Swelling Reduction Protocol That Works Like Magic
In this episode of the Unreal Results podcast, Anna discusses the MovementREV Swelling Reduction Protocol. She shares how the protocol was created, her belief about swelling, the critical areas of anatomy to direct treatment to, and why not only does it magically reduce swelling within the treatment session but how it is a vital protocol to optimize healing.
Anna introduces the importance of monitoring the distal pulses and globally treating the fluid systems to allow the body to tap into its ability to heal.
This will be your go-to protocol for acute and chronic swelling and fractures, tendinopathy, and other tissues that naturally have limited blood flow.
Be sure to check out these swelling reduction protocol resources:
👩🏻🏫 - MovementREV Swelling Reduction Protocol Online Course
🧘🏻♀️ - Decreasing Swelling and Improve Circulation Regen Session
🎥 - See Instagram posts about the MovementREV Swelling Reduction Protocol via #movementrevswellingprotocol
Considering the viscera as a source of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction is a great way to ensure a more true whole body approach to care, however it can be a bit overwhelming on where to start, which is exactly why I created the Visceral Referral Cheat Sheet. This FREE download will help you to learn the most common visceral referral patterns affecting the musculoskeletal system. Download it at www.unrealresultspod.com
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Hey there, and welcome. I'm Anna Hartman, and this is Unreal Results, a podcast where I help you get better outcomes and gain the confidence that you can help anyone. Even the most complex cases. Join me as I teach about the influence of the visceral organs and the nervous system on movement, pain, and injuries, all while shifting the paradigm of what whole-body assessment and treatment really look like.
I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.
So today I wanted to share about the swelling protocol. Um, it's come up a lot in the last, um, A few weeks for my clients. And, um, every time I use it, I'm just like reminded how amazing it is and how amazing our body is in. Healing and.
And actually how much. Or how little swelling. There can be after an injury by design. I think sometimes, um, people just assume because you had an injury that it's normal for swelling to be there. And we're while. Yes. Swelling is a normal response to an injury, right? The inflammatory response. And we want that to happen because.
That is the mechanism of which repair starts in the tissue. Right. Is that inflammatory response? Often times. It becomes stagnant or overwhelmed congested. And then that congestion leads to actually. Sub optimal conditions for healing. Of the tissue. And so when. What I've noticed from the swelling protocol that I use is that when the body.
He is able to do its thing. There is a influx of swelling. But then it actually subsides. Very quickly after injury. Um, And, and is there more on a micro level than a macro level that we see with. Like huge ankles or huge knees after injuries. And so, um, I really believe. From experience. That. No one. Should suffer from swollen joints, swollen limbs. For longer than like 48 hours. Really? Post-injury. If swelling is continuing. That's a concern, right? Like that's an active irritant within the joint. Or within the tissue, that's creating more. Of an inflammatory response. You know, in cases of acute injuries, like rolling your ankle, that insult that damaged the tissues once it's over, it's over. Right. So swelling should actually.
Happen. And then gradually decrease over time, not stay the same, or even get worse. And it is so common though, to have athletes come to you weeks, days, weeks, even months, sometimes after an injury, like an ankle sprain and still have swelling. And so.
What does that mean? Is it means there's something going on. Systemically that's preventing normal blood flow and normal lymphatic flow. From getting. From accessing the area. And so that is exactly what the protocol does. So, um, the movement rev swelling reduction pro protocols is what I call it is sort of like, uh, from years of.
You know, using different strategies to help athletes after injuries. Right. They come to me swollen. And that's always the primary thing, right? If a client comes to you, Um, post-injury, they're swollen. One of the. Number one priorities, right? Goals for rehab. And their plan of care is to decrease pain, decrease, swelling, improve range of motion. Like those are top three. Like you can't.
Usually continue on to progressive loading of things and getting somebody back to performance without really impacting those first three goals. So.
I found that the more I understood the anatomy. And the M and when I was able to. Understand how to listen to the body. Better. The missing pieces to decreasing people's swelling was there. So, um, to give you some context, Previously to using this protocol. I felt like I did a pretty good job with swelling reduction.
I would. Do soft tissue in there yet. Let's use an ankle sprain as the example, because one that's most common and it's helpful to like talk about an actual body part. Um, When, uh, when we're using this hypothetical, but so come, they come to you with an ankle sprain. You know, whether it was that day, the day before, three days before, whatever it is.
I would do start doing massage and especially to the calf. Lower extremity and might be a lymphatic massage. It might be, um, like a milking massage and then also even deep tissue of the lower leg. Is always been super successful for it. Um, We do manual lymph drainage. So Vodders technique is the technique that I have learned from another colleague. And I'm most familiar with.
So it's a very superficial technique. Um, aimed at the entire lymphatic system. It was always pretty helpful. And then we would use compression. So compression using sometimes game. Ready. Compression with compression socks, compression with an ACE bandage, we would oftentimes use like a horseshoe to provide some, um, more like specific compression as opposed to just circumferential.
And that was always really helpful too. Especially getting the swelling out from around the malleoli. We would, um, use. Electoral. Like electric stimulation. Um, so maybe high volt or what? My favorite one was actually using microcurrent and I would use a microcurrent, um, setting to facilitate lymph drainage. I put one pad on the left, thoracic duct, and one pad below the injury.
And that seemed to be pretty helpful too. And then the other strategies were, um, elevation of course is always a great one. And compression using hydrotherapy. So we'd put them, put people in the pool and actually have them. Um, Get as deep as possible so that the water pressure from the depth of the water could help with the decrease in swelling.
That protocol was good. It was helpful, but it was like you needed to stay on top of it for multiple days in a row. And like, just hammer it. For it to be successful. Then I started learning. Um, oh. And then, and then we added in dry needling, um, to the area too. So using like short needles in the area of swelling.
It was also really also helpful for the lymphatic stimulation. M very similar to using like Kinesio tape in the area as well. So like the lifting of the skin, and then along those lines too, oftentimes using the silicone dynamic cupping to do like a skin lift technique in the area was great. So then I learned, um, I started learning with the Barral Institute, more visceral manipulation techniques, and I learned the value of checking distal pulses.
And what I started noticing as well is in the areas, um, especially from an ankle stand ankle sprain standpoint, um, post your tibialis pulse would almost be. Um, Um, like. Almost not be there. Right? Like it was so diminished that I couldn't even feel it on palpation. But, um, And then what we learned in the Barral Institute that oftentimes when the posterior tibialis pulse is diminished.
The problem is actually at the anterior hip. Um, and so I would do some work around the anterior hip and then recheck the pulse and the pulse was better. And then also the swelling. Started go down already within the treatment session. And then I was noticing with a few of my patients who had chronic.
Ankle sprain swelling, right? Chronic swelling in their ankles or chronic swelling in their knees. Oftentimes they're locator tests, right? Like the El tap took me or directed me to their liver. And when I treated their liver, same thing, their posts, your tibialis pulse would be restored. And the swelling would already start leaving.
So, so then I started combining all the things that I knew worked really well. I would treat the thoracic duct area. So the left thoracic duct. Drains the lymph from the, almost the entire body, like 75% of the body. So the left upper extremity. Three quarters of the trunk, all of the trunk, except for the right upper quarter.
And then the pelvis in both lower extremities are all drained by the left thoracic duct. Whereas the right side. Beans and. And lymphatic. Um, Structures. Drain the right upper extremity, the right upper chest and the right side of the head. So I also, I miss said, um, the left side of the head is drained by the left thoracic doctor as well. So I did some techniques to make sure that this area of the left thoracic duct was mobile, was open. There was no possible entrapments going on in the scalenes, um, or the, clavicular pectoral Fascia, the mid cervical fascia of the neck. The subclavius muscle. That's like a big, a big muscle that sometimes. Um, creates entrapment of the neurovascular structures in that area and decreases the space of, um, the retro clavicular space. So the space behind the, uh, clavicle, um, at the thoracic inlet. So working on that is really important.
The other area that I started doing treatment is around the liver. So the liver is interesting. One, it's an organ that is related to our fluid function. Right, but also, um, The liver and the diaphragm. Make a joint with each other. And, um, so the function of the diaphragm is very, um, dependent on a liver that is moving well.
And the liver actually, when it's moving the liver rotates around an axis. That the axis is the vena cava. The abdominal aorta and cisterna chyli, which is one of the main drainage spots for the lymphatic system. And so mobilizing the liver helps to free up that important. Neuro lymphatic and vascular area there.
As well as improved function of the diaphragm. And that three-dimensional breath is really important for the pumping of the lymphatics from that cisterna chyli to the venous system promoting, um, Improved flow to the azygos veins and the azygos veins also are an important part of the venous and lymphatic system to.
So. Um, focusing on treatment around the liver, around the thoracolumbar. Um, junction was really powerful as well as you, if you look at the thoracolumbar junction. It is the area where we get the majority of our rotation and our trunk. And it moves. That area when we're rotating is moving through the what Philip Beach describes as the helical field and the helical field is the mechanical. Um, Is the field that provides mechanical. Stimulation to our fluid field and our fluid organs to promote good fluid flow throughout the body. So our fluid organs are going to be the liver. The kidneys that are right in that same area and then our breasts and our nipples. So in, in many animals, not humans.
But other mammals. That have, um, mammary organs they'll have multiple nipples. Going on this diagonal line.
And that diagonal line happens to be also the borders of this rotational field in our body. So rotation, the movement of rotation tends to be a really powerful movement for fluid flow, which is sometimes too white. Um, just moving your body walking can be so powerful for. Lymphatic drainage. Breathing can be so powerful for lymphatic drainage.
So then the other parts of this protocol too, is that anterior hip. So the area of the anterior hips specifically underneath the inguinal ligament. Um, Ensuring that the space under the inguinal, ligament allows for good free mobility of the neurovascular and lymphatic structures at the front of the hip.
So the femoral artery, nerve and vein, and then lymphatics right there, again like big lymph nodes in that. Um, adductor canal, right? And another area is the other end of the adductor canal. So the other end of the adductor canal is called the adductor hiatus. It's about four of your fingers, four fingers, um, above the medial knee joint on the inside the medial side of your thigh. That is another great access point to free up and make sure things that neurovascular and lymphatic structures are free to flow.
Um, and then the lower leg, the lower leg. Because it's sort of like because of gravity where lymph fluid tend to always get congested. It's also a very powerful pump. We need the muscular pumping action to help the pumping of the lymphatics out of that area, as well as the blood flow to, and from that area. Right.
Um, so doing deep tissue. On the lower leg and, and really. Supporting the lower leg to not. Let the spaces between the compartments fill up with swelling is an extremely important. So even when it's not like an ankle sprain that we're talking about, Even when it's the knee. Doing deep tissue and doing work to decrease swelling in the low leg is really important because it is just, I think, of the lower extremity, the lower legs being like these really powerful pumps.
For the lymphatic system, as powerful as the diaphragm is, I think many of you may know that the diaphragm is a powerful pump for the lymphatic system, but not appreciate that the lower leg compartments, the lower leg function is also a very powerful pump too. So those are the key spots in the MovementREV swelling reduction protocol. The. Thoracic duct area the left thoracic duct specifically for most of the body, but right. If you have it. Injury or swelling in the right upper quarter or right side of the head and neck. Um, the area around the liver and the thoracolumbar junction. The area of the anterior hip.
The adductor canal, both at the proximal point of the adductor hip and the distal portion at the adductor hiatus. The lower leg actually specifically. The anterior compartment. Um, the intersection. There between at the proximal tibia joint is another powerful area, uh, to free up for neurovascular.
Flow. And, um, That's it. Those are the main spots. So instead of relying just on compression. We're freeing all the neurovascular structures. So the fluid is free to flow. You know, it is flowing freely when distal pulses or are restored. So whenever I'm treating someone, every time I treat an area, whether it's the threat left thoracic duct.
The liver area, the thoracolumbar junction. The tib fib joint, the adductor hiatus, the approximal adductor canal under the inguinal ligament. Every time I treat one location, I am them monitoring the distal pulse. So posterior tibialis pulse for the lower extremity. That's going to be really helpful for lower extremity issues. But then also just to give me a general idea of flow of the entire lymphatic system.
Because again, those low legs are important pumps for the whole system. But if it's an upper extremity issue, you might want to also check the distal pulses being the radial pulse. And so we're trying to restore normal pulse. Which brings me to the topic of what is normal pulse. Um, that is tough. It's, uh, it's tough to know what someone's normal post quality is. If you've never felt it before. So I tend to feel the pulse is on all my athletes. I have a very good idea of what their.
Normal quality of their pulse is some people's pulse are very faint. Some are very loud. It depends on a lot of things. But you will know because sometimes the pulse, when. Something is entrapped or congestion will be diminished. But sometimes when a vascular structure is entrapped, the pulse will be louder. In fact, that is exactly how we.
Test someone's pulse, right? When we feel the radial pulse, we're pushing the artery into the bone, we're sort of clamping it down. And this makes the reverberation of the pulse rate to be more palpable in our hands. So, I don't know, on someone, if a really loud or really diminished pulse is abnormal.
All I'm looking for is a change in pulse. So if somebody comes to me, post ankle sprain, and I don't feel her pulse at all. I am trying to restore it. If their pulse is really loud or different than the other side, I'm just staying curious to see what happens after treatment. Both with their pulse. And then also with the swelling in the area.
What you'll notice is the swelling will start to leave. And which is almost like you blink your eye and then you look again and it's like, holy cow, I just looked here and your ankle was swollen and now it's not swollen at all. Um, and then recheck the pulse because now you're going to have a better idea of what is normal for them. And then that will be your target to what you're trying to get for every treatment.
So. Um, this it's funny, you know, I used to just. Get, I would do this on my athletes and they would love it because they would sprain their ankle and it, they would be out of practice for like a day or two days, and then be able to go back to practice again. Um, you know, what happens though is, um, when you get rid of swelling quickly, um, things can be a lot more painful because sometimes, um, there's not a lot of pain in the area because the swelling stretches the skin and provides.
Like a pain-relieving response. It's almost like the gate theory of pain control. The skin, the stretch receptors are giving so much information that the nociception from the pain of the injury is actually blunted. But when the swelling leaves now, the nociception is oftentimes a little bit louder. And so I do warn my athletes like.
We can get rid of your swelling really fast, but the next day you might wake up and actually be more sore. In fact, Almost always, you will wake up the next day and be more sore. Most of them will trade soreness and pain for mobility function, decreased swelling, and being able to play again. And so this is just some, a conversation to have.
Um, And it was funny because we were getting these results and my athletes were seeing their teammates go down with things like ankle sprains, and then miss. Practices in this games and they were getting so frustrated. 'cause they were like, I wish they knew the swelling protocol. Because they don't have to miss practices and they don't have to miss games and.
I want to help them out. And so. You know, I was like, you know what? I agree. I don't really, I don't really feel like this is my information to hoard. And so I emailed my entire email list and I gave everyone. Step-by-step protocol for it. And then people started emailing me back and being like, oh my gosh, this is magical. Sending me pictures of peoples.
You know, ankles, knees, wrists, shoulders, before and after. And the results were just as magical for everybody else too. And that was just so cool to see. And so that is why I created, um, the swelling reduction. Uh, protocol course and the protocol itself. Um, and then I also have two region sessions that are, um, based on the swelling reduction protocol. So because I also want to empower the athlete to be able to treat their swelling on their own, not have to always rely on a healthcare practitioner.
Um, because sometimes that's not possible. Right. A lot of my athletes travel. Um, traveled to foreign countries where they don't have access to things sometimes. And so I wanted to make it doable for them too. So. Every one of those key areas, it doesn't really matter what treatment you do. It doesn't have to be a manual therapy treatment. It can be an exercise. It can be a movement.
It can be a self massage, right? So. Um, as long as we're targeting those spots, we're going to see a decrease in that swelling. Anyways. Um, I hope that was helpful. Uh, It's it really is magical. I don't want people to have, um, oh, I didn't even really talk about it, but, um, one of the other magical things about the swelling reduction pro protocol.
Is its ability to help optimize healing. Because if things are stagnant, right? If things are congested, that also means blood flow to the area is not getting there. And the blood flow is what's going to help heal. And so I've had many people that have had like delayed healing and fractures. Non-unions of fractures.
And I'll check their pulses and they'll be abnormal. We'll do this swelling protocol, swelling reduction protocol. Restore their pulses. And then they go back, get, you know, in a week or two, to the the doctor. Get, x-rays and now their bone is finally healing. And so improving that blood flow is so important.
Not just to decrease swelling, but actually to facilitate and optimize the healing response. And so that's what we all really want in the first place. So this, this swelling program, I love sharing it. I love talking about it because it, it works so well for. Acute injuries for chronic injuries for people with just general lymphatic congestion.
And also for helping with healing of things that have a hard time healing like those. Non-union fractures. Like tendonitis type things that are already don't get great blood flow, meniscus, tears, things like that. So important to restore. Good optimal blood flow fluid flow throughout the body. So, hopefully this was helpful. And gave you some strategies that you can use. Um, in your clinic or in your athletic training room and with your athletes, clients, or even on yourself. , Thank you for joining me. We'll see you next time.
I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.
So today I wanted to share about the swelling protocol. Um, it's come up a lot in the last, um, few weeks for my clients. And, um, every time I use it, I'm just like reminded how amazing it is and how amazing our body is in healing and
And actually how much. Or how little swelling. There can be after an injury by design. I think sometimes, um, people just assume because you had an injury that it's normal for swelling to be there. And, Yes. Swelling is a normal response to an injury, right? The inflammatory response. And we want that to happen because.
That is the mechanism of which repair starts in the tissue. Right. Is that inflammatory response? Often times it becomes stagnant or overwhelmed congested. And then that congestion leads to actually sub optimal conditions for healing. Of the tissue. And so when. What I've noticed from the swelling protocol that I use is that when the body.
He is able to do its thing. There is a influx of swelling. But then it actually subsides. Very quickly after injury. Um, And, and is there more on a micro level than a macro level that we see with. Like huge ankles or huge knees after injuries. And so, um, I really believe. From experience. That. No one.
Should suffer from swollen joints, swollen limbs. For longer than like 48 hours. Really? Post-injury. If swelling is continuing. That's a concern, right? Like that's an active irritant within the joint. Or within the tissue, that's creating more. Of an inflammatory response. You know, in cases of acute injuries, like rolling your ankle, that insult that damaged the tissues once it's over, it's over. Right. So swelling should actually.
Happen. And then gradually decrease over time, not stay the same, or even get worse. And it is so common though, to have athletes come to you weeks, days, weeks, even months, sometimes after an injury, like an ankle sprain and still have swelling. And so.
What does that mean? Is it means there's something going on. Systemically that's preventing normal blood flow and normal lymphatic flow. From getting. From accessing the area. And so that is exactly what the protocol does. So, um, the movement rev swelling reduction pro protocols is what I call it is sort of like, uh, from years of.
You know, using different strategies to help athletes after injuries. Right. They come to me swollen. And that's always the primary thing, right? If a client comes to you, Um, post-injury, they're swollen. One of the. Number one priorities, right? Goals for rehab. And their plan of care is to decrease pain, decrease, swelling, improve range of motion. Like those are top three. Like you can't.
Usually continue on to progressive loading of things and getting somebody back to performance without really impacting those first three goals. So.
I found that the more I understood the anatomy. And the M and when I was able to. Understand how to listen to the body. Better. The missing pieces to decreasing people's swelling was there. So, um, to give you some context, Previously to using this protocol. I felt like I did a pretty good job with swelling reduction.
I would. Do soft tissue in there yet. Let's use an ankle sprain as the example, because one that's most common and it's helpful to like talk about an actual body part. Um, When, uh, when we're using this hypothetical, but so come, they come to you with an ankle sprain. You know, whether it was that day, the day before, three days before, whatever it is.
I would do start doing massage and especially to the calf. Lower extremity and might be a lymphatic massage. It might be, um, like a milking massage and then also even deep tissue of the lower leg. Is always been super successful for it. Um, We do manual lymph drainage. So Votters technique is the technique that I have learned from another colleague. And I'm most familiar with.
So it's a very superficial technique. Um, aimed at the entire lymphatic system. It was always pretty helpful. And then we would use compression. So compression using sometimes game. Ready. Compression with compression socks, compression with an ACE bandage, we would oftentimes use like a horseshoe to provide some, um, more like specific compression as opposed to just circumferential.
And that was always really helpful too. Especially getting the swelling out from around the malleoli. We would, um, use. Electoral. Like electric stimulation. Um, so maybe high volt or what? My favorite one was actually using microcurrent and I would use a microcurrent, um, setting to facilitate lymph drainage. I put one pad on the left, thoracic duct, and one pad below the injury.
And that seemed to be pretty helpful too. And then the other strategies were, um, elevation of course is always a great one. And compression using hydrotherapy. So we'd put them, put people in the pool and actually have them. Um, Get as deep as possible so that the water pressure from the depth of the water could help with the decrease in swelling.
That protocol was good. It was helpful, but it was like you needed to stay on top of it for multiple days in a row. And like, just hammer it. For it to be successful. Then I started learning. Um, oh. And then, and then we added in dry needling, um, to the area too. So using like short needles in the area of swelling.
It was also really also helpful for the lymphatic stimulation. M very similar to using like Kinesio tape in the area as well. So like the lifting of the skin, and then along those lines too, oftentimes using the silicone dynamic cupping to do like a skin lift technique in the area was great. So then I learned, um, I started learning with the rural Institute, more visceral manipulation techniques, and I learned the value of checking distal pulses.
And what I started noticing as well is in the areas, um, especially from an ankle stand ankle sprain standpoint, um, post your tibialis pulse would almost be. Um, Um, like. Almost not be there. Right? Like it was so diminished that I couldn't even feel it on palpation. But, um, And then what we learned in the rural Institute that oftentimes when the posterior tibialis pulse is diminished.
The problem is actually at the anterior hip. Um, and so I would do some work around the anterior hip and then recheck the pulse and the pulse was better. And then also the swelling. Started go down already within the treatment session. And then I was noticing with a few of my patients who had chronic.
Ankle sprain swelling, right? Chronic swelling in their ankles or chronic swelling in their knees. Oftentimes they're locator tests, right? Like the El tap took me or directed me to their liver. And when I treated their liver, same thing, their posts, your tibialis pulse would be restored. And the swelling would already start leaving.
So, so then I started combining all the things that I knew worked really well. I would treat the thoracic duct area. So the left thoracic duct. Drains the lymph from the, almost the entire body, like 75% of the body. So the left upper extremity. Three quarters of the trunk, all of the trunk, except for the right upper quarter.
And then the pelvis in both lower extremities are all drained by the left thoracic duct. Whereas the right side. Beans and. And lymphatic. Um, Structures. Drain the right upper extremity, the right upper chest and the right side of the head. So I also, I miss said, um, the left side of the head is drained by the left thoracic doctor as well. So I did some techniques to make sure that this area of the left thoracic duct was mobile, was open. There was no possible entrapments going on in the scalings, um, or the Sur, uh, clavicular pictorial.
Fascia, the mid cervical fascia of the neck. The subclavius muscle. That's like a big, a big muscle that sometimes. Um, creates entrapment of the neurovascular structures in that area and decreases the space of, um, the retro clavicular space. So the space behind the, uh, clavicle, um, at the thoracic inlet. So working on that is really important.
The other area that I started doing treatment is around the liver. So the liver is interesting. One, it's an organ that is related to our fluid function. Right, but also, um, The liver and the diaphragm. Make a joint with each other. And, um, so the function of the diaphragm is very, um, dependent on a liver that is moving well.
And the liver actually, when it's moving the liver rotates around an axis. That the axis is the vena cava. The abdominal aorta and this sister and a Kylie, which is one of the main drainage spots for the lymphatic system. And so mobilizing the liver helps to free up that important. Neuro lymphatic and vascular area there.
As well as improved function of the diaphragm. And that three-dimensional breath is really important for the pumping of the lymphatics from that sister and a Chi Kylie to the venous system promoting, um, Improved flow to the zigas veins and the zigas veins also are an important part of the venous and lymphatic system to.
So, um, do.
So. Um, focusing on treatment around the liver, around the thoracolumbar. Um, junction was really powerful as well as you, if you look at the thoracolumbar junction. It is the area where we get the majority of our rotation and our trunk. And it moves. That area when we're rotating is moving through the what Philip Beach describes as the helix.
Coalfield and the Heela go field is the mechanical. Um, Is the field that provides mechanical. Stimulation to our fluid field and our fluid Oregon's to promote good fluid flow throughout the body. So our fluid organs are going to be the liver. The kidneys that are right in that same area and then our breasts and our nipples. So in, in many animals, not humans.
But other mammals. That have, um, mammary Oregon's they'll have multiple nipples. Going on this diagonal line.
And that diagonal line happens to be also the borders of this rotational field in our body. So rotation, the movement of rotation tends to be a really powerful movement for fluid flow, which is sometimes too white. Um, just moving your body walking can be so powerful for. Lymphatic drainage. Breathing can be so powerful for lymphatic drainage.
So then the other parts of this protocol too, is that anterior hip. So the area of the anterior hips specifically underneath the inguinal ligament. Um, Ensuring that the space center and then go, I don't know, ligament allows for good free mobility of the neurovascular in lymphatic structures at the front of the hip.
So the femoral artery, nerve and vein, and then lymphatics right there, again like big lymph nodes in that. Um, adductor canal, right? And another area is the other end of the adductor canal. So the other end of the adductor canal is called the adductor hiatus. It's about four of your fingers, four fingers, um, above the medial knee joint on the inside the medial side of your thigh. That is another great access point to free up and make sure things that neurovascular and lymphatic freshers are free to flow.
Um, and then the lower leg, the lower leg. Because it's sort of like because of gravity where lymph fluid tend to always get congested. It's also a very powerful pump. We need the muscular pumping action to help the pumping of the lymphatics out of that area, as well as the blood flow to, and from that area. Right.
Um, so doing deep tissue. On the lower leg and, and really. Supporting the lower leg to not. Let the spaces between the compartments fill up with swelling is an extremely important. So even when it's not like an ankle sprain that we're talking about, Even when it's the knee. Doing deep tissue and doing work to decrease swelling in the low leg is really important because it is just, I think, of the lower extremity, the lower legs being like these really powerful pumps.
For the lymphatic system, as powerful as the diaphragm is, I think many of you may know that the diaphragm is a powerful pump for the lymphatic system, but not appreciate that the lower leg compartments, the lower leg function is also a very powerful pump too. So those are the key spots in the movement.
Rub swelling reduction protocol. The. Thoracic duct area left the Racich ducks specifically for most of the body, but right. If you have it. Injury or swelling in the right upper quarter or right side of the head and neck. Um, the area around the liver and the thoracolumbar junction. The area of the anterior hip.
The adductor canal, both at the proximal point of the adductor hip and the distal portion at the adductor hiatus. The lower leg actually specifically. The anterior compartment. Um, the intersection. There between at the proximal tibia joint is another powerful area, uh, to free up for neurovascular.
Flow. And, um, That's it. Those are the main spots. So instead of relying just on compression. We're freeing all the neurovascular structures. So the fluid is free to flow. You know, it is pho. Flowing freely when distal pulses or are restored. So whenever I'm treating someone, every time I treat an area, whether it's the threat left thoracic duct.
The liver area, the thoracolumbar junction. The tib fib joint, the adductor hiatus, the approximal adductor canal under the inguinal ligament. Every time I treat one location, I am them monitoring the distal pulse. So posterior tibialis poles for the lower extremity. That's going to be really helpful for lower extremity issues. But then also just to give me a general idea of flow of the entire lymphatic system.
Because again, those low legs are important pumps for the whole system. But if it's an upper extremity issue, you might want to also check the distal pulses being the radial pulse. And so we're trying to restore normal pulse. Which brings me to the topic of what is normal pulse. Um, that is tough. It's, uh, it's tough to know what someone's normal post quality is. If you've never felt it before. So I tend to feel the pulse is on all my athletes. I have a very good idea of what their.
Normal quality of their pulse is some people's poles are very faint. Some are very loud. It depends on a lot of things. But you will know because sometimes the pulse, when. Something is entrapped or congestion will be diminished. But sometimes when a vascular structure is entrapped, the pulse will be louder. In fact, that is exactly how we.
Test someone's pulse, right? When we feel the radial pulse, we're pushing the artery into the bone, we're sort of clamping it down. And this makes the reverberation of the pulse rate to be more palpable in our hands. So, I don't know, on someone, if a really loud or really diminished pulse is abnormal.
All I'm looking for is a change in pulse. So if somebody comes to me, post ankle sprain, and I don't feel her pulse at all. I am trying to restore it. If their pulse is really loud or different than the other side, I'm just staying curious to see what happens after treatment. Both with their pulse. And then also with the swelling in the area.
What you'll notice is the swelling will start to leave. And which is almost like you blink your eye and then you look again and it's like, holy cow, I just looked here and your ankle was swollen and now it's not swollen at all. Um, and then recheck the pulse because now you're going to have a better idea of what is normal for them. And then that will be your target to what you're trying to get for every treatment.
So. Um, this it's funny, you know, I used to just. Get, I would do this on my athletes and they would love it because they would sprain their ankle and it, they would be out of practice for like a day or two days, and then be able to go back to practice again. Um, you know, what happens though is, um, when you get rid of swelling quickly, um, things can be a lot more painful because sometimes, um, there's not a lot of pain in the area because the swelling stretches the skin and provides.
Like a pain-relieving response. It's almost like the gate theory of pain control. The skin, the stretch receptors are giving so much information that the nociception from the pain of the injury is actually blunted. But when the swelling leaves now, the nociception is oftentimes a little bit louder. And so I do warn my athletes like.
We can get rid of your swelling really fast, but the next day you might wake up and actually be more sore. In fact, Almost always, you will wake up the next day and be more sore. Most of them will trade soreness and pain for mobility function, decreased swelling, and being able to play again. And so this is just some, a conversation to have.
Um, And it was funny because we were getting these results and my athletes were seeing their teammates go down with things like ankle sprains, and then miss. Practices in this games and they were getting so frustrated. 'cause they were like, I wish they knew the swelling protocol. Because they don't have to miss practices and they don't have to miss games and.
I want to help them out. And so. You know, I was like, you know what? I agree. I don't really, I don't really feel like this is my information to hoard. And so I emailed my entire email list and I gave everyone. Step-by-step protocol for it. And then people started emailing me back and being like, oh my gosh, this is magical. Sending me pictures of peoples.
You know, ankles, knees, wrists, shoulders, before and after. And the results were just as magical for everybody else too. And that was just so cool to see. And so that is why I created, um, the swelling reduction. Uh, protocol course and the protocol itself. Um, and then I also have two region sessions that are, um, based on the swelling reduction protocol. So because I also want to empower the athlete to be able to treat their swelling on their own, not have to always rely on a healthcare practitioner.
Um, because sometimes that's not possible. Right. A lot of my athletes travel. Um, traveled to foreign countries where they don't have access to things sometimes. And so I wanted to make it doable for them too. So. Every one of those key areas, it doesn't really matter what treatment you do. It doesn't have to be a manual therapy treatment. It can be an exercise. It can be a movement.
It can be a self massage, right? So. Um, as long as we're targeting those spots, we're going to see a decrease in that swelling. Anyways. Um, I hope that was helpful. Uh, It's it really is magical. I don't want people to have, um, oh, I didn't even really talk about it, but, um, one of the other magical things about the swelling reduction pro protocol.
Is its ability to help optimize healing. Because if things are stagnant, right? If things are congested, that also means blood flow to the area is not getting there. And the blood flow is what's going to help heal. And so I've had many people that have had like delayed healing and fractures. Non-unions of fractures.
And I'll check their pulses and they'll be abnormal. We'll do this swelling protocol, swelling reduction protocol. Restore their pulses. And then they go back, get, you know, in a week or two, does the doctor. Yeah, x-rays and now their bone is finally healing. And so improving that blood flow is so important.
Not just to decrease swelling, but actually to facilitate and optimize the healing response. And so that's what we all really want in the first place. So this, this swelling program, I love sharing it. I love talking about it because it, it works so well for. Acute injuries for chronic injuries for people with just general lymphatic congestion.
And also for helping with healing of things that have a hard time healing like those. Non-union fractures. Like tendonitis type things that are already don't get great blood flow, meniscus, tears, things like that. So important to restore. Good optimal blood flow fluid flow throughout the body. So, hopefully this was helpful.
And gave you some strategies that you can use. Um, in your clinic or in your athletic training room and with your athletes, clients, or even on yourself. , Thank you for joining me. We'll see you next time.