This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/x9OErOafo74
Brad: Good day! You can control circulation in your legs. We're going to show you a method that you can do while standing.
Mike: Poor circulation can cause pain, swelling, and discomfort in the leg. So we want to show you how you can combat this while standing.
Brad: That's right. All right, you must understand some of the facts about circulation in the legs, particularly while we're standing.
Mike: So when blood flows away from the heart down into your legs, it's often assisted by gravity, which makes it really easy to get down in your legs. However, if your circulation system is compromised, you struggle to get the blood flow back up to the heart.
Brad: Now it's important to understand the blood going down into the legs is full of oxygen as well as nutrients which feeds the muscles and all the tissues to keep it healthy so we can keep moving. Once the blood has taken care of that, it needs to come back up, as Mike mentioned, but we need to assist it and get back up using muscle contraction. That is a part that we can control.
Mike: So the muscle contraction is actually like a pump helping push that blood back up into the heart where it needs to go again.
Brad: Right. And there's this particular system, if you really want to work that blood up, particularly if you're compromised in regards to circulation and blood flow, we're going to show you the right way to do it. All right, now, pain and problems with your legs while standing occur and get worse with time. Some people can tolerate standing for five or 10 minutes before they really get that leg pain. Other people may only be standing for one or two minutes and they get leg pain because of the circulation being affected.
Mike: So we're going to show you seven different exercises you can try if you're stuck in a prolonged standing position, and we're going to perform 10 reps of each of these.
Brad: That's right. Now we're going to start with muscle contraction and we're actually going to start at the feet, a complete exercise for the muscles in the feet and the ankles and then the calves, and then the thighs and the quads all the way up into the glutes. So we're going to start farthest down, work all the way up to help pump that blood back up to the trunk where we want it to go. That is the goal. Are you ready Mike?
Mike: I'm ready.
Brad: Let's go to work. Okay, there are seven exercises. We're gonna go through them all. I want you to do them with us and find out which ones work best for you and see if some of them may not work, but I think they'll do well with everyone. Again, starting with the feet. Little things we want to talk about going up on our heels, but when you do that, think about pulling your toes up and then up on your heels and then down and up on your four feet or your toes.
Brad: We're going to do 10 of all of these. So just go through and do 10. Now you can see I'm losing my balance. Mike is actually using the Booyah Stik or something to hold onto. A wall works great. Okay, once you get 10 with those, remember muscle contraction works. So we're going to work some more muscles that normally don't get worked in the ankle and the feet. And these are the famous ziggy-zaggies. Watch what we do with our feet. We're going to go one way with our toes then with our heels. And what this does, if you do this, you're going to feel your ankles and your feet get fatigued. Little muscles are working in there and as they work, they are pumping blood upwards.
Brad: It's a nice little thing to do. If you don't want to do that, you can simply work toes together, and toes apart, that's going to do a similar thing.
Brad: And you know if you're waiting and aligning and your legs are getting tired, you want to get the blood moving, this might be more acceptable than doing the ziggy-zaggies in public. Anyways, the next one is the butt kick. In other words, you think about your heel going up to your butt and down. You don't have to do this fast, up and down. If you just want to do mini ones, that's fine. Do what works best for you, 10 on each leg. There we go.
Mike: What if I can't kick my own butt?
Brad: Yeah, well if you can't kick your own butt, that's okay. Fully acceptable, Mike. Next one. What is it, Mike?
Mike: It is marching. So you're going to hold onto support again and just march up and down. I'm just going to alternate to get through them quicker. I'm going to do 10 on each leg. You can do one leg at a time if you prefer that method. Going slow and controlled. If you can't go this high up, that's fine. Just do what you can.
Brad: If you want to do circles with the knees, that can be helpful. Good for the joints as well.
Mike: We got two more Brad. The cameraman's counting for us.
Brad: Next, squats. You know, mini squats, you can simply just go down a little bit. That's going to work the quads, we're going to work the hamstrings a little bit. Have something for balance if you need it. The deeper you go, the more work, the better it's going to be, the better the pump. However, we need to be safe. So if you get down too far and you can't get back up, obviously it's not right. So be safe. Have something to hold onto. You can go to a wall. Only go down as far as you can. 10 repetitions.
Mike: We're at 10.
Brad: Oh, sorry, over time. The next one is working the butt muscles. You simply squeeze your cheeks together and relax and do that 10 times.
Brad: Now, if you want to combine these because you want to be work efficient, do the squat up, butt squeezes all together, then you get two done at once.
Mike: I'm still working on mine and there are 10. And we got one more exercise, but we need to get a chair out here.
Brad: Right, now this is optional depending on how your balance and your mobility because we want to be safe. Mike, do you want to go up the stairs and do it?
Mike: Sure.
Brad: I'm going to do it on a stool. I wouldn't recommend it on a stool for a lot of people. Stairs with handrails are ideal. The idea is to put your foot up on the stool or step and simply flex the knee, the ankle, and the hip. You get three joints all getting the range of motion, which is good for those. And we get the elevation and now we actually have a little gravity assist and we do a little pumping here. So we actually have a pump with that. Again, if you don't feel comfortable with this, do not do it. It's not that important. We want to be safe. Okay, how are you doing Mike?
Mike: Good. If there's trouble in going up to a higher stair, you can just start on the bottom step. It's perfectly acceptable.
Brad: Yep. All right, good. That was nice. Should only take you about oh two to three minutes and you get, we're done with that. You might do it every hour or so depending on how long you're standing. My legs feel better already. How about you Mike?
Mike: I'm good. You sound out of breath.
Brad: Well, yeah. I'm older than you. All right, we are going to give a little bonus information. We talked about exercises, compressing, and getting that blood to move up. Now you can wear special socks. They're called graduated compression socks. Make sure you get some good ones. In other words, they actually have more compression around the foot and ankle than they do up around the calf. So it squeezes here and pushes up. Mike has this pair on right now. They always come up just below the knee. Make sure you get the right length. If they come up over the knee, it's not comfortable and there are problems with those. These can be very helpful. I know people who were very grateful for using these that have circulation problems throughout the day. They are a little bit difficult to get on and off, but they're okay. Mike, do you have anything to say about compression socks?
Mike: I had them on the whole time and I actually noticed that this calf is not fatigued at all. This isn't really fatigued, but I can tell it's working more. Just having that support there, even with the musculature, can help.
Brad: So if you wear compression socks and you do exercise, you get double the benefit. So they're nice. They can be very useful to wear. We do have other videos on compression socks. Mike, do we have another one?
Mike: Yes, if you want to watch more videos on how to improve leg circulation, check out our video "Easiest Ways To Instantly Improve Leg Circulation". It's the easiest way to instantly improve leg circulation. This one does not involve standing exercises.
Brad: And naturally I'm concerned. Do they make compression socks that are red? Because it's one of my favorite go-to socks.
Mike: They have all sorts of colors.
Brad: Yeah, I think they do actually.
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