Anatomically the calf-muscle pump works as follows: By moving the legs, the calf
muscles are tensioned and relieved alternately. The muscle bellies thicken and in the
process compress the veins lying deep between the muscles. The veins tighten, the blood
has less space to spread, and thus fl ows faster in direction of the heart. And this action
takes place against gravity. By tensioning the muscles, the blood is pressed upwards.
By every movement of the muscle, the blood passes through the venous valves into the
next chamber of the vein.
(2) Ankle-joint pump
The vein-supporting mechanism of the ankle-joint pump is a little more complicated than
that of the calf-muscle pump. But, naturally they are both connected to each other. The
ankle joint causes a congestion for the vessels and thus for the veins which is frequently
referred to as a bottleneck. This fact alone already explains that the movement of the
ankle joint has an infl uence on the veins passing through.
All movements of the ankle have to be followed by the veins. The veins are either
compressed or stretched. The traction of sinews, the muscles and other structures cause
a compression of the veins below or in-between or cause an enlargement. This leads to
a pumping effect by fi lling and emptying the veins, mostly independent of whether the
movement is carried out actively or passively.
The upper picture shows the stretching of the veins, and
thus a reduction of the cross-section with the effect that
the vein blood is pressed towards the direction of the calf-
muscle pump.
The second picture shows the step of the foot, when the
veins slowly retreat from stretching.
The third picture shows how the foot is relieved from the
weight of the body and the venous blood can fl ow from the
capillaries in the foot veins.
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