Can stretching improve circulation and ability to walk? | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

The standard lifestyle recommendation for people with narrow blood vessels in their legs is treadmill walking. We will determine if passive calf stretching can improve their vascular health and help them walk further with less pain.

David Proctor, Professor of Kinesiology

Person reading a book on couch wearing boot

Purpose

This study will examine whether at-home calf stretching can reduce peripheral artery disease (PAD) symptoms by improving blood flow, increasing mobility, and improving walking performance. One in every 20 Americans over age 50 has PAD.

Participants will wear custom boots designed to stretch their calf muscles.

Impact

People with narrowed blood vessels in their legs can only walk a short distance before needing to sit down due to pain in their calf muscles. Most of these patients do not follow their doctor's advice to walk on a treadmill because exercise is painful.

Positive results from this calf-stretching study could enhance these patients’ ability to walk comfortably using a simple, at-home therapy. This therapy could become a bridge to improving vascular and muscle health.

Investigators

Principal investigator: David Proctor

Co-investigators: Stephen Piazza; Jason Fragin

Graduate students: Jocelyn Delgado, Logan Faux-Dugan

Nurse coordinator: Lori Gray

Collaborators

Inside the department, this is a collaboration between exercise physiology and biomechanics experts.

This is also a collaboration with local Penn State Health physicians.

Sponsor

This work is funded by an Innovative Project Award from the American Heart Association, 2023-25.

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