It makes kinks in your veins and arteries like a hose. Which slows the flow and builds pressure.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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I'd assume because one leg will inevitably be compressing the other, including arteries and veins?
Yes but they are measuring on your arm....
The whole thing is a circuit so increased pressure in one place means increased pressure everywhere in the circuit.
The pressure in your arm is not unrelated to or disconnected from the pressure in your legs. They are directly correlated. If the pressure in your legs goes up, so will the pressure in your arm, it's the same system. The pressure in the entire system is what the arm measurement is supposed to show, that's why they're taking it. They usually don't care about your arm specifically, they are trying to understand the whole system, including the pressure in your legs, which will be reflected in that same arm measurement. That's the whole point, otherwise it wouldn't be a good measurement.
Your blood vessels are a closed system. Imagine I fill a garden hose with water and cap it off at both ends, then kink the hose somewhere. Pressure will rise because it's a closed system. It doesn't matter if I kink it at one end or the other. Overall pressure will rise because I've removed some space somewhere.
Fill a rubber glove with water and tie the opening, now squeeze three of the fingers and observe what happens with the remaining ones
The cardiovascular system is effectively a very long bag of liquid, if you compress one area it can no longer hold the same volume of blood, that blood needs to go somewhere else, which increases the pressure in the other areas
Leg muscles are one of the biggest muscles in the body and flexing those will increase blood pressure during it. Aka doing squats and blood pressure shooting up during it.
Sitting cross legged probably activates those enough to increase blood pressure.
Ok I can kinda agree but I wasn't cross legged. Just laying with right ankle on top of left ankle
When you cross your ankles, grab and feel your upper thighs. You’ll feel that they aren’t exactly relaxed and are somewhat contracting. Now feel them again when you uncross your ankles.
I may be wrong, but I think holding a slightly cross legged position does still require some muscle contraction, and it may cause some compression over having your legs relaxed and spread apart. Also, if you're lying on your back, then there might be a slight pressure difference from having one leg higher than the rest of your body.
The way you're describing it, all of these factors will only change the pressure very slightly.
It could also be that you were more relaxed during the second reading, and so that time was the most important contributor. For example, white coat hypertension