Fig. 1

Blood flow during standing still and walking. During standing still, significant increase in blood flow is found in the forehead with increasing LBPP (a ANOVA, p = .011). Post hoc comparisons shows significant differences in 0 vs. 5 kPa and 0 vs. 6.7 kPa (a Tukey–Kramer, p  = .04 and p  = .02 respectively). As for the thigh, difference in blood flow is not significant (b ANOVA, p = .256). During walking, significant decrease in blood flow is found in the forehead and the thigh with increasing LBPP (c, d ANOVA, p = .021, p = .001, respectively). In the forehead, trend and difference in blood flow are found in 0 vs. 5 kPa and 0 and 6.7 kPa (c Tukey–Kramer, p = .056, and p = .03, respectively). For the thigh, significant differences in blood flow are found in 0 vs. 5 kPa and 0 vs. 6.7 kPa (d Tukey–Kramer, p = .01, p = .001, respectively). As for the calf and the instep, differences in blood flows with increasing pressure are not significant both during standing still (e, f p  > .05) and walking (g, h p > .3)