This video, I'm going to show
you how to instantly relieve restless legs at night. Stay
tuned. Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe
coming to you from SpineCare in St. Joseph, Michigan. In this
video, we're going to go over three easy exercises that can
give both quick and long-lasting relief for
restless legs syndrome. A note about these exercises, they
each work just a little bit differently. To get the best
results, go through them all, use what gives you the most
relief. With that being said, let's get started. When it
comes to Restless Leg Syndrome, a surprising fact is it's main
cause is not from tight, achy, overworked leg muscles from
stress or anxiety that makes us fidget or keeps us up at night
but rather from a deficiency with something in our body
notably a vitamin called thiamine or B1. In fact, if
you have chronic restless legs syndrome, the first thing that
I would be doing is searching Google about B1 and thiamine
deficiencies. Really easy to treat either by changing your
diet, eating more foods with thiamine, supplementation or
talking to your doctor but another main cause is from an
elect imbalance notably with magnesium. Magnesium is found
in a lot of our foods but you'd be pretty surprised on how much
of the population is actually deficient in it and when you
have a magnesium deficiency, it can cause a lot of muscle
issues including aches, cramps, and spasms at night. So, I want
to go over a really easy way to bump up our magnesium intake
target the leg muscles directly and also get really quick
relief. I get very good feedback with this method.
We're going to be using what is called magnesium oil. It's a
topical spray meant to go on the skin. You can pretty much
find it at any local health food store. I will also leave a
link in this video's comment section and description if you
would like to get it online. Before we start though, if you
do have any condition like a kidney problem or you're taking
any medications in which magnesium oil may be
contraindicated, please speak to your doctor first before
doing this to be on the safe side. So, this method is meant
to be done daily about 10 to 15 minutes before you go to bed
and there's a couple different spots that you can use the oil
the first being the bottom of the foot I usually find this is
the easiest spot just do three sprays gently rub it in it will
take care of the rest you can also do over pretty much any
muscle in the leg over the calves the thighs in fact any
spot that you have the most discomfort at night is the spot
that I would target so let's say it's over the calves right
here just do three sprays over that area gently rub it into
the muscles and do this on both sides. An interesting note
about using magnesium oil. The first time that you use it,
you're probably going to get a lot of itchiness right on the
surface of the skin. That's completely normal. That's
actually a sign of magnesium deficiency and as you do this
over the course of several days, you're going to notice
that itchiness becomes less and less and less as your magnesium
becomes better. I should say your magnesium levels start to
come up. The great part about magnesium oil too is you can
use this over any muscle in the body that you have cramps,
aches, or spasms. It's really good to use after a workout.
So, let's say that you're going to do an arm workout. Spray it
over that area. You're probably going to notice it helps out
especially with tightness but this is a method that I would
do daily even if you're not currently experiencing restless
legs syndrome. Do this daily because it may help keep your
magnesium levels high and help it. So, here's an easy exercise
that can give both quick and long-lasting relief for
restless legs. This one is perfect to do before going to
bed but you can also use this anytime that you're
experiencing symptoms in the middle of the night. It's going
to focus on reducing stress, tension, and tightness off our
leg muscles really quickly. So, we're going to start by lying
on our back like this. Let's straighten our legs as much as
we can and the first movement very straightforward We're
going to take our feet and press away as far as we can.
It's kind of like pointing our toes away from us as much as we
can until we feel a really good stretch form in our feet around
the ankles and into the calves. Hold this comfortably for 5
seconds. Don't go to the point where you're going to get a
cramp if that's the case back off slightly. Hold this for 5
seconds. You're going to relax and now we're going to go in
the opposite direction. Let's bring our toes back towards us
as much as we can. Really focusing on feeling it into the
with this one. Five second hold, relax, and then repeat
this five times in both directions and with each
repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more. So,
the next movement is called the windshield wiper. We're going
to gently press our heels into the bed and then slowly turn
our feet towards one side as much as we can. Kinda like a
windshield wiper. When you can't go any further, hold that
for five seconds and then you're going to repeat on the
other side. Again, five times in both direction the next
movement is called a toe heel raise and this one is going to
target more with the calves a hot spot for cramping with
restless legs so you're going to keep your feet flat just
kind of scoot them back like this and have your knees bent
the first movement we're going to place all of our leg weight
into the balls of our feet and slowly lift up with our heels
so we're just trying to take our heels upward towards the
ceiling as much as we can you're really going to feel
this one into the calves hold this comfortably for five
seconds you're going to relax and then you to press your
heels into the bed and raise your toes upward towards the
ceiling as much as you can to target the muscles a little bit
differently but go in both directions for five times the
last movement is called the hamstring bridge and this one's
going to target more of our thighs especially the
hamstrings right here on the back. It's going to help
strengthen them to hopefully prevent issues later on. So,
let's start off back into this position with our knees bent
feet flat. We're going to brace our core muscles. It's kind of
like tightening them taking our belly button towards our spine.
We're also going to squeeze our glutes. You can take your
hands, put them on your hips, or off to the side like this
for support. So once we're in this position, we're now going
to press down with our heels, raise our toes upward towards
the ceiling, and then lift our hips upward towards the ceiling
until we feel a really good activation on the core muscles,
back muscles, glutes, and more importantly, those hamstrings.
Once you feel that, you can hold this position right here
for five seconds, relax, and then repeat five to ten times
but if you want to make this one more challenging, do a walk
out. So, let's get back into this bridge position and slowly
just walk out with our heels. As you do this, you're really
going to feel those hamstrings challenge to stabilize this
movement. So, give that a try and I would try to do this for
about three to five complete repetitions. Go through all of
these movements. If you find that one just helps you out the
most like maybe it's the heel or the toe raise. At that
point, you can always throw in more repetitions until
everything is nice and loose. Here's another easy exercise to
help relieve restless legs. This one we can do seated. So,
at the edge of a bed or in a chair. To get into position,
have your legs roughly hip width apart, knees bend at 90
degrees, feet flat. What I'm going to do is take the balls
of my feet, press them into the floor and then slowly raise my
heels upward towards the ceiling as much as I can.
Really focusing on this into the calves. Hold this
comfortably for 5 seconds and then you're going to go in
reverse. Press your heels into the floor, raise your toes
upward. Again, holding this for 5 seconds. This time around
though, you should feel it more towards the front over the
shins. What I'm going to do is this whole cycle for five times
and with each repetition, try to build into it just a little
bit more. So, if you'd like to take this one to the next level
and target some more muscles, we can add in a marching
motion. So, let's start off in that position of pressing the
balls of our feet into the floor raise our heels up but
this time around just march one leg up bringing your knee
towards your chest you should feel a really good activation
right here on the top of your thigh over the hip flexors hold
that for about three to 5 seconds relax and then repeat
it on the other side do this nice and slowly for about five
repetitions in both directions and then from there switch it
up by placing your heels into the floor toes up and then
repeating but go through all of these motions if you feel like
one helping you out just a little bit more. At that point,
throw more repetitions in. If the exercises help, please
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please leave them below. I'll get back to you as soon as I
can. Thanks for watching.
