Recommended Exercises

While seated or lying down, flex your ankle by pulling your toes toward you followed by stretching them away from you. Each round of flexes should take about 1 second.

When you lie down on the floor with your back flat, keep your hands under your buttocks or, if you prefer, at your sides to prevent back overload. Then lift your legs off the floor in the air. The higher you elevate your legs, the greater the circulation will be.

Keeping your leg muscles, particularly the calf muscles, working is highly recommended. Walking is a great means of enhancing the pumping mechanism of your calf muscles allowing blood to move against gravity back to your heart.

This is a great exercise as it can be performed even when you are relaxing watching TV. This low impact exercise is a good workout for your leg muscles. Stepper This is great for office workers and for those who spend a lot of time on planes or trains.

This is great for office workers and for those who spend a lot of time on planes or trains.

With your feet hip-width distance apart and toes facing forward, rise onto the balls of your feet as high as you can. Pause for 3 seconds and lower your heels back down in a slow controlled motion.

This exercise is ideal for your calf muscles. The force of gravity working against you is less in water, and the elevation of legs closer to the level of the heart makes the return of blood much easier.

Sequential Compression Device (SCD) imitates walking and helps drain pooled blood (edema) in the legs. You can wear SCD any time when you are in bed or sitting with your legs raised.