Circulation
There is an old saying that goes "The legs go first"
The conclusion is that regardless of what your problem is, that your lower body from the hips down have gone south and in the majority of cases circulation of the big 4, blood, lymph, water and electrical are the chief players. Poor circulation leads to inflammation, and skeletal breakdown results primarily in the knees and the hips and a general skeletal breakdown. Naturally the legs from the toes to the hips is easy to refer to it as the lower extremities and the foundation that brings forth another old saying "the structure of a house is only as good as its foundation" If the foundation is failing the whole house is negatively affected and one area that we have studied is not only the major organs suffering from the failing foundation but the impact to the brain itself.
In the majority of cases poor circulation can result from many sources, old age tops the list with all the complicated issues that go along with the luxury of old age. Neglect of the body itself leading up to old age is no question one of the key areas to address and again as the legendary comedian George Burns said before he died a year away from the 100 year old mark said "If I knew I was going to live so long I would have taken better care of myself"
So there are two things you can do to improve your circulation and build up the muscular and tendon areas. I personally was negatively impacted with a sport I played in Florida for close to 40 years. Paddleball on the beach courts of Hollywood Florida was what I refer to as a intensive lateral movement sport. If you play the right side as I did the compounding effect in building up excessive muscle tissue in the outside calves were the result and we believe between the stiff build up on the outside and the very palatable inside created a imbalanced condition. We believe that this condition interfered with the pumping efficiency of the two muscles in each leg and under performing and not efficiently removing the waste products generated in the lower extremities.
In fact one of the doctors I visited with my problem said that it was important that I pay particular attention to my quadriceps and hamstrings and gave me the exercises to build them up equally. I religiously twice a day, on my back, with my hands underneath my hamstrings, a little in front of my rump and stretch each leg 15 times. That's 30 times for two legs times 2, morning and night equals 60 stretches a day for both legs. I also do some sciatica exercises
but not extreme. Sciatica exercises are abundant on the Internet and worthy in doing if you have sciatica issues. Quite honestly I was surprised with the recommendation, but as I researched my leg problems it became logical that these very 2 important areas became smart areas to "build up" to support the total structure.
I have written to many regarding my exercise pool regimen. Don't forget to enjoy the buoyancy pool benefits. This addresses circulation with about 100 full squats that would be impossible for at least me to do dry along with 100 stand ups with my front part of my toes on the rounded area on the bottom parts of the pool wall. In addition it includes strengthening my legs, core and spine especially walking backwards in the water in the total 700 rep regimen. Regarding buoyancy I have a personal theory that buoyancy, exercise and circulation could possibly be a great synergy, but I haven't been able to confirm it on the Internet. My guess is there could be a tidbit on one of Microsoft's data centers and the cloud..
Actually I do a total of 700 reps during my pool regimen and in the process I address my circulation issues that I believe have gone south.
Circulation
The
below is somewhat of a repetition of some of the material above in this
feature, but worth reading for reinforcement purposes.
One of the first contacts I had was when our GP sent me to a therapist who noticed that the outside of my calves were very tight and the inside of my calves were palatable, very palatable in fact. She never gave me any specific things to do for the condition, we just ran out my time allowance for treatment and I never went back. The other morning I was researching my leg issues and ran across some leg mechanics regarding the large calf muscles on both sides of each leg. They are called the gastrocnemius muscles and between these muscles there is the muscle/transporting of fluids triggered by the soleus muscle. So the imbalance I had with the extreme tightness on the outside of my calves, and palatable insides could most likely been one of the compromises for my circulation issues.
Quite honestly I didn't realize that my condition could have been a circulation issue until I followed up with a orthopedic surgeon who actually thought my condition could be vascular and in fact gave me a script to a vascular specialist that I didn't keep but probably should have.
Addendum
In my recent research efforts for this feature I ran into a red flag regarding an exercise program that for especially the elderly could be excessive, unproductive and in many cases aggravating their problem and instead of healing they would be seriously delaying the healing and possibly provoking permanent injury. Therefore depending on your individual condition with or without an injury everything should be in moderation, especially when it comes to exercise. How much water therapy can only be assessed by the individual and the degree of soreness that results. Extreme soreness usually is a sign of overuse. MODERATION