each side, whatever feels good. Then we're going to work up to the hips. Bring your knees towards your chest as much as you can. The higher up you are above your heart, the more it's going to help with circulation. Obviously, if you have some back or hip pain, this is uncomfortable, don't do this one. Or just go with what range of motion feels good for you. That's just some way to help get blood flow back up into your trunk and away from your legs.
Brad: Right. I do want to emphasize as Mike demonstrated, start with the ankles first, then work, kicking the leg up. That's working the quads. And then the last one, knees to chest, helps the fluid, the circulation going in the right direction, so a specific order.
Mike: Now we're going to show you another variation. If your bed happens to be close to a wall or if you're comfortable getting on the floor and you have a wall space, you can do it there as well.
Brad: Right. This next demonstration is actually going to really take advantage of gravity, making things go a little better. Alright, now this technique is, like Mike mentioned, you'll have your bed up against the wall or on the floor. You're going to get your butt or your trunk closer to the wall and straighten your knees out. You will need socks, no shoes for this. And you'll see why in just a minute. So now we really have gravity working that blood flow and that swelling, that fluid is going to go downwards towards the trunk.
Brad: And that's the whole goal. Mike's going to talk about the exercises, which can actually help with that and really give you additional help.
Mike: So get as close to the wall as comfortable. If you have tight hamstrings, getting closer might be a little uncomfortable. Find that good spot. Then you're going to simply start with the ankle pumps. Again, try to keep your legs straight. Having socks is really beneficial because I can just slide on the wall like that.
Mike: Again, do 10 to 30 repetitions, what's ever comfortable. Now for the next one, you can't really kick up and down. You're actually going to use the wall, but we're not going to go way down because you're actually putting kind of a tourniquet effect here, bending your knees too much. So just stay around 90 degrees and then go up. Just kind of alternate, you're just kind of skiing on the wall essentially.
Mike: You can do 10 to 30 repetitions of this as long as it's comfortable. And the last one, we're going to start from a straight light position again, and you're just going to do like the marches, bring your knee towards your chest. Obviously, I'm going more downhill, but having this much gravity and angle pulling is really going to help if you're comfortable in this position. Now, if you start to feel lightheaded, dizzy, or having issues with this, this is probably too extreme of a position. Simply go back to the pillow position like we showed earlier.
Brad: Right. And you know, as far as the exercises, if you don't tolerate that because you have joint problems, or whatever it may be, just elevating them at this angle may be helpful enough. Again, only if you feel comfortable doing it. Otherwise, you do it with the pillows or the leg wedge. Nice work, Mike. Thank you.
Mike: It's like I'm running up the wall.
Brad: Yeah.
Mike: Now another inexpensive option with no exercise required is compression socks. There are many different brands. They all work, they're all fine. Brad has one on his foot right here.
Mike: What happens with these is there's typically more pressure in the foot region. And as it goes up the calf towards the knee, there is less pressure. You normally want one that will not go over your knee. That can be problematic for some people. You also don't want to curl it too much like Brad is showing here.
Mike: It can cause a tourniquet effect. So you might have the circulation and swelling just stuck right here. That's not good either. So make sure you get a good length. If you are concerned about these, maybe check with the doctor before. They can even give you specific numbers in ones to order.
Brad: Right. Now the thing with these is you can use them with exercise or without, they're beneficial. As a matter of fact, healthy people who are active and running or other sports like that will wear them just because they offer better circulation and will deter sore muscles and that type of thing.
Mike: Yeah, they allow your calf muscle to relax a little bit.
Brad: Right. I know people who wear these at work who are on their feet a lot at work and they feel tiredness, and some pain in their legs. Putting these on can help the circulation and remedy that as well.
Mike: Now, if you're new to them, they are a little tricky to put on it first. After a while, you'll figure it out, because getting the foot part pulled over gets a little tight.
Brad: Right. They are compression socks for a reason. That's a good name for them. Okay, so let's talk about these high-tech compression garments where you put them on and they actually blow up like a balloon and they put pressure on your legs and actually force fluid, blood flow, swelling up towards your trunk, which is the goal and it is good. However, when you look them up on the internet, you'll find a lot of different varieties of them. For example, this, it blows up and it compresses around your ankle and your calf and then there is an open section here and then it compresses around your thigh.
Brad: The problem with this is this can compress and actually form a tourniquet where there is no compression. Let's explain this with this. Now you can see these are full-length garments.
Brad: Now this actually does a really nice job in the fact that it compresses in the foot first, then it compresses at the ankle and then it compresses around the knee and then the quad. So it pushes fluid and circulation in the right direction. You would never want to have it compressed at the thigh first, then the knee, then the ankle, which actually pushes it towards the feet. So the full-length garment, in my opinion, which gets the fluid to go in the right direction, is a better option than the open knee. So is this something that you would want to buy if you have circulation problems? Well, that's what we want to talk about in just a little bit more detail. All right, now if you have swelling, if you have any health problems, this is one of these things you need to understand. These can work for you. However, if you have any problems, for example, heart problems, pulmonary problems with your lungs, fragile skin, lymphedema or severe swelling, weeping of your skin, kidney problems, history of a DVT or a blood clot, venous insufficiency, there's a lot of problems. If you have any one of those, you do not want to purchase these and use them unless you talk to your doctor and have instructions from a professional. One of the biggest problems it can have is if these push too much fluid up into the trunk, your trunk and your heart and your lung system can get overloaded and it can be a serious health problem. So again, if you want to use these and you do have problems, you're not a healthy person, then you're going to definitely want to talk to your doctor and have them do it. And actually what'll happen is they'll have you go with a professional that knows how to use them and monitor, look at your diagnosis, and get you to use them safely and properly. They may not be for you in a lot of cases. Now there is an instance where you do not have to see a doctor to use these. And that's if you are a very healthy person, you have good circulation and you're probably athletic or do a lot of exercise and you want to use them for recovery. So for example, you've run 20 miles, your legs are sore, and then you want to help recover the sore muscles using these. Either one of these is good. Now, Mike is one of these people, he exercises a lot, he lifts weights, he's a marathon runner and he does use these. Mike, do you want to talk to him about your experience?
Mike: Yes, oftentimes I would use them either later that day or the next day to recover a bit. They just help with circulation and blood flow. I just put them on, run them for 20 minutes, pick the cycle, and any amount of pressure that works best for you. And yeah, they feel good, they're comfortable. I've never had any problems after using them. But yeah, definitely if you're more active, you could just go out and try and them out for yourself. If not, obviously get your doctor's advice.
Brad: Alright, so I hope we have given you some good advice on how to improve your leg circulation. And we cleared up questions that you have if you thought that maybe types of devices would be helpful for you. Mike, we do have one more thing to talk about.
Mike: If you want to check out more videos on how to improve your leg circulation, try our video, "You Can Instantly Improve Leg Circulation & Blood Flow."
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