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Lymphatic drainage for legs: the 8-minute routine, step by step.

Ten steps and eight minutes. Before touching the leg you open the neck, the armpits and the groin; then you work from the top down, thigh, back of the knee and calf, with ankle pumps and a final sweep.

Do it guided now 8 min

Free, no sign-up. The gesture on video, the direction drawn over it and the pace, step by step.

10 steps · 8:00 Sources ↓

Edited by José Antonio Neto Not clinically reviewed

Lymphatic drainage for legs: the 8-minute routine, step by step. Guided routine Evening · Light legs Breathing, groin and legs 8:00

10 steps Breathe · Neck · Armpits · Legs · Move · Legs · Breathe

When

In the evening or after a day on your feet, on a steady chair or the edge of the bed, with your legs bare.

What you may notice

Lighter legs. Moving your ankles and breathing deeply help blood and lymph flow back, but in healthy people no study has measured how much swelling goes down. If one leg swells suddenly, or only one, this routine is not for that: see a doctor.

What you need

Dry skin without cream, and clothes that leave the leg free up to the groin.

The routine

10 steps, 8:00

  1. 01

    Belly breathing

    Your hands do nothing: they rise with your belly as you breathe in and fall as you breathe out. Your shoulders stay still.

    0:40
  2. 02

    Open the collarbone

    Down and in, tracing a J towards the centre, always above the collarbone. The skin moves only as far as it naturally goes. Target: the supraclavicular lymph nodes.

    0:45
  3. 03

    Armpits

    Stretch the skin up and in, then release. Target: the axillary lymph nodes.

    0:45
  4. 04

    Groin march

    Keeping the gentle pressure, lift one knee a few centimetres and lower it; then the other. Like a slow march.

    0:55
  5. 05

    Thigh

    Stretch the skin up towards your groin. Start at the top and move one section lower each time, for three sections down to just above the knee. In every one, the skin moves upwards.

    0:55
  6. 06

    Behind the knee

    Your hands stay still, with gentle pressure, while your knee straightens (your foot lifts off the floor) and bends again.

    1:05
  7. 07

    Calf

    Stretch the skin up towards the hollow behind your knee. Then move one section lower each time, for three sections down to the ankle.

    0:55
  8. 08

    Ankle pumps

    Slowly bring the toes of both feet towards you, then point them away.

    0:45
  9. 09

    Leg sweep

    One light, slow sweep from ankle to groin, over the front and sides of your leg, taking about 6 s. Your hands return to the start without touching the skin.

    0:35
  10. 10

    Belly breathing

    Your hands do nothing: they rise with your belly as you breathe in and fall as you breathe out. Your shoulders stay still.

    0:40

Before you start

There are times not to do it: new or one-sided swelling, a fever, a warm or painful calf. Side effects and contraindications

The guide

Every move explained, with why it is done that way: Lymphatic drainage for heavy, swollen legs at home

Sources

  1. 1.Livewell Southwest (NHS) · Lymphatic drainage
  2. 2.West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust · Self lymphatic massage of the head and neck
  3. 3.British Lymphology Society, 2022 · Lymphatic drainage guidance
  4. 4.Lymphoedema Network Northern Ireland (CSP) · Simple lymphatic drainage for the arm and trunk
  5. 5.Lymphoedema Wales Clinical Network (NHS) · Upper limb simple lymphatic drainage
  6. 6.West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust · Simple lymphatic drainage: legs
  7. 7.Havas et al., 1997 · Breathing and lymph flow (PubMed)