5 Exercises To Prevent Feet Swelling While Flying

Walking during flight is one of the most important things you can do to keep the feet from swelling. It is also easy to mitigate or avoid foot and ankle swelling while flying. If you are feeling your ankles and feet swell during your plane ride, try stretching them before they worsen. If you have swelling feet after your last flight, the smartest thing to do is to get out of the way of swelling.

Standing up or walking to the bathroom will help get your blood flowing and will fight off swelling. If walking is not allowed, try to keep your feet and ankles bent when sitting down to help with blood flow.

While you cannot actually extend your legs out of the seat, you can perform a few simple exercises with your feet and ankles instead. Even though you are restricted to a seat for hours at a time, there are plenty of different foot and ankle exercises that you can perform to help the blood flow in the feet and ankles. It is important that your feet and legs are moving as much as possible, even when sitting.

One of the best remedies for this problem is getting up and moving around every hour or so on long flights. As you might have realized, long flights can be infamously uncomfortable, but an hour or two of being up in the air also leads to a swelling of your legs. While foot and leg swelling while traveling by plane is a common phenomenon, according to Mayo Clinic, and usually not harmful, it can still be a frustrating setback for your travel plans.

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Taking preventative measures helps lower your risk for major problems like blood clots, and exercising and getting a foot massage may treat the underlying swelling once you have left your plane. While exercise may help lower swelling in the feet, good nutrition and lifestyle changes also can help you to lower the swelling. You can lower the risk of swelling feet and ankles by staying hydrated, choosing nutritious snacks instead of the savory options, and staying active.

During an annual foot exam, we can also give you specific tips to help you keep your feet as healthy as possible when flying. Talk with our Sydney podiatrists about ways you can keep your feet and legs healthy while flying on a long-haul. Our podiatrists in Sydney have shared their top 5 tips for keeping feet from swelling on a long-haul flight — though you can also apply these tips on shorter flights.

Here, three doctors share their tips for how to avoid swelling feet and ankles while travelling by plane, and what you can do if you actually do get a bit of swelling. Before you encourage a loved one to do exercises for their swollen legs, make sure the loved ones physician has given his or her permission. Once they are cleared to attempt Exercises for Swollen Legs, the following exercise activities are proven exercise routines for decreasing swelling of the ankles. Below, Nelya Lobkova shares five simple exercises to perform on the feet during the entire flight, particularly towards the mid-to-late hours, when she notes that the majority of the swelling tends to happen.

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