Go with the Lymph Flow: Secrets to Naturally Enhancing your Athletic Performance
When it comes to naturally enhancing your performance and extending your athletic career there’s a secret hiding in plain sight. The lymphatic system is the little known—but equally as essential—cousin to the cardiovascular system pumping blood through your veins. While the lymph system has many roles in the body, the most important for physical fitness is waste removal during the repair process of cells like muscle tissue. Maintaining this delicate system may help enhance, and possibly extend your athletic career or capabilities.
Just like a person can have poor blood circulation, lymphatic stagnation is a major contributor to career ending injuries. In the following article you will learn not only how to spot signs and symptoms of poor lymphatic flow, you will also be armed with tools to enhance your athletic longevity! (And of course, expert guidance is available through Vagus Clinic).
Most trainers will try to convince you that movement is all you need for proper lymphatic flow. For some people, that may be true. However, the world is increasingly toxic and there are stressors all around us that negatively impact lymphatic flow even in a healthy person, including EMFs, glyphosate, and even stressful lifestyles. Even though the lymphatic system is far from being a new discovery, improving lymph circulation is the next big thing in sports medicine. With so many quirky fads that come and go, why not try supporting your body’s own natural mechanisms?
Top 10 Benefits (plus a Bonus!) of Supporting Lymphatic Flow in Athletes
What happens when an athlete chooses to actively support their lymphatic system? Here are some of the top benefits:
1. Decrease in the likelihood of preventable, career-ending injuries
2. Faster recovery time after training
3. Increase in cellular repair and regeneration capacity
4. Acceleration of wound healing like muscle or tendon tears and strains
5. Relief from chronic joint and muscle pain–especially upon waking
6. Improves skin healing capacity, reduce scars and stretch marks
7. Strengthens the immune system against invading organisms that can contribute to lymph stagnation
8. Increases nutrient absorption capacity of fat-soluble nutrients
9. Helps facilitate weight loss
10. Assists in detoxification of the body. Less toxins equals better performance!
11. BONUS: While it is not a direct athletic benefit, improving lymph flow can help with stubborn cellulite and mild varicose veins that some athletes may experience despite rigorous training
Now that you know how improving lymph flow can improve your athletic career, continue reading to find out how the lymphatic system functions, symptoms of lymph stagnation, and finally solutions for how Vagus Clinic can help you reverse or prevent problems stemming from impaired lymph flow.
Lymphatic System Anatomy & Physiology 101
What exactly is the lymphatic system?
It includes the network of lymphatic vessels that carry “lymphatic fluid”, or the collected fluid and contents that leak out of cells, lymph nodes, and the spleen. Lymph fluid travels through one- way valves in the vessels that prevent backflow. Unlike the heart, the lymphatic system does not have a pump to ensure its circulation around the body. The lymphatic system requires mechanical (and electrical) stimulation to flow–and that is why movement is so essential!
Among its various roles, the lymphatic fluid serves as the waste management division when it comes to the repair and healing process for all cells of the body. Blood carries nutrients to the site of inflammation for damage repair, while lymph follows up after and is the clean up crew, flushing away debris.
Lymphatic fluid is filtered through a series of lymph “nodes”, or fused masses of immune cells that create a “filter” for the lymph fluid. These filters remove toxins and pathogens from the fluid, eventually returning the fluid into the bloodstream to begin the process all over again. Proper return of lymph fluid to the bloodstream is required to maintain a healthy blood volume, and thus blood pressure.
Think about a dryer lint catcher getting clogged and clothes dry much more slowly.
When these filtration stations become backed up, lymphatic flow slows to a trickle, allowing time for the fluid to become more and more stagnant and toxic. When this happens, all body systems suffer including muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons.
Essential Roles of Lymph Fluid in the Body
Let’s review the essential roles the lymphatic system plays in your body–and how supporting your lymphatics can improve your athletic longevity in each of these roles.
● Repair and healing after tissue damage. Every time you exercise and push yourself, muscle fibers are tearing and repairing. Proper blood circulation is essential, but so is lymph as the clean up crew to flush away debris. In one study, manual lymph drainage massage resulted in an improvement in the regenerative capacity of muscle cells, and thus improved recovery rate.
Another study found that “lymphatic drainage methods, whether manual or using electro-stimulation, improve postexercise regeneration of the forearm muscles of MMA athletes”. Athletes receiving treatment recovered faster and stronger than control subjects.
● Immunity. Training can stress the body beyond its capacity to cope and you will get sick more often. Catching bugs while traveling with the team, missing out on training due to illness, feeling rundown and exhausted is not beneficial to your training schedule! Certain pathogens can cause inflammation and lymphatic stagnation, greatly impairing your athletic potential. Infections such as Lyme disease (Borrelia) and common co-infection, Ehrlicia, are shown to negative impact the lymphatic system.
● Maintaining fluid balance in the body. This helps ensure proper blood pressure, waste removal, nutrient absorption, detoxification, and more. Fluid levels are maintained by the lymph vessels collecting the excess fluid that leaks out of blood cells and returning it to the bloodstream.
● Plays an essential role in digestion of fat-soluble vitamins like A, E, D, and K which are needed for energy production, inflammation control, tissue repair, and therefore optimal athletic performance. A lack of these nutrients, or electrolytes needed for hydration, can lead to lowered vitality and athletic performance.
● Acts as a sophisticated filtration system to purify the lymph before returning it to the bloodstream to start the cycle all over again. When this cycle cannot flow seamlessly, health symptoms will begin to manifest.
Possible Signs and Symptoms Your Lymph Needs Support
● Heavy feeling in the lower limbs, fluid retention and poor fluid balance, swelling around the ankles, bloating, and for cycling women, breast swelling
● Soreness or stiffness in muscles and joints, especially upon waking and often in the neck region
● Slow recovery, slow wound healing, muscle soreness after athletic training
● Recurrent injuries, especially in tendons and ligament as they receive much lower blood and lymph flow, meaning slower healing and repair than muscles. Calf and Achilles tears are common
● Lowered immunity, feeling run down often especially post workout, swollen lymph nodes in neck, frequent headaches and sinus infections
● Depression, exhaustion, inability to concentrate, brain fog, mental sluggishness
● Malnutrition. The lymphatic system is required to transport fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, E, D, and K into the blood stream so they can be utilized. As an important part of digestion, the lymphatic system needs to be functioning for proper nutrition–even if you’re eating right. Symptoms of fat-soluble vitamin deficiency include bone density issues, deteriorating vision, poor blood clotting, frequent infections, lack of energy and feeling fatigued
● Skin issues like rashes, itching, hives, eczema. There are often underlying immune triggers, but the problem can manifest itself as lymphatic stagnation leading to skin problems
● Cellulite, varicose veins, and fascia problems. The lymphatic system resides in the superficial fascia. The lymph requires mechanical force from muscles and fascia to move, while muscles and fascia require the duties of the lymphatic fluid such as cellular waste removal to allow tissue repair and regeneration
Stay tuned for more information on this topic but in the meantime, contact Vagus Clinic here to schedule your free 20-min discovery call and learn how we can help you enhance and extend your athletic performance naturally!
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