Tired, Heavy Legs After Just A Few Minutes? Try This

Dr. Alyssa Kuhn, physio, weighs in with professional tips:

It’s about efficiency

Feeling like your legs are heavy, sluggish, or tiring easily is often not just a normal part of aging; it can indicate that your leg muscles are not working efficiently, making movement feel more difficult.

Making things worse, when these muscles are inactive or weak, blood can pool in your lower legs, contributing to a heavy sensation. However, when moving (even without great exertion), your leg muscles act as a pump, helping return blood from your lower legs back to the rest of your body.

This, in turn, improves circulation, stamina, and ease of movement.

So, how to do it? Here are four good ways:

1. Alternating heel lift with a weight shift: shift your weight onto one leg while lifting the opposite heel, keeping your toes on the floor, then alternate sides.
2. Back kicks: stand tall, keep your knee straight, gently kick your leg backwards using your glute muscles. Keep your chest lifted, avoid arching your back, and move only as far as feels comfortable.
3. Staggered rocking: stand with one foot in front of the other, alternate lifting your back heel and your front toes, then switch sides. This one’s a good one to do as a warm-up before walking.
4. Counter squats: stand about an arm’s length from a kitchen counter or similar, sit your hips backwards into a comfortable squat, use the counter for support as needed. Then it’s good to gradually increase the depth as far as you reasonably can. Skip this one if you’re already comfortable doing squats (and just do your normal squats instead).

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!