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Blood Flow Through Your Heart:
A Visual Tour
Your heart has a very important job—to pump blood throughout your entire body. In this article, LifeBeat Online explains—and shows you—exactly how your heart works to keep blood flowing.
You can read about blood flow in and out of your heart—step by step. But you can also see what happens inside your heart by viewing animations that you can play at your own pace. Watch the path that blood takes when it flows through your heart (Figure 1). And watch how the different parts of your heart work together to pump blood (Figure 2).
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STEP 1. Blood returns to your heart from your body and lungs.
STEP 2. Blood flows from the upper to the lower 
STEP 3. Blood is pumped back out to your lungs and body.Blood flows through each chamber one time on its way through your heart — first through the right side of your heart and then through the left.
Play the animation below (Figure 1) to see this sequence. You can click the Step Through button repeatedly to see the animation play one step at a time.
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What Makes Blood Flow?
Blood doesn't flow by itself — your heart's chambers work hard to keep blood moving. The chambers relax and expand to let blood flow into them. Then they tighten and pull inward (contract) to help push blood out.
You might hear your nurse talk about your diastolic pressure or systolic pressure when you get your blood pressure checked. When a chamber is relaxed, or expanded, it is in diastole. When a chamber is contracted, or small, it is in systole.
See Your Whole Heart in Motion
A healthy heart's parts work together in perfect time to control blood flow. During a single heartbeat (one "lubb-dubb"), the chambers contract and relax, the valves open and close, and blood flows through. This sequence of events is called the cardiac cycle.
Play the animation below (Figure 2) to see the cardiac cycle in action. You'll see blood flow plus the movement of the heart's chambers and valves. You can click the Step Through button repeatedly to see the animation play one step at a time.
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As you can see, your heart’s biggest—and most important—job is to keep blood flowing throughout your body.
Learn More
LifeBeat Heart Basics — Includes illustrations, animations, and interactive activities to help you understand how your heart and blood vessels work.