Leg movementhelps to stimulate blood circulation through a natural mechanism that works with every step, ankle movement, or heel lift.
The leg muscles compress the veins and push blood from the lower legs towards the heart, so some experts metaphorically describe them as the body's "second heart".
This analogy does not mean that the leg muscles replace the heart, but they play an important role in helping the circulatory system return blood to the heart, especially since the blood returning from the legs moves in a direction opposite to gravity.
The heart pumps oxygen-rich blood throughout the body via the arteries, and then the blood returns to the heart via the veins from the legs. Because the pressure inside the veins is lower than in the arteries, this process depends in part on the movement of the leg muscles.
When a person walks, runs, or raises their heels, the muscles in the back of the lower legs contract, compressing nearby veins and pushing blood upwards. Tiny, one-way valves within the veins help prevent blood from flowing back down to the feet between contractions.
The leg pump helps reduce blood pooling in the legs, while weakness in the leg pump may lead to swelling in the ankles, leg pain, or a feeling of heaviness, and may also be associated with some chronic venous problems.
Studies do not indicate that a weak leg pump directly causes death, but it may be a sign of other health problems, such as lack of physical activity, muscle atrophy, joint problems, or certain neuromuscular diseases.
A study of 2,728 adults who underwent vascular examinations at the Mayo Clinic Vascular Laboratory in Minnesota showed that people with impaired leg pump function were more likely to die in the following years.
After 10 years, the mortality rate was about 6% among people with normal pump function, compared to about 18% among those with impaired pump function.
A larger study published by the Mayo Clinic, involving nearly 6,000 patients, found a similar correlation: the risk of death increased as the amount of blood pumped by the leg muscles during movement decreased. Individuals with impaired pumping function were more than twice as likely to die compared to those with efficient pumping function.
However, both studies were observational, and therefore do not prove that poor leg pump is the cause of death, nor do they prove that leg exercises can prolong life.
Walking is the simplest way to activate leg muscles; each step stimulates muscle contraction and helps push blood upwards. Activities like running, climbing stairs, and heel raises have a similar effect.
Therefore, people who spend long hours at desks are advised to avoid staying in the same position for extended periods. The American Heart Association recommends standing up and moving around a little at least once every hour.
If it is not possible to get up, the ankles can be moved up and down, or the heels can be raised and lowered while keeping the toes on the ground, to activate the leg muscles.
This does not mean that standing still achieves the same benefit, as muscles need to contract and move in order to compress the veins and help push blood.
Regular physical activity helps maintain leg muscle strength as you age. The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, per week, along with muscle-strengthening exercises two or more days a week.
Limited research also suggests that activating leg muscles may affect how the body processes sugar and fat.
In a small 2022 study, researchers tested a seated exercise that targeted the soleus muscle, a deep leg muscle that can work for extended periods without fatigue. The exercise involved keeping the balls of the feet on the ground while repeatedly raising and lowering the heels.
The researchers found that continuous contractions of the soleus muscle increased the muscle's energy consumption and helped the body process glucose and fats after eating.
In a subsequent pilot study involving only 10 people with prediabetes, exercising during a two-hour glucose tolerance test reduced the rise in blood sugar levels by about a third compared to sitting still.
However, these results are still limited, because the studies were small, and the participants in the experiments performed the exercise for long periods and not just a few repetitions.
Therefore, raising your heels while sitting cannot be considered a substitute for walking or full-body exercise, nor for medical treatment when needed. However, it can be a simple way to add some movement during long periods of sitting.
Persistent swelling, sudden pain, redness, or increased warmth in one leg should not be ignored or assumed to be caused only by sitting; these symptoms may be related to a blood clot and require medical evaluation.
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