Although sitting for long periods of time can cause many health issues, circulatory problems are some of the most worrisome. However, most of us simply don’t have an option when it comes to sitting for at least a large part of the day. Luckily, there’s an answer to your problem, and it might be as simple as changing out the chair you use.

Good Circulation: Why Is It So Important?

Your circulatory system carries blood all around your body, making sure your body can benefit from the nutrients and oxygen it contains.

Blood is made up of four components:

• Platelets - for clotting
• Red Blood Cells - for carrying oxygen
• Plasma - a liquid containing nutrients, blood cells, and waste
• White Blood Cells - for supporting the immune system

Your heart plays an important role in your circulatory system. It is responsible for pumping all the blood in your body and distributing it. The right side of the heart takes deoxygenated blood with carbon dioxide and carries it to the lungs so it can be oxygenated. Then, the left side of the heart takes oxygenated blood and moves it around the body.

When you have good blood circulation, you are allowing your body to work at its highest level of efficiency. Benefits of good blood circulation are widespread, including allowing white blood cells to help fight off sicknesses in support of your immune system and allowing plasma to remove waste from your organs.

There are a few ways to improve your circulation, with most including a few simple lifestyle changes that can go a long way.

• Eating Healthy Things such as processed foods, added sugars, and sodium can contribute to issues such as high blood pressure and other illnesses that affect your circulatory system.
• Exercising Getting a healthy amount of exercise stimulates blood flow.
• Drinking Water Making sure you drink large amounts of water every day can help your oxygen levels because your blood thins out when you’re hydrated. On the other end, when you’re dehydrated, the blood becomes thicker, and blood circulation slows.
• Getting Massages Massages can release toxins and help stimulate blood flow.
• Avoiding Smoking The chemicals found in inhaled smoke can thicken your blood and slow your circulation.
• Elevating Your Legs You can help increase the blood flow in your legs by elevating them when you’re sitting or lying down. When you’re sitting, consider incorporating a footstool or footrest into your setup to raise your legs a bit. When lying down, you can rest your feet on a pillow to raise them up slightly and increase circulation. This is because the blood doesn’t have to work against gravity to travel and will help avoid blood pooling in the legs.
• Using Compression Using compression, which may be in the form of special socks or stockings that apply extra pressure to your legs, can help make your muscles contract around your veins, thus aiding blood flow to your heart.
• Stretching Sitting or laying down for extended periods of time can make your circulatory system slow down. Studies have shown that stretching your legs can make your muscles press on your arteries, releasing chemicals that make the arteries wider and blood flow easier.

Poor circulation can cause a large host of issues, including high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries), varicose veins, aneurysms (weak spots in your arteries), and heart disease (lack of blood pumping to the heart because of arteries becoming smaller).

Your blood pressure is important for your circulation in that it refers to how much pressure is used to move your blood around. High blood pressure means that there is too much pressure used in the process of blood circulation, similar to the sensation of pressing your thumb down on a hose and seeing the water inside come out forcefully.

Humans aren’t meant to be still for too long. When you are sedentary for too long, obvious visual markers pop up, like bed sores, varicose veins, and the like. However, there are also many internal issues caused by insufficient movement, and you may not notice it’s happening until it’s too late.

Sitting down for extended periods of time can seriously slow your blood pressure and can cause blood to pool in your lower extremities, as well as other issues like chronic pain, weight gain, and more.

When your blood pools in your lower legs, you are at a higher risk of developing blood clots and getting varicose veins. Blood clots can not only cause serious pain; they can also pose a dangerous threat to your life if they travel along your bloodstream and end up in places they shouldn’t, like your lungs (pulmonary embolism), or your heart (coronary thrombosis, leading to a heart attack).

The obvious solution to the problem of being sedentary would simply seem to be to not sit for long periods of time. However, while that is an option, many people cannot comply. For many of us, our work keeps us tethered to an office or desk. Thankfully, there’s a way to stimulate our circulation while sitting. The solution can be rather simple -- change your chair to one with an ergonomic design that is specifically designed to help static seating issues, like poor blood circulation.

So, what should you look for in a chair?

You can’t maintain proper posture in a chair that is too low or too high for your body. When your chair is adjustable for height, it means that you can make sure your feet are placed firmly on the ground, but aren’t pushed too far forward. It also means that your arms can be at a ninety-degree angle, which can help lessen the effects of numbing and nerve damage that can occur as a result of improper arm positioning.

A chair that engages your core can help prevent you from sitting statically by making sure your body is working constantly, even when you can’t notice it. While you can manually engage your core when sitting, a chair that helps you do so is even better. With a chair like the BackStrong, our patented Sit-In-MotionⓇ technology moves with you, meaning that your pelvis is in constant motion and you’re forced to sit with better posture, therefore engaging your core.

all33 has created a chair that has been specially designed to help stimulate blood flow and avoid the issues that come from sitting still for too long. This is due in part to the fact that our BackStrong chair won’t allow you to sit statically.

The BackStrong has built-in technology that keeps the seat of the chair moving with you while still cupping your hips comfortably and promoting good posture, thus warding off the chronic pain that can come from poor posture over the years. When you move, the chair moves with you, but not so much that it is distracting. In fact, you’ll likely not notice movement after a while, but your body will still benefit from what the chair can provide you.

Yes, you can improve your circulation by changing the chair you use. By choosing a chair that doesn’t allow you to sit statically, you can avoid the slowing of your blood flow and the problems that come with it.

However, there are additional lifestyle changes that you can make to also improve your circulatory system. Changing a few things in your daily life, while also using a chair that can support you, can allow for improvements in your circulatory system and your overall health.

Sources:

• The dangers of sitting: why sitting is the new smoking | Better Health
• Circulatory system | Better Health
• Why Good Blood Circulation is Vital to Your Health | Nivein Clinic
• Leg stretching may improve blood flow and prevent strokes | Harvard Health