When your veins expand and begin to appear under the skin and your legs hurt, your lifestyle changes for the worse.Exercises for varicose veins in the legs will improve the vascular tone, thus relieving the condition.
What are varicose veins?
Varicose veins are a pathological (abnormal) phenomenon of vein dilation, as a result of which blue-red webs and webs or even bumps appear on the surface of the skin.
If any of your relatives have varicose veins, you've heard them use the phrase "pulling the veins."As you know, the blood must rise up through the veins of the legs, overcoming the force of gravity.The heart pushes it there with each contraction, and special valves inside the vessel prevent it from flowing down.They close after each heartbeat and prevent blood from flowing downward under the influence of its own weight.
In varicose veins, the walls of the veins widen and thin, the valves can no longer close and the proper movement of blood through the affected vessel is impaired.The blood stagnates, the vessels rise to the surface of the skin and become very noticeable.And the stronger the varicose veins, the more severe and extensive this picture will be.
At a certain point there is a "point of no return" when the operation is no longer possible.But before that, you can help yourself with gymnastics and medicine.
The most important thing is to protect yourself from the further development of varicose veins.First you need to understand where it comes from.
Causes of the disease
All the causes of varicose veins can be reduced to two: problems with the outflow of blood from the vessels of the legs and weak connective tissue in the walls of the blood vessels.
The first group of reasons can be eliminated quite simply, but the second is due to genetic characteristics and can be tolerated.
The first group includes the following reasons:
- Cross-legged pose while sitting.
- Prolonged unfavorable body position, such as squatting when working in the garden.
- Working for long periods of time in an upright position.
- Injuries, systemic vascular diseases.
- obesity.
As you can see, most of these causes can be fixed.In other words, the exercise will be ineffective unless you give up the habit of sitting with your legs crossed or reduce the weight.If varicose veins are caused by genetic weakness of blood vessels, do not despair.Your feet will just need more attention.
So, let's find out what kind of load can be given to the muscles with this disease, whether it is possible to do squats with varicose veins and what other exercises exist.
Fight varicose veins with exercise
Physical activity is designed to improve blood flow in diseased veins.It is useless to do this if the stage of varicose veins already requires surgical intervention.But if the disease has just started, exercise will be very useful.
What not to do
You should not lift weights.For now, forget about strength exercises, they will worsen your condition.Excessive tension can cause weak blood vessels to burst.
Here are some questions from people suffering from varicose veins and their answers:
- Is it possible to squat with varicose veins?You can squat with your own weight.But if the exercises are difficult for you, it is better not to do this, even without a barbell.You can't barbell squat if you have varicose veins.
- Can you do a bench press?You can, but with caution, it is better to wear special compression socks.You should be careful with exercises that directly stress the leg muscles, such as deadlifts, squats, leg extensions, and leg curls.Here you have to limit yourself.You cannot lift weights while standing on your feet.A leg press with a light weight will be useful because you are performing it in an inverted position.
- Veins are swollen after exercise, are they varicose veins?After visiting the gym, the veins become more pronounced and visible on the surface.But it is necessary to distinguish varicose veins from generic venous.In the latter case, the veins are pushed to the surface by muscles, they are smooth, without knots or networks.They are usually large and single, bluish.Such veins appear on the athlete's body in the area of the flexors of the legs, arms, chest and neck.that's good If the vein is red or purple, thin, knotty and surrounded by a net, it's varicose veins.
- Aerobics - light exercises.Can it be done for varicose veins?Unfortunately, during aerobics, a person makes sudden movements and jumps.And you better not do that.Although in the initial stages of varicose veins, this is not important.The main thing is to remove the heavy load.But in the later stages, especially in thrombophlebitis, sudden movement is dangerous due to the release of a blood clot and the disastrous consequences.
You should be careful with anything that requires serious physical effort from you: strength training, speed running, interval training.
What can and should be done
Exercises for legs with varicose veins differ in dosed load.This is actually gymnastics for the joints.On the one hand, it forces the muscles to shorten, and on the other hand, it does not cause much tension.All exercises for varicose veins are aimed at increasing blood circulation in the legs.
The simplest leg exercise for varicose veins is leg work.
This exercise is done as follows:
- Sit or lie down with your feet higher than your knees.
- You can place a soft but elastic pillow under your knees.
- Imagine that the tips of your toes are a hand.Draw an even circle with it.Drawing is done by moving the leg in the ankle joint.
- Pull the toe towards you, continue to pull it when you reach the limit.You will feel a slight pleasant warmth in the calf muscle and its stretching.
- Then extend your toes, pull your heels down using your calf muscle.
- Turn your feet outward, then toward each other.
- Try this exercise several times.
In other words, we actively rotate our feet, contract and relax our calves.We do this with our feet up.This technique allows you to stretch the muscles located below the knee while sitting on the couch or lying in bed.
Complex of exercises for the whole body
The next activity combines a full-body muscle and joint warm-up and stretching.It is a simple and safe complex that improves blood circulation throughout the body.
Head and neck
Make a circle with your head 10 times clockwise and the same number of times in the opposite direction.
On each lap, try to stretch.No need to do it quickly, stretch the pleasure.Feel the work of your neck muscles, enjoy it.
Then stretch your chin to your chest 3-4 times and the back of your head to your back the same number of times.
Let's move on to the upper shoulder girdle.
Arms, shoulders
Move your shoulders in circles back and forth.We draw a circle efficiently and slowly, stretching the muscles!
Then we begin to describe circles in the same plane with straight hands.No need to speed up too much;a speed of 1.5–2 revolutions per second is sufficient.We inhale and exhale evenly without holding our breath.
Then we press the elbows to the body and draw a circle with brushes.That is, the hand rotates at the elbow.
And the last step is to clench your hands into fists and twist them at the wrist.Then we warm up the lower back.
Lumbar
Take a pose with your arms at your sides.Start by using your lower back to twist to the right and left as much as possible 10 times.You can turn around in a row or immediately do 10 times in one direction, then 10 in the other.
Then bend forward and back.Then rotate your body clockwise and counterclockwise, keeping your feet in one place.
Place your hands on your hips and do a few circles with just your hips.
Remember to work slowly at a constant speed.
Legs
Here you can squat 10 times slowly and without additional weight.This is one of two possible leg load options because you can't barbell squat or lunge.
The second option is a leg press on a machine with light weights.It will be more beneficial to you as the work goes upside down, which is very good for varicose veins.
The rest of the leg exercises are various swings that do not stress the calf area.To the press
To train your abs, you will need exercises that are performed lying on the floor on a fitball.It is not recommended to do hanging leg lifts on a horizontal bar, as at this point the blood can stagnate in the diseased veins.
Lying on your back, do leg lifts (two or separately) on the press, bicycle ergometer.
Sit-ups in various techniques are also safe in the prone position.
Swimming
Swimming is an excellent form of physical activity for varicose veins.It is beneficial for the muscles of the legs, the nervous system, the heart and the immune system.Really great activity!
Basic recommendations
If we summarize all of the above in the form of short recommendations, they will look like this:
- Do exercises for varicose veins, practice long walking in comfortable shoes .
- Do not stay in one position for a long time, get rid of the habit of sitting with your legs crossed.
- Control your weight.
- Lead an active lifestyle to improve blood circulation
- If you are prone to varicose veins, all heavy physical activity should be done in special tight anti-varicose socks!
- After physical activity, let the blood flow freely from your legs.This is especially true for girls.Lie on a bed or couch with your heels against the wall.You should lie down so that your legs are higher than your head.If you decide to take a nap for an hour or two, put supports under your heels and knees.Make sure your feet are positioned so that they are higher than your body.This will help blood flow from the lower extremities.
- Use cardio in your workouts.This will improve your well-being and strengthen the cardiovascular system.