While it’s not something you may think about every day, blood circulation is critical to your overall health. As blood circulates the body, it delivers essential nutrients and oxygen to tissues, muscles, and organs to repair and protect them. Additionally, it helps flush toxins from your body, boosting your immune system and keeping you healthy!
With all that in mind, it’s a no-brainer that you’d want to find ways to improve blood circulation as best you can. From exercises and massages to diet and lifestyle changes, we’re exploring six things to do to improve blood circulation and keep you feeling your best.
Importance of Better Circulation
Having better circulation is crucial to maintaining optimal health. Improving blood circulation helps your body heal faster (especially important for athletes recovering from sports injuries), keeps organs running properly, flushes toxins that could otherwise lead to illness, and even has a role to play in your complexion.
Without a doubt, your circulation has a part in every part of your overall health. The far-reaching effects of blood flow makes learning things to do to improve blood circulation all the more important for people of every age and lifestyle.
Simple Ways to Improve Blood Circulation
Learning things to do to improve blood circulation doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, attaining better circulation can be as simple as adjusting your diet or getting a massage. Self-care isn’t a chore! A few simple ways to improve blood circulation naturally include:
- Drinking lots of water
- Following a healthy diet
- Getting a massage
- Elevating your legs
- Stretch and exercise
- Learn to manage stress levels
Drinking Water Helps Blood Circulation
Drinking water is more than just quenching your thirst, it’s about keeping your body hydrated and functioning at optimal levels. Dehydration is one of the most easily preventable conditions, though statistics show that almost 75% of adults in the United States are chronically dehydrated. Some of the benefits of drinking water include its ability to:
- Helps improve blood circulation
- Carries nutrients and oxygen to our cells
- Flushes bacteria from your bladder
- Aids with digestion
- Normalizes blood pressure
- Stabilizes the heartbeat
- Keeps joints healthy
- Regulates body temperature
That’s a lot of benefit for such a simple task! To help you up your water intake, focus on total fluid consumption, not just water alone. For example, drinking tea is an easy way to add to your daily intake of water while providing some variation so you don’t feel like it’s a chore. Professionals have stated that ideal consumption levels of water are 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men and roughly 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women.
Follow a Healthy Diet for Better Circulation
The food you eat impacts blood flow, so it makes sense that one of the easiest things to do to improve blood circulation is to maintain a healthy diet. To make the most of your diet to improve blood circulation, it’s important to eat the right foods. Some of the best foods to potentially yield better circulation include:
- Fresh fruits, especially those high in vitamin C
- Leafy greens
- Fatty fish, especially ones rich in Omega-3s
- Ginger and garlic
- Nuts like walnuts
- Capsaicin (what makes peppers hot!)
A healthy diet doesn’t mean boring or devoid of flavor. Make small adjustments to your diet over time and before you know it, your healthy diet will have become a habit.
Getting a Massage to Improve Blood Circulation
Getting regular massages is a great way to take care of your mind and body. In fact, studies have shown there are many potential benefits of massage that make them indispensable to maintaining your overall health such as stress relief, alleviating back pain, and relaxing muscles. What if you don’t have time to go to a massage therapist on a regular basis, though?
That’s where the benefits of owning a massage chair come into play. While they’ve been around for many years, today’s luxury massage chairs have technology that blows their predecessors out of the water. Advancements in massage roller capabilities, massage chair features, and different types of massage programming have eliminated the difference between using a massage chair vs human massage. This means it’s never been easier to experience the benefits of massage therapy at home!
Whether you’re choosing between a 3D vs 4D massage chair, an S-track vs L-track frame, or from the wealth of new technology features offered today, you can’t go wrong with owning a massage chair. Incorporating it into your regular routine (learn how often to use a massage chair after this article) could improve circulation and lead to faster bodily healing, boosting your immune system, and more.
Other features of full body massage chairs like chromotherapy, zero gravity reclining capabilities, or the benefits of heat therapy enhance your experience beyond what you’d ever receive at a massage appointment. You can even find AI massage chairs that use different types of body scanning technology to provide a unique, custom massage experience that meets your needs every time you use it!
Get Better Circulation By Elevating Your Legs
Next up on our list of things to do to improve blood circulation is to elevate your legs. During the day, many people sit for extended periods of time whether it’s at your desk or relaxing in a chair. Long periods of sitting and standing can cause blood to pool within the veins of the legs, leading to swelling, pain, and restlessness. Elevating your legs even just 20 minutes a day may drastically help improve circulation and relieve these symptoms.
If you’re using a massage chair to improve blood circulation, consider getting a zero gravity reclining massage chair to combine effective methods. Reclining your massage chair in zero gravity position elevates the legs above the heart level and distributes weight evenly along the body. The result of this may be drastically better circulation that enhances the healing process and keeps you feeling your best.
Stretch and Exercise to Improve Blood Circulation
Another item on our list of things to do to improve blood circulation is to stay active by stretching and exercising regularly. Just a few minutes of stretching each day could result in better circulation that delivers blood and nutrients throughout the body more efficiently.
Staying active is also critical as a method to improve blood circulation. Experts recommend getting at least 30 minutes of exercise each day to elevate your heart rate and maintain better circulation. A few easy ways to fit this in could be joining a gym, starting a home fitness routine, going for a walk during a break at work, or taking a jog or brisk walk after dinner.
For athletes or other active individuals participating in high-impact activities, be sure to have a proper post workout recovery routine in place. Once again, many turn to massage chair benefits for athletes as a recovery tool they can use regularly to improve blood circulation and maintain optimal health.
Manage Stress Levels for Better Circulation
Last, though certainly not least, on our list of things to do to improve blood circulation is to learn how to manage stress levels. Studies have shown that heightened stress levels could directly result in higher blood pressure, constricted blood vessels, and poor circulation. These negative impacts of stress on the body could increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, or other negative health ailments.
Learning to manage stress can be easier than it sounds. We can’t avoid stress altogether every day, but activities such as practicing meditation or getting a massage have been shown time and time again to lower cortisol levels naturally, alleviating stress and improving overall mental health. Yet another opportunity to combine things to do to improve circulation, full body massages reduce stress and deepen relaxation, making a massage chair a multi-purpose tool for health improvement.
As you can see, there are many easy things to do to improve blood circulation. From following a healthy diet to choosing a massage chair to integrate into your daily routine, simple lifestyle changes could have a major positive impact. Before beginning any new health routine, be sure to discuss it with your doctor to ensure everything is safe for you to do. Finding methods for how to improve blood circulation can help keep you healthy and ready to tackle each day!
To learn more about the benefits of owning a massage chair and how they benefit any lifestyle, check out these additional resources:
