Why Do My Legs Feel Heavy and Tired?

Medically reviewed by: Luke Maj, MD

Around-working out can exhaust your muscle mass to the issue where by your legs come to feel like they’re designed of guide. But what if your legs truly feel weighty and weak all the time? Heaviness in the legs is not just an annoyance. It may well be a symptom of a serious health-related ailment involving very poor circulation in the legs. A typical culprit is serious venous insufficiency (CVI).

Chronic venous insufficiency vs. peripheral arterial disorder

CVI develops when one particular-way valves in the leg veins, which are meant to retain blood touring back again to the coronary heart, really do not work effectively. When these valves are weakened or damaged, they make it possible for blood to pool in the legs. That pooled blood describes why the legs experience significant and weak, and perhaps, achy.

CVI is not lifetime threatening, but it’s ideal caught early, when life style variations may possibly be all you want to deal with the signs and symptoms. Later on, if you build varicose veins or venous ulcers, you may well want health care treatment. Indications of CVI incorporate:

• Swelling in the legs and ankles, especially following you stand for a extensive time 
• Achy or restless legs
• A tingling feeling in the legs
• A limited feeling in your calves and muscle cramping
• Tight, irritated, dry pores and skin that may possibly itch

If you have signs or symptoms of CVI, see a vein specialist faster relatively than later on. He or she can diagnose CVI and offer you treatment method if required. 

Weary legs are also a symptom of peripheral artery condition (PAD), which is far more significant than CVI and can lead to loss of toes or amputation. PAD takes place when narrowed arteries in the legs cut down blood move. The narrowing is generally the outcome of plaque buildup. Indicators of PAD incorporate:

• Leg weak spot
• Leg discomfort or cramping that will get even worse with workout and far better with rest
• A weak pulse or deficiency of pulse in the feet 
• Coldness or numbness in the reduced leg or foot
• Smooth, shiny pores and skin
• Loss of hair on the legs
• Leg or foot sores that do not mend

If you have any of these signs and symptoms, make an appointment at The Vein Centre to be checked for PAD or CVI.  

How to increase blood circulation in legs

Improving upon the blood circulation in your legs can go a lengthy way towards easing the signs and symptoms of early CVI.

Elevate your legs

Sit you down in a chair or on the couch with your legs propped on pillows to elevate them over the stage of your coronary heart. Every time attainable, do this for 30 minutes various moments a working day to ease strain on the valves in the leg veins. 

Flex your toes

If you look at Tv at evening, rest your toes on the sofa or an ottoman and do “foot pump” (plantar flexion) routines: Flex your feet up and down, pointing your toes towards you and then absent from you. This contracts the calf muscle mass, sending blood out of the legs to the heart.

Incorporate some work out

Exercise enhances blood move in the leg veins. When you stroll, for example, your calf muscular tissues squeeze the leg veins with just about every action, helping them return blood to the coronary heart. Even quick walks can help.

Eliminate weight if you need to have to

Carrying extra weight stresses the veins and damages the valves.

Dress in compression garments

Compression socks and stockings can assistance decrease leg ache and inflammation and gradual the development of CVI. These arrive in many strengths, so request your health practitioner what power you will need, or come to The Vein Middle to get fitted.

If compression clothes really do not aid enough or you uncover them awkward, your doctor could suggest inflatable compression sleeves. You don them on your lower legs, and they intermittently squeeze the legs to boost blood flow.

Healthcare CVI cure

If life style adjustments really don’t aid or you have a a lot more sophisticated scenario of CVI, your medical doctor may advocate an in-office environment technique to collapse or seal off the defective leg veins. This triggers the body to reroute the blood via much healthier veins. 

Treatments consist of injecting the veins with an irritant remedy (sclerotherapy), injecting them with a glue-like adhesive (VenaSeal) and destroying them with warmth made by a laser fiber (endogenous laser procedure) or radio waves (radiofrequency ablation).

All of these methods are minimally invasive, and recovery time is shorter. Based on the form of technique you have, you might be in a position to resume your usual routines the moment you depart your doctor’s workplace.

If you are experiencing leg heaviness or other signs or symptoms that could point out a leg vein challenge, agenda an appointment with the Water’s Edge Dermatology Vein Heart right now.

Published by: Jessica Brown, a health and fitness and science author/editor centered in Nanuet, New York. She has penned for Avoidance journal, jnj.com, BCRF.org, and numerous other outlets.