How to Increase Leg Circulation in Thigh, Calf, & More (3 Min)

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March 2025. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnLP7dpQTck&t=239s

Brad: Today we're going to show you two techniques on how you can increase blood flow as well as decrease pain in your legs. Mike?

Mike: Whether this is chronic pain or just muscle tightness, either above your knee and your thigh or below your knee, down in your calf region, we'll help loosen them up and reduce the pain you're experiencing.

Brad: That's right. It's an interesting technique. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Now, the beauty of these options is they're both self-treatments. The first one is very simple, using something you do not have to buy anything special for. Now, we're going to talk about two common scenarios or situations this would work. Mike, can you tell him one of them?

Mike: So the first one is, if you're experiencing some knee pain, some degenerative joint disease or arthritis from overuse activities or just doing more than normal on the weekend.

Brad: And also, we're going to talk specifically about if you have calf pain. Now, it could be referred from knee pain arthritis, or it might be just a strained calf muscle, because you went out and walked three miles and you haven't walked that long in a long time, so that'll work. We're going to demonstrate that. What's the first thing we're going to talk about?

Mike: So the first thing we're going ot talk about is called scraping, and now, you can do this many different ways, but the technical term is instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization. That's a mouthful.

Brad: Yeah, IASTM is the acronym. We don't need to go into that. If you're a therapist, you're familiar with it, but the scraping part will be very clear in just a moment. You're going to actually have to get some tools, and in the kitchen is where you'll go.

Mike: Not the hammer or the drill, just the kitchen. So the first thing we're going to actually do is work on mobilizing the fascia in your muscles, which is the area more superficial than the muscles themselves.

Brad: Yeah, it actually can go underneath, but yeah, the fascia is this tissue that actually has a lot of nerve endings and whatnot, so that if you work with that, it actually can decrease pain, and you're working on mobilizing the muscle tissue to increase blood circulation, which is critical for improving healing.

Mike: Now, for this, you're going to need some sort of massaging device. We just have some simple butter knives here that you can find in your home drawers, hopefully.

Brad: Right, and actually, we're going to show you some things that the therapists use. This can be a very skilled technique. We're going to show you the basics of it, and you can do this if you follow our directions. Now, you're going to want, you're not going to use the sharp side of the butter knife, not that there is a sharp side.

Mike: It isn't very sharp.

Brad: Right, you're going to use the handle. Now, you could use a plastic one, and actually, the real scraping tools are usually made of stainless steel, and they make plastic ones as well. Now, this is a nice one. You want to have one with a rounded edge that doesn't come to a sharp edge, just nice and rounded. It's less aggressive, more comfortable that way. This is simply a little spatula that I took out of the kitchen, and we'll see if my wife finds out or not. We're going to have to really clean it.

Mike: Now, there are many different scraping tools you can find on the internet. Some of them are plastic, some of them are metal. There are different terms for it. Some people call it gua sha; what are other terms?

Brad: That's all we're going to talk about.

Mike: Okay, that's all we'll talk about, so if you're interested in those tools, you can find them on the internet, but you can just use a butter knife for now. So before you start using a butter knife and scraping, you're going to want some type of lotion or lubrication in between to make it glide a lot nicer. I would just recommend, not a normal hand cream, but something that's actually, maybe a massage cream of sorts? This is healing ointment skin protection by Aquaphor.

Brad: Don't worry, it's my wife's. Don't worry about it.

Mike: Oh yeah, it glides nice, and it's plenty oily.

Brad: Yes, it is. So once you get the skin where the muscle feels tight and you want to get rid of that pain, or just above the joint or below the joint, I'm going to go above the knee. Mike's going to go below the knee, just for example, for demonstration purposes. You're going to take that nice, rounded edge. I'm going to use the plastic one. Mike will use the handle of the butter knife, and we're going to go, and now, if you look at a 90-degree angle, this would be 90, this would be flat. You actually want to go flat and just lift up 30 degrees, which is about that much. Not very much at all, and then we're going to, actually, you can go two directions. You can go toward you, or you can go away from your body.

Brad: Now, if you're from the north and you have snow, pulling away from the knee joint would be shoveling the snow. Pushing toward the knee joint would be pulling the rakes in or raking the leaves. Some people are not going to get this at all, but if you're from the north where you have snow, you get it, so go like this, one direction only, going away from the bony prominence. In this case, it's going to be the knee or the kneecap. Start on the muscle and pull into the deeper part of the muscle. Don't go the opposite direction; it'll be uncomfortable, and you're going to put a fair amount of pressure. Now, you're not going to push so hard that it hurts. You're going to start out easy. How are you doing, Mike?

Mike: I'm doing all right. You just let pain be your guide, especially if it's a tender area. Now, I don't have any pain.

Brad: No, Mike did this on purpose so that we could demonstrate the wrong way to do it. I said start at the bone and go away from it.

Mike: But it's not as fun to do it that way.

Brad: Yeah, and actually, if you don't go up towards the bone, you can go the other way as well.

Mike: I'm not going towards any bone; I'm just down here on the muscle belly.

Brad: Now, when you do it this way, if you do have some swelling, that would actually move the fluid upwards, which would be nice, so again, you go like this, and the next question is, how long do you do it? Typically, it's anywhere from one minute to three minutes. All right, Mike, any other comments? You've been doing this.

Mike: I would say, if you're going to do this, you might become a little red afterwards, and that's okay, but if the next day you're super bruised all over the place, you put too much pressure, and you're too aggressive. A little redness later on or the next day is okay, though.

Brad: That's right, and actually, take your time with it. I'm already starting to turn red here.

Mike: No, you're aggressive.

Brad: Oh, yes. Well, I've done this before, so I know what my body tolerates, and I know what feels good. If it does get red, leave it. The next day, the redness should start going away. If it's still there and it's still prominently red, you went too aggressive. You're going to need to give it a rest for a day or two. Okay, so again, make sure you use a clock the first time. Don't go over three minutes. Now, you can see some redness starting here. Now, Mike has been doing it; he doesn't have any redness. He's got pretty pale skin, too.

Mike: This feels fine right now. I have some knots in my calves. I'm feeling it. I'm not as aggressive as Brad.

Brad: Now, you said you just worked this on a patient at work, and you didn't get redness with her, and she was what age group?

Mike: She was in her late fifties, early sixties. I was doing it on the bottom of her foot, more in the arches, bilateral. I was using a tool, but yeah, I just did it for roughly five minutes on each side, and I just kind of let her pain or how much she was feeling it be my guide for how much pressure I was doing. It's a lot easier to do it to yourself, obviously, because you can feel it.

Brad: Sure, exactly.

Mike: If you're doing it to someone else, go take a class, please.

Brad: Yeah, do not get too aggressive on yourself. Now, the redness is a good sign that you're actually getting blood flow up to the top, near the skin. You're getting increased circulation in the area. It's going to help with healing. You're breaking up scar tissue in the fascia as well as the muscle and the tendons, and actually, when you put your hand on the area you were working, ooh, definitely warmer than over here. It really does help that circulation and blood flow. It's a good technique. Now, you're going to have to, I got my hands on the lotion.

Mike: Mine's on the mat.

Brad: So make sure you have a towel handy to take care of that so you don't end up with a mess.

Mike: Come here. Let me just wipe it on your shirt.

Brad: Yeah. Okay, we're going to treatment option number two. Now, this one, you do need some tools, and it's going to be a massage gun. We can have the standard reciprocating massage gun like the Q2 Pro massage gun. Mike's going to talk about that. Now, this is a device, the sWave massage gun with belt, that just came out not too long ago, but for this particular situation, it works out well. It's a strap, and it's got a handle. We have the reciprocating part, and it really does a nice job of working that myofascia to get it loosened up, and you can see I'm pulling across, and it really, really does a nice job of working a large area at once.

Brad: You can do it like that around the calf, and if you want to work the thigh or the hamstring area like this, and the area I was massaging, if I work it here, it gets the full muscle group on top and bottom, and you're going to work with it here. There we go.

Mike: We should mention, for this technique, it's good just to use a strap. The device does come with some nodules. If you have a trigger point you really want to work on, you can certainly just slap that on the belt there; it has some nice Velcro, and then you can hit that area. Works on many other body parts besides the legs, too.

Brad: Well, I said there are actually two, so you can work that. I like using these on the back. It works badly for the legs. You can use them. It's really up to you. They work very well, come on and off. Go ahead, Mike.

Mike: Now, when it comes to massage guns, a good way to start if you have a tender muscle area is with a softer head. Most massage guns come with lots of options. This is the air head. It's very cushioned. It's so cushioned, we don't really recommend massaging right over your bones, but if you do, it doesn't hurt at all. You can actually kind of hear it, so that's a good one to start with.

Mike: If you're not having as much pain, you can use other heads. This is just a round head. It is foam, and it's not as aggressive, either.

Mike: There are some bullet heads that you can really dig inside there, which you don't really want to do for this area, so just kind of massage the area that you're sore. Say it's my thighs. If you want, try putting your muscle in different positions; right now, it's just hanging relaxed. You could see how it feels when your knee is extended, or you can kind of mess around with moving it as you're massaging. You might find different areas that are more tender, and we even have a pro model, which has a hot and cold head here. It is rechargeable; you just have to hold it to turn it on. Right now, it has a heat setting, or you can do two cold settings.

Brad: Right, the heat and cold work very well; I was really surprised and happy that.

Mike: I can feel it through my pants.

Brad: Yeah, you can feel it through the pants, and it lasts for a long time, plenty of time. I did want to mention, the nice thing about this other massage gun with the strap is that it also comes with its like two guns in one. You can play with the strap, or there are five heads. Here we go: the nice air head, the round head, plus some more specialty heads, and again, this round head I'm going to demonstrate a little bit on something that I oftentimes go, if I was using it on my calf, if I go in like this on my calf, it's usually a little uncomfortable. I like to go sideways with the round head, and it really makes it more tolerable, and it really works that fascia in a sideways cross-friction motion, as well as the muscles; the fibers go this way. This way, you can go across fiber, which oftentimes is beneficial, and so you do what works well, what feels good.

Brad: When you're done massaging, it should feel very good, increase the circulation, and there's no doubt about it: they work very well, but if you don't have one, simply do the scraping. That's going to be a very good option. Mike, you have anything else?

Mike: If you want to check out more videos on how to improve leg circulation, watch "Increase Leg Circulation 74% In 3 Minutes Exercise At Home." This is just a three-minute video with exercises you can do instead of massaging.

Brad: Oh, that's right. I'm going to cover up my leg now and see that.

Mike: I'm just going to keep showing mine off.

Brad: There you go. Yeah, all right, have a good day, and work those legs, get those muscles loosened up and pain-free.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material on this website are for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.