Do your feet ever gets swollen
at the end of a long day,
especially if you've been on your feet all day
or shoes get a little bit tight.
Well, this swelling is quite common
and yoga and legs up the wall in particular can help.
I'm gonna explain to you why this is happening.
But stick around to the end
because I'll be guiding you through
a legs up the wall routine
that will make you feel better in less than 10 minutes.
So you'll improve your circulation and feel decompressed
and ready to wind down at the end of that long day.
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Now, what you need to know about edema.
Edema is basically the fancy word for swelling.
And this swelling can have several causes.
And you can be swollen in your feet
after you've sprained or strange your ankle,
or have an injury.
But the most common cause
is just really gravity being upright all day.
There are other causes
that can encourage this leakiness of the vessels
and encourage the swelling.
So there's many reasons you could experience the swelling
but in the end,
one of the best solutions
is to flip upside down.
If gravity is causing the pooling at the ankles and feet,
then flipping upside down,
it's only going to aid the return
of the fluids back to your heart.
Basically, to understand this
let me explain a little bit about the vessels.
Arteries, the vessels that are
moving blood away from your heart
to their target destination.
They're carrying this oxygenated blood
and it's very important they get to that destination.
The vessels of arteries have thick muscular walls
to squeeze and push the blood to its destination.
However, veins which return the blood back to the heart,
they don't have those muscular walls.
They have one way valves
that are there to help prevent backflow of the blood,
the same for lymphatic vessels.
Lymphatic vessels they have these one way valves
to prevent back flow.
But the problem is, when we're upright
all day pooling can occur.
And when we flip upside down,
we're actually allowing the fluids to push open
the one way valves,
so that you can return the fluids more efficiently
back to your heart.
So in essence, by going upside down
you are improving your circulation.
But you don't have to do a headstand or anything like that.
Actually, it's nice to do an relaxing inclined aversion
of bringing your legs up.
You may have heard to just elevate your legs
which is great.
You can put your legs up on some pillows and incline them.
But a yoga pose, legs up the wall
can enhance this effect even more.
You can also do somewhere in between the two
by putting your legs up a chair.
With legs up the wall I'll show you how to do it.
There's several different options
you can use a strap if you have it
to help relax your legs a little more.
So you don't have to hold them together.
You can use a pillow or a folded blanket
which is what I'm gonna use today
to elevate your hips a little more
to enhance this effect.
So basically we are going to sit on the wall
and change our orientation to gravity.
For this version of legs up the wall
what I'd suggest to have is
either folded blanket or pillow for under your head.
And I'd suggest to have something for under your hips
to elevate them a little bit.
The idea is that we're bringing
not only our legs above our heart
but our hips above our heart also, to encourage that flow.
So if you had a yoga block, you could use that.
I like the softness of like a thicker pillow
like more like a couch cushion type pillow
but the pillow and your bed works too.
And have that off to the side,
and you can play with that when we get to that point.
You're gonna come up close to the wall
and sit sideways to it.
And then you come down to one forearm
and back and swing your legs up.
At this point, your hips might be really far from the wall
and actually that's okay.
You may wanna scooch closer to the wall that can help
but I'm gonna encourage you
to not be right up against the wall
because I want to have more of an incline.
And it's not as much about having a deep stretch
for some people that might be a little bit of a stretch.
So once you get into this position,
you can lift your hips up.
This is the optional part
and put the pillow underneath
and do any scooching you need to get comfortable
allowing the blanket to be under your head
or pillow under your head.
At this point, if you want it to put a strap
or something around your legs, you're welcome to do that.
I just like to let my legs fall outward
to where they naturally do.
And then once you get there, you can close your eyes
bring your hands to wherever they're comfortable.
They can be lying next to your sides, palms up.
It can be on your abdomen.
Notice your breath.
(soothing sounds)
Can you begin to feel the sensations
around your feet and ankles shifting
just by simply letting them be,
just by simply elevating them.
Feel whatever is there,
maybe pulsating or vibration,
(soothing sounds)
maybe sensations that you've been ignoring all day.
Now feel your feet and legs and their entirety.
What is it like to release muscles holding in your legs
and just let them balance in this position
with the bones stacked
and come to a place of allowing,
allowing gravity to do the work for you,
allowing your veins and lymph vessels to open their valves
and to feel the flow.
Can you feel a pulsation,
a flow of release, a sense of relief.
Now feel your breath moving you.
Feel the sense of flow created from your breath,
the rhythm of your breath.
Now to enhance this flow,
make your breath deeper, fuller
feeling more expansion around your ribs and belly
with the inhales
deeper, fuller breaths.
Deeper breaths can help improve your circulation.
They can further encourage that flow
of both blood and lymph,
feel the natural flow.
Maybe you can even hear your breaths
and inquire within what is it like to be
more in flow with nature?
What does it feel like to go with the flow,
to allow without resistance?
What does it feel like to be open to what is?
And what does it feel like to rest, rejuvenate?
Notice whatever is coming up for you
and simply taking some time to allow your body
to get back into flow,
to allow your body to heal itself in many ways.
And taking a few moments to just be.
Notice your breath once again,
make it a little deeper,
a little longer, fuller,
feeling how more movement in your breath changes everything.
Now feel your legs and feet once again,
do they feel any different.
Begin to gently move your toes,
move your ankles,
maybe pump your ankles up and down
which can also help facilitate this flow in your legs.
As you're ready, slowly hug your knees
in towards your chest
and give yourself a hug,
taking your time to rock to your side.
Particularly take your time
to come up to standing,
taking it slow.
And thank you so much for joining me.
(downbeat music)