Improving Your Blood Circulation

Need to improve circulation, but don't have the time to dedicate your entire life to it? Well here's an article written just for you, buddy. Here are a few easy things you can do to improve blood circulation to your body. Now when you go for your next checkup you can tell your doctor where to stick it!

For serious circul ation problems

Blood circulation is a great thing. Circulation moves nutrients and other good stuff in to your body's cells, removes wastes and other nasty stuff along the way, and keeps your body's pH level and body temperature in order.

Now it's time for the bad news. When you have bad circulation, oxygen can't make it to all of your organs and body parts. Oxygen is one of the fuels our bodies run on, and without enough oxygen our bodies get run down. That's right, it's just like a car that runs out of gas. But no more car metaphors.

Some folks have poor circulation, especially in their hands, and especially when the weather gets cold. In extreme cases this condition is called Raynaud's phenomenon. Now just because your hands and feet get cold doesn't mean you have Raynaud's, but either way scientists have figured out a simple way of treating cold hands and feet.

When a normal body is exposed to the cold, the person's nervous system will constrict blood flow to their hands and feet to help their body stay warm. But when their hands and feet get really really cold, the body's nervous system dilutes your blood vessels and helps restore full circulation.

But Raynaud's sufferers do not regain their circulation because their blood vessels in their hands do not dilate. And here's an experiment done by some real wise guys that fixed the problem.

Three to six times a day, every other day, people with Raynaud's sat indoors with their hands in warm water. Then the Raynaud's folks were put outside and exposed to a cold environment except for their hands, which were submerged in an ice chest filled with warm water.

Pretty weird, but the scientists concluded that it worked.

I've heard it told that you can also do the same thing using a hot shower and a cold shower. But that is way less scientific.

NOTE: Be careful when going from hot to cold. Extreme temperatures can cause extreme damage, so don't overdo it with the hot or cold.

Stretches

If that was too weird for you, this next step is a lot easier. A more common cause for poor blood circulation is lack of body movement. We sit at these computers and desks and in cars and on couches all day, and then we lay down and go to sleep. This completely neglects our body's need for exercise.

So whenever you notice you've been inactive for a while, get up and move! It helps your body and it helps your mind. It's just like Ben Afflek said in Boiler Room: "Motion creates emotion."

The general idea

Stretch your arms out wide, arch your back, touch your toes, wiggle around, shake the coffee jitters out, whatever you feel like doing. You Listen to your body and you'll know exactly what to stretch. Sounds like this will take a while? It might take a few minutes, yes. But if you don't have enough time to do it right, don't do it at all. A rushed stretch might be better than no stretch, but it's a close call. Relax your mind while you relax your body, that's what I say. Take the time to feel your muscles stretching and picture your circulation improving. This will improve your circulation even more, and that is a fact.

Finger stretches

Are you sitting at a desk all day, only to find your wrists and fingers locking up or feeling sore? Sounds like it's time for a finger stretch break.

Straighten all your fingers until you feel them stretching. Now relax your hand.

Another great hand stretch that will improve blood circulation is to take your hands and act like you are grabbing a baseball. Clench your hands around these two imaginary baseballs. Then relax your hand.

My mom uses these three little balls to help her hand circulation. You just take them and squeeze them differently whenever you feel your hands tensing up.

Another good hand and arm stretch is to extend your arms out straight in front of you as far as they will go until you feel the stretch in your arms. Then bend your wrists and point your hands down at the floor. You should feel a stretch in your wrists. Hold this for 10 seconds. Relax. Next stretch your hands by holding them flat out in front of you, like Superman when he's flying. Wee! Hold this for 10 seconds. Time to relax. Finally, point your hands straight up at the sky and hold for 10 seconds. Wrist stretch complete.

Itch your back dance stretch

This can come off like you are doing some sort of hilarious dance routine, and maybe you are. But another purpose for this is it stretches the back of your arm. It also happens to feel really, really good.

Here's how to do it. Reach your right arm behind your head and put your hand on your back, like you're trying to wash it in the shower. Take your left hand and hold your right elbow. Pull your elbow toward the back of your head and reach your right hand down your back until you feel the stretch. Hold this for 15 seconds, then relax. Switch sides to stretch your left arm.

Pianist stretch

Here's where your inner artist is allowed to flourish, as you dream of jamming with Elton John and Billy Joel for sold out audiences... ah, a boy can dream.

While you're day dreaming, press both of your hands away from your body, like you're pushing a brick wall. Lace your fingers together and turn your palms outward. Straighten your arms and hold them out in front of you. Hold this for 15 seconds, then relax. Repeat as necessary.

Back stretch

Lace your fingers behind your head and sit up straight until you feel your back stretching out.

Neck Stretch

Move your head to look over your left shoulder and hold for 15 seconds. Then relax and switch to your right shoulder. Then look up for 15 seconds, relax with your neck back to center, then look down for 15 seconds. Relax and return to center.

Shoulder shrug

Shrug your shoulders dramatically up and down, bringing your shoulders up to your ear when up and rolling them back down. Relax and repeat this 10 or 15 times.

And then there's yoga stretches

Yoga stretches are different than warm-up basketball stretches. Gym stretches tend to focus on competition and who can stretch farther, while yoga emphasizes your body's alignment and posture. With yoga, it's all about the way you touch your toes as opposed to who can touch their toes and who can not.

Another good thing about yoga is that most yoga poses stretch and strengthen the entire body rather than one small area. There's also more focus on oxygen intake and breathing, as well as centering your entire body rather than one small area. There's a lot more to yoga than just stretching, but stretching is definitely a good place to start.

Here is one of the best yoga stretches that I have done regularly for years.

The triangle

Triangle pose tones your legs, strengthens your spinal nerves and toughens up your abdominal organs. This pose also gives you a strong and healthy back.

The triangle is a really good stretch, because it stretches your entire body. Here's how to do the triangle.

Stand solidly on the ground, feet shoulder-width apart. When doing yoga, it helps to picture the way a cat would do things, and especially how a cat would stretch. So thinking of a cat, slowly arch down and move your right hand down to a comfortable spot on your leg, with your left arm pointing up to the sky. Move down as far as possible without turning your hips or torso, or anything else on your body for that matter.

Too many stretches

If you're all out of stretches and still want to improve blood circulation, here's a few more quick tips.

Reduce or eliminate caffeine. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, which means it constricts blood vessels in your brain and also decreases general circulation. Not good. If you've ever gotten a caffeine headache, this is the reason. Without the regular caffeine supply cutting circulation, you feel a rush of blood in your head, what we normal folks call a headache. How can something so scientific hurt that much?

Go for a walk. Going for walks, especially after you eat a meal, increases circulation. Walking also helps your digestive system digest your food for you. Sounds like a case of the ol' two-birds-with-one-stone, eh?

Elevating your legs is a really easy way to improve circulation. Plus putting your feet up just feels really good, doesn't it? And if your boss asks you why you're just sitting in your office chair reclining, tell him you're taking time to decrease your chance of getting varicose veins and suing his company for insurance compensation. That oughta' shut his trap.

Another way to improve leg circulation, get rid of that nasty cold foot and still work at your desk is to use this thing called the StepIt Exercise Foot Pedal.

The StepIt Exercise Foot Pedal increases blood circulation for the lower legs. The idea is that you can just sit there while the StepIt Foot Pedal tricks your legs into thinking they are walking, which activates the calf muscle. "Sturdy yet lightweight foot exerciser is great for keeping the blood flowing."

Check out the resources section below for a chance to behold the gloriously amazing StepIt Exercise Foot Pedal.

If you have done everything else and you still want more things to try, there are a bunch of herbs and spices that can improve circulation problems. Check out things like include ginkgo biloba, cayenne pepper, ginger, garlic and hawthorn berry.

Also try old faithful vitamins, such as Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Vitamin B-Complex.

There's also obvious things that will help improve circulation, such as eating a balanced diet, getting daily exercise and drinking more water. But I'm sure you already knew you should be doing all those things, right?

If you can somehow manage to do all these things, you are a superhuman. But if you can do a couple of these things consistently for a week or two, I guarantee that your circulation problems will be completely behind you. Cheers for good circulation!

Further resources

Puritan's Pride Vitamins & Health Items Buy one, get seventeen! Three, I mean. Sometimes it's buy one get one free, sometimes it's get three free... you just never know. But you at least always get one free. In the past ten years of ordering we've always gotten a whole year's worth of pills just for buying a few month's worth. Still, that is no joke. They save you tons of money. The money that you save, if you put it on a scale, and the scale could handle that much weight, you would find out that it weighs a ton.

StepIt Exercise Foot Pedal on Amazon.com I wish I had two of these right now. I would step on them.

Reasons Why I Stretch Link to my blog about money and getting a real job, sir. Or not.