Fatigue and heaviness in legs by the end of the working day are familiar to almost everyone. According to statistics, every fifth person experiences leg pain. Women are more prone to this condition than men. However, many people tend to take painkillers or perform some self-medication that can aggravate the condition. That’s why we gathered these effective tips on how to get rid of leg pain and fatigue.
What to do if your legs constantly ache
If you constantly suffer from leg pain, you can:
- Treat the causes of the condition after a thorough diagnosis of the disease
- Take vitamins and minerals (their lack can cause pain and fatigue in legs)
- Massage the legs and lumbar spine
- Consult a doctor
- Pay attention to your weight
- Undergo physiotherapy to improve blood circulation, cell regeneration and stimulate all processes in the body
Preventative measures
Prevention is aimed to decrease the likelihood of varicose veins and improve the blood circulation of the legs in general. The most common preventative measures include:
- Exercising (swimming, gymnastics, running)
- A well-balanced diet
- Rejection of high heels
- Avoid overheating
- The use of compression stockings
- Avoid prolonged standing, lifting weights, and jumping
Walking barefoot can also be beneficial to your feet. Before going to bed, you can rinse your legs with a contrast shower or make a foot bath. This will improve blood circulation in the lower extremities.
Fatigue, heaviness, pain, and swelling are not harmless and arise not only from large strain on the legs. The problem can be more serious and cause negative consequences. It is important to monitor your health and not neglect situations with uncertain complications.
Causes of leg pain
Leg pain is often caused by incorrectly selected shoes, which cause leg fatigue. Feeling of tiredness in legs may appear in women who wear high heels. Wearing narrow shoes that are inappropriate to the foot parameters also leads to fatigue in the legs due to circulatory disorders. Obese people are also more likely to suffer from leg pain and fatigue.
Your legs may also get tired because of long walking and when carrying heavy objects. Inactive people experience similar problems. Low physical activity leads to lymph congestion, the appearance of pain in the lower extremities and their rapid fatigue. These symptoms can also appear due to prolonged sitting when one leg is thrown on the other.
Varicose veins can also cause heaviness in the legs, especially in the evening. Varicose veins are a circulatory disorder that causes blood stasis. Doctors recommend walking barefoot more, using compression clothes, rinsing your feet with cold water, wearing shoes with shock-absorbing (or even orthopedic) soles, or using gel insoles.
Sometimes symptoms of fatigue occur suddenly without any obvious reason in healthy people. This can be a warning sign for vein or arterial disease. People with flat feet, varicose veins, diseases of the kidneys or pelvic organs usually feel pain in legs after prolonged walking. Feeling of tiredness in the legs may also appear due to diabetes when the walls of the vessels change. In all these cases, you shouldn’t neglect these symptoms and make an appointment with the podiatrist as soon as possible.
How to relieve leg pain
Various therapeutic baths based on herbal decoctions can also be beneficial. They can tone, relax, and improve the blood circulation in the legs. For baths, it is best to use sage, chamomile, lavender, linden or calamus roots. You should prepare and store these decoctions in different ways.
Linden’s infusion shouldn’t be stored. Take four tablespoons of flowers, pour three cups of boiling water and infuse it for half an hour. Then add the decoction to the bathwater. Add two tablespoons of calamus root to four cups of cold water, boil it on low heat, then filter the decoction, and place it into a refrigerator in a glass jar under a lid. Sage and chamomile should be brewed in boiling water. Take two tablespoons of flowers for four cups of water and infuse it for at least half an hour. When the decoction will cool down, you can put it into the refrigerator. You can take such bathes every day.
Physical exercises can also be beneficial to your legs. You can even perform exercises while sitting in front of the TV in the evening. The easiest exercise is to roll a stick on the floor with your feet (you can also use a rolling pin or a rubber ball). It can be rolled alternately with each foot or grabbed with your toes and lifted. This is a good exercise for the leg muscles. It is also useful to walk barefoot on stones, grass, and sand.
Keeping the legs raised above the head in a lying position well eliminates leg fatigue due to prolonged physical strain . These exercises help improve blood flow and warm-up leg muscles.
If you have to sit for a long time and still in one place during the working day, it would be beneficial to perform some exercises. After several exercises like squats, bends, turns in different directions, and walking, blood circulation in the legs would be restored.
Contrasting baths can also help relieve leg pain. Put two basins with hot and cold water next to each other. Lower the legs into one basin for 10 seconds and then in another for 10 seconds as well. Repeat about 20 times and end the procedure by placing your feet into cold water. After this procedure, rub the legs with a towel and grease with a special cream. However, you should know that such a remedy is not recommended if you have kidney diseases.
One more effective and quick remedy for aching legs is regular alcohol. Take cold alcohol and rub the soles with it. Then you can lift your legs up or put them on a cushion and rest for 15-20 minutes.
Don’t rush to jump into your cozy slippers after work. It is beneficial to walk barefoot in order to stimulate nerve endings on the feet. You can also buy a special foot massage mat and walk on it for 5-10 minutes after the working day. Of course, it is impossible to walk on the grass and sand in the apartment but the pebble home beach is available to everyone. Pebbles are sold in almost every pet shop. Take large pebbles, pour boiling water over them, place them on a towel and walk on pebbles, massaging the soles of the feet.
How to help legs tired of high heels?
If your legs are constantly tired because you are fond of high heels, it would be beneficial to massage them. An excellent option is to massage your feet with essential oils or special massage cream.
If you should walk or stand for a long period of time during work, it is better to choose shoes more carefully. High-heeled shoes are not suitable for such work because during prolonged wear the musculoskeletal system and the cardiovascular system experience increased strain .
Some leg issues can be completely eliminated without a visit to the clinic. The simplest ways to get rid of leg pain includes choosing comfortable shoes, changing your usual insoles to gel ones, getting enough rest if you have to spend a lot of time on your feet, exercising to improve blood circulation, massaging, and taking soothing baths.
