Elevating legs for recovery. Beneficial or myth?

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TerribleCadence
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by TerribleCadence

Every now and again I overhear people saying they do this, never tried it myself. I'm not too clued up on all the goings on inside my body...anyone have an educated opinion on this?
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HillRPete
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by HillRPete

Unfortunately I don't have any reference at hand, but it've read that it's not optimal to spend a good deal of your day sitting, because the skeletal-muscle pump is not working, while the legs are lowered. Both elevating the legs, and walking around would be preferable.

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TerribleCadence
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by TerribleCadence

Cheers for the reply, I've read about elevating legs after a long day as blood 'pools' in your feet after long periods of standing. I'm curious to know whether elevating your legs post workout actually 'flushes' the lactic acid, toxins and other by products of exercise thus speeding muscle recovery.
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ticou
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by ticou

Sean Kelly used to do it.

HillRPete
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by HillRPete

TerribleCadence wrote:Cheers for the reply, I've read about elevating legs after a long day as blood 'pools' in your feet after long periods of standing. I'm curious to know whether elevating your legs post workout actually 'flushes' the lactic acid, toxins and other by products of exercise thus speeding muscle recovery.

A lot of metabolism "leftovers" are cleared by the lymphatic system, so if you can get a lymphatic drainage (can be self-applied too), that would certainly help.
As for "flushing", that is a strong word, generally whatever you do will merely tip the scale in the one or the other direction. Along those lines keeping the blood circulating is obviously better than not :-)

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shoopdawoop
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by shoopdawoop

I have done it since middle school cross country, though I have always been told that you also need to drink lots of water and ice whilst you "drain" your legs.

I have always found it to lessen the pain of the next workout.

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AttacknowAttackoften
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by AttacknowAttackoften

In college, our XC coach preached RICE on a daily basis, seeing as how we ran 7 days/week.

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

I spent a great deal of time sitting with my legs up. It seemed to make my legs feel better, but no scientific evidence to back it up.
I only train on days that end with "y".

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afalts
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by afalts

TerribleCadence wrote:lactic acid


People are still blaming lactic acid?

Here, read this: http://www.delano.k12.mn.us/high-school ... actic-acid

rockdude
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by rockdude

For recovery some new and very compelling research is pointing to cold water immersion. Go sit in ice water for 15 minutes after your workout.
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jaketim114
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by jaketim114

I do it. It seems to help for the day after, but like many others have said, I don't have any evidence to support it.

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