This is a recovery trick I picked up from the film Choke Dee, that is the film about the kickboxing legend Dida Diafat. In the film, you will see the principal actor by means of a leg up position to assist with his recovery. This procedure is something which made me consider inverted yoga asanas, such as: Viparita karani or Salamba Sarvangasana. Positions such as this can really benefit the restoration of athletes and can aid with the lymph drainage.

How to do it?

To do Viparita Karani, what you will need to do is: put down with your thighs perpendicular to the ground and resting on the wall. You’ll have to bring your hips to the corner where the wall and floor meet. Make sure your lower back is touching the floor. Your hands can be by your side with your palms up, much like corpse pose. You may concentrate on your breathing in this position. This helps with healing, since inverted poses utilize gravity by stimulating flow of the lymph fluid and increases the speed of lymph drainage.

The lymphatic system is a system that’s accountable for transporting the lymph, which is a fluid containing white blood cells throughout the body. The lymphatic system also assists with eliminating toxins and waste products, which is due to training. Responsible for our immunity and transports antigen presenting cells into the lymph nodes. During the procedure where the arteries supply nutrients to the cells, the blood pressure compels plasma from the arteriole end of the capillaries and into the interstitial fluid between the cells of these tissues.

Blood plasma

Most of the blood plasma enters the capillaries on the venous end as a result of osmotic pressurenevertheless, some of the fluid enters the lymph capillaries. Our body sends 20 liters of blood through the arteriolar end of capillaries and 17 liters of this makes it into the venous end. The 3 liters lost is what enters the lymph capillaries. Three liters is over half of our entire quantity of blood and it’s quite important that these 3 liters end up in the flow system.

The lymph fluid doesn’t have a pump, such as our flow system has the heart; instead, the lymph fluid is moved by muscle contraction or massage. This is the reason exercising or being physically active improves the immune system. This also explains why light workouts assist with healing, because the lymphatic system assists removal of waste products and toxins.

Massage

Massage and inverted positions like Visparita Karani are also ideal for helping with lymph drainage. The three liters of blood which enters the lymph capillaries goes through different lymph nodes and ends up at two significant lymph ducts: the Right Lymph duct or the Thoracic Duct. The ideal lymph duct sends the lymph back into circulation by sending this fluid into the inter jugular vein. The bigger thoracic duct sends the lymph back into the subclavian vein. For people who sit for long hours daily, activating the lymph system is quite important.

Much of the current research concentrates on how sitting impacts the flow system, however, the lymph system can also be influenced and to boost our immunity it’s extremely important to go for 5-10 minute walk after each hour of sitting. In accordance with ancient yoga texts, it’s claimed that this pose will combat aging and will keep you young. Additionally it is claimed to have helped with headaches, nervousness, depression, muscle soreness, arthritis, digestion difficulties, sleeplessness, blood pressure issues, respiratory ailments, urinary track disorders, and melancholy.

Wist je dat?

Olympic lifters like Dmitri Kholov use inversion tables to help decompress the spine but this is something which can help with recovery also. They might not be focusing on the lymph drainage advantages but nevertheless this is something they gain when they use this. Since the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump and it’s activated by massage, it’s extremely important to do foam rolling, lacrosse ball rolling, and other myofascial release methods after workouts to assist with the lymph drainage procedure. After workouts rolling methods and inverted poses are amazing for aiding with healing. Inverted posses also enhance the cardiovascular system function by helping with the deoxygenated blood from the extremities to flow into the heart.