Researchers had people sit for three hours. One small move kept leg arteries from stiffening.
The one thing
Tap your feet while you sit: one minute on, four minutes off.
Sitting still slows blood flow in your legs, and the artery lining stops working as well. Tapping your foot sends a burst of blood through the leg artery, which keeps the lining active.
Do it today
- When you sit for a long time, tap your foot for one minute, then rest for four. Repeat.
- Do both legs. The study only tested one, and the researchers suggest tapping both.
- Still get up and walk when you can. Tapping does not replace walking or exercise.
What the study found
After three hours of sitting, artery function (flow-mediated dilation) in the still leg fell from 4.5% to 1.6%. In the leg that tapped one minute out of every five, it rose from 3.7% to 6.6%. Each minute of tapping raised blood flow force in the knee artery from about 34 to 223 units, and it tapered off within a minute.
- Who
- 11 healthy young adults. Each person’s other leg served as the comparison.
- Type of study
- Controlled lab experiment at the University of Missouri. One leg tapped about 250 times a minute, one minute on and four off; the other stayed still.
- Keep in mind
- Very small study of young, healthy people, measured over one afternoon. It shows a short-term effect, not long-term health results.
Source: Morishima et al., American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2016
Educational information, not medical advice. Read our medical disclaimer.