Strong Legs are Sexy Legs!
Strong legs are much more than beautiful. They are vital to protect heart health. We spend countless hours working on them. Most people don’t realize that the calf muscles are a pumping station designed to be a second heart.
The Heart Needs Help
Our heart is an amazing organ that pumps blood throughout our entire body with a single squeezing action. It sends oxygen to the farthest reaches of our body in a moment. There is one problem, to get the blood back to the heart, it takes more than that single pump. To get it back to the heart, the calf and ankle muscles assist the heart in circulating blood throughout your body.
Strong Legs Can Help The Problem
Our blood is returned to our hearts by venous return. The foot pump initiates the action and this occurs with each step. When the heel touches down the blood pools and as the toe touches, the blood is shot upwards. The blood then enters the soleus muscle that extends from the ankle to the back of the knee. Every time this muscle contracts, it applies pressure to the veins and helps return blood to the heart. Then the blood moves into the veins in the groin and travels through the largest vein in the body, the vena cava, to the heart. (1) This network of veins work together but none of them can do their job without a strong calf muscle.
Get Moving!
There are one-way valves in the veins that prevent blood from flowing back to the feet when the muscles aren’t active. This is how the body fights the biggest challenge to the calf muscle pump, inactivity. When you stop moving your legs and blood pools, your heart will apply some pressure to the veins, but blood flow is drastically reduced. This predisposes you to blood clots in the deep veins. Swelling, pain, cramping and ulcers can occur. Clots can travel throughout the body. Infections in the ulcers can become systemic and present grave health risks. You’re at a greater risk of these complications if you are sedentary, stand for long periods or are overweight.
DANGER Of Not Having Strong Legs!
One study found that people with chronic heart failure have smaller calf muscles than people with fully functional hearts. This leads to overexertion during exercise. Small calf muscles are the result of muscle atrophy. David wrote an article entitled, Looking Good as We Age about that age related muscle wasting, or sarcopenia. It’s an important article that thoroughly discusses the importance of keeping your muscles strong.
Intervention
Muscle atrophy is affected by diet and exercise, as discussed in David’s article. Good nutrition is mandatory but the best thing you can do for your calves is to lace up your sneakers and get moving. Walking is one of the best things that you can do to keep them strong. Get up and move for at least five minutes out of every hour. Calf raises, lunges, walking on your toes and foot pumps, simply pointing and flexing your feet will all help keep these vital muscles in good health. You can wrap a towel around the bottom of your foot, hold the ends gently and pull towards your body. This will increase blood flow in the moment. If we do nothing to prevent loss of this vital muscle, atrophy will occur with age.
Get up and get moving today, with your doctor’s permission. Taking care of your legs will improve your overall health.
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(1)https://healthtide.com/calf-muscle-considered-second-heart/
This article is most excellent and informative. Good job Brenda Sue.
Thank you, David Yochim❣
I absolutely love this information!! The last 6 years of elder care has me on a path that I do NOT want to be on:
bedridden, using a cane/walker/wheelchair due to an unhealthy lifestyle. I am pretty sure all of these ailments could have been prevented or at the very least minimized. Thank you (again!) Brenda Sue!
Thank you, Linda! I agree that most ailments associated with aging are preventable to a large degree. I have lived my life believing that and now I’m different from most others my age and even younger. Accepting responsibility for our health is the difference! Thank you for reading and commenting.