Build your lymphatic drainage routine
Pick what is bothering you and how long you have. You get the strokes in the correct order, timed, with the exits opened first. Free, no sign-up.
Where?
Pick one or more.
How long?
Including the opening and the finish.
Your routine
5-minute face drainage
8 steps · 5 min
- 1
Open the collarbone · 30 sec
Fingertips in the hollows above your collarbones, press gently down and in, 10 slow pumps. Everything drains here, so it goes first.
- 2
Clear the neck · 30 sec
Flat fingers behind the ear, stroke down the side of the neck toward the collarbone, 10 each side.
- 3
Ear pumps · 40 sec
Two fingers on the soft dip in front of each ear, gentle pumps toward the ear.
- 4
Cheek sweeps · 55 sec
Flat fingers from beside the nose out toward the ears. Light enough to move skin only.
- 5
Eye area · 40 sec
Ring fingers under the eyes, glide gently outward toward the temples. Softest pressure of the routine.
- 6
Jawline glide · 45 sec
Hook index fingers under the jawbone at the chin and glide back toward the ears.
- 7
Forehead lift · 40 sec
Flat hands from the brows up and out toward the temples, then down to the ears.
- 8
Close at the collarbone · 20 sec
Ten more gentle pumps in the collarbone hollows, finishing where you started.
Light pressure throughout, roughly what you would use on your own eyelid. Skip any area with broken skin, a swollen or tender lymph node, or recent surgery you have not been cleared for.
Press play instead
The same routine, on video, timed for you
A written routine works until the morning you cannot be bothered to read it. LymphFlow films these routines with a calm voiceover that counts every stroke, keeps a streak so the habit sticks, and has a session builder for combining your own.
Free to download · iOS only · Starts at $3.99/week
Questions
Why does every routine start at the collarbone? +
Because that is the exit. Lymph from your whole head, neck and arms rejoins your bloodstream in the hollows above your collarbones, so opening it first gives everything upstream somewhere to go. Massaging a puffy cheek without clearing the neck below it pushes fluid into a queue that has not started moving.
How long should a lymphatic drainage routine be? +
Five to ten minutes daily does more than an hour once a week, because the fluid you are clearing accumulates again every day. Three minutes is enough for one area when you are short on time. Fifteen is worth it when you are covering legs as well as face.
Morning or evening? +
Morning for a puffy face, since overnight fluid is what you are clearing. Evening for heavy legs, since that is when the day has pooled downward. Tummy work suits either, though not immediately after a large meal.
Do I need oil, a gua sha or a roller? +
No. Every stroke here works with dry hands, and hands are better for learning because you can feel how much pressure you are applying. A little facial oil makes the face strokes glide more comfortably if you prefer.
Is the routine free? +
Yes, with no sign-up or email. It is published by the team behind LymphFlow, an iOS app that films these routines with a voiceover, but the builder works on its own and you can copy your routine and keep it.
Learn the technique: the lymph node map · facial routine · drainage exercises
Stop reading it, start following it
Download LymphFlow and let a voice pace the whole routine while you close your eyes.
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