hey everybody it's doctor Jo and today I'm gonna show you my top seven ways to
stop feet and ankle swelling. so let's get started.
so the first one is one of my favorite stretches, ankle pumps. it's
really nice because you can do it lying down or you can even do it sitting in a
chair if you're working at a desk or maybe watching some TV. when you do ankle
pumps lying down, make sure that either your foot is hanging off of something or
that you have it slightly propped up. and that's mainly just so you have free
movement in that heel. if I was just doing it here, I could do the ankle pumps, but
I'm not getting quite as much motion because my heel is on the floor. so again
if you kind of hang it off of something like maybe an ottoman if you're propping
it up or in the bed you can hang it off, but if you're on the floor or something
just prop up that heel. and you're just gonna push down as far as you
comfortably can and then pull up as far as you comfortably can. so it's just like
it sounds. you're just kind of pumping that ankle up and down. and what that
does is if you have swelling kind of in your feet or you know in your ankles or
anything like that, this makes that calf work as a natural pump to pump that
fluid back out of your leg into your body. and a lot of times we get the
swelling down there because even if something's going on in our hip or knee,
maybe even our low back, it just follows gravity. and so it doesn't even always
have to be an injury at your foot or your ankle. it can be up here and that
fluid just follows gravity when you're up and moving, and then so it gets all
swollen down there. so ankle pumps are really great to do you can do a lot of
these 10, 15, 20 several times a day. they're easy to do and again it just
works kind of like a natural pump to get everything out of there. so then the next
one is then to stretch the calf, and so you can do the stretches a couple
different ways. I like since I'm kind of already in this position is to use a
strap to stretch the calf. if you have something like a stretch strap like
this, that's great. if you don't, you can use like a belt, a dog leash works really
well because you have the loop to use. You might not want your doggies around cuz
they'll get excited that you're gonna take him on a walk, but you want it to be something
solid. so you don't want those resistive bands, you want something that's not
going to give way. take the loop usually if you loop it it
works better, and kind of put about at the ball of your foot because if it's
too high it's going to come off and smack you, and if it's too low you're not
really going to get that pull that you need. so you're just relaxing your foot
and you're using the strap or the belt to pull your foot towards you. so I'm
getting a big stretch. I should feel it in my calf right down there and it
shouldn't be painful. it should be comfortable tightness. and since this is
a full stretch, you want to hold this stretch for 30 seconds. kind of relax it
and then come back into the stretch. if you just have one side that's swollen,
you really probably want to stretch both sides if you can. but if you have
swelling in your legs and you don't really know why you have swelling your
legs, make sure and check in with your doctor because sometimes if you have
just swelling that you you know there's not from an injury or anything, sometimes
it can be a circulation issue. but sometimes it can be a heart issue, so
make sure that you check in with your doctor if you're having that and you
don't know why you're having that swelling. so 30 seconds three times, three
times on each side if you can. so then you're going to go into some exercises.
and what I really like best about doing a straight leg raise is that you're
getting some elevation with your leg as well. so just lie down and get
comfortable. I like propping up my other side just
because one it gives me a target, and two it takes some pressure off my back
especially if I'm having some back issues. then all you're gonna do is pull
your toes up. that's going to help lock out your leg because you want your leg
to be straight. it's just like it sounds a straight leg raise, and then you're
just gonna bring your leg up to about equal the other side. so you're not
kicking it all the way up like that. if you can only go to there that's okay, but
you really want the goal to be about right there. and then slowly control it
back down. so you don't want to just do this. that's not, that's using momentum.
I'm not really using my muscles, but you're really kind of going slow and
controlled with it. now when you come back down, if you can keep it locked out
and kind of tap the floor and come back up
that's great, but if you need to come all the way back down and kind of relax and
reset that's fine as well. but if you can keep it kind of tight
the whole time, that's going to help with those muscles as well. so again depending
on how hard these are for you, you can start off with five, ten do a couple sets
of those, a couple times a day. so going more into the elevation that's another
really great thing. if you have that swelling in your feet and then your
ankles just propping it up on something is really good. and so in general you
wanted to be propped up higher than your heart. so if I'm sitting up like this,
it's gonna help some but since my heart is a little bit higher than all that
it's not going to be as beneficial as if I lie all the way down and prop that leg
up. so the leg doesn't necessarily have to be straight when you're elevating it,
but you want all of it to kind of be higher so that fluid can just gently
come back into your system and work it out. but again be very careful with this
because if you have heart issues you don't want all that fluid coming back in
at one time, so you make sure that you're checking with your doctor that all this
is okay and find out what is causing that swelling. but if you're propping it
up, you can do this for a longer period of time you know 10 to 15 minutes or you
know even if you're lying now relaxing watching TV or a movie or something you
can prop it up for longer than that as well. and just have that fluid kind of
come back into your system. so now I'm going to show you some seated exercises
and I really like these because especially again if you're working and
you're working at a computer or at a desk all day long, these are really easy
to do. and a lot of times when you're sitting that swelling increases as well.
so it's good to be able to do these without having to get a whole lot of
equipment. so the next one is just going to be hip flexion. so you're just
bringing your knee straight up. try and keep your back pretty straight or if you
have a backrest to kind of relax into it. that you're not trying to lean into
bringing it up. so you're just coming straight up and then you can alternate
sides with this one if you want to. so while I'm doing this, I want to give a
shout out to some of my patreon supporters. and if I say your name wrong
I'm sorry, but Adalto M., Darren K., Maria B., Barry R., and Carlos A. thank
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can click on the link up there or check out the link in the description
below. so after you do about maybe 10 on each side, then you can go into the
extension or we call them log long arc quads. so this time you're just
going to come up kind of squeeze and pull your toes up, and then come back
down. so again I kind of like to alternate sides when I'm doing this. if
you're at your desk, hopefully you have a little room to do this, but you can
slide your chair back if you need to. but when I come up to that end range,
I'm really trying to squeeze that quad muscle. and when I pull my toes that's
what helps kind of lock everything out. and again that's making those muscles
work as natural pumps to get some of that swelling out of there. so again
maybe just 10 on each side alternating back and forth. and you can do that you
know several times throughout the day. so then the last one is just heel raises.
and so with the heel raises you can do these sitting or you can do them
standing if you want them to be a little bit more difficult. but seated is
fine because again if you're you know working a desk job, this is really easy
to do while you're working. you don't even have to stop. so with the heel
raises, it's just like it sounds. you're bringing your heels up. that way you
might have heard feet cracking a little bit, but that's good that that made it
feel good. and then you can also if you want to alternate back and forth from
heel raises to toe raises and just kind of go back and forth like this. so again
that's kind of just like those ankle pumps lying all the way down but now
you're kind of getting a little bit more movement in those muscles to work as
those natural pumps to get that swelling or that fluid back out of your body. so
again 10, 15, 20 of these, you can do several throughout the day and a lot of
times it makes a big difference. but again if you don't know why you're
having that swelling in your legs, make sure and talk to your doctor because
sometimes that's the sign of a bigger issue. so there you have it, those are my
top seven ways to stop feet and ankle swelling. so if you'd like to help
support my channel, make sure and click up there and thanks again to all my
patrons. and don't forget to subscribe down there. and remember be safe,
pump those muscles, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.