The Lymphatic System: One of the Coolest Systems We Rarely Think About
Most people rarely think about it.
It’s the lymphatic system, and once you understand a little about how it works, it’s hard not to be impressed.
Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump. No heart. No steady mechanical push. Instead, it relies almost entirely on movement and breathing to do its job.
Its role is simple, but critical:
to clear excess fluid, metabolic waste, and cellular debris from the spaces between our cells and return it back to circulation. When that system is moving well, tissues stay healthier, inflammation stays lower, and everything tends to work a little more smoothly.
When it’s sluggish, we feel it.
That heavy, puffy, foggy feeling many people experience after long periods of sitting, poor sleep, or inactivity? A lot of that has to do with lymph not moving the way it should.
Movement is not optional
Walking isn’t just “good exercise.” It’s a fundamental way the body keeps itself clean and organized internally. Every step gently compresses muscles and tissues, nudging lymph along its one-way pathways back toward the heart.
Swimming does this beautifully too—maybe even better.
I’ve always loved being in the water. Swimming and treading water are some of my favorite ways to move, not because they feel like a workout, but because they feel right. The body moves freely, breathing deepens naturally, and everything seems to loosen and flow.
Treading water, especially, is something special. You’re upright. You’re moving continuously. You’re breathing rhythmically. The water provides gentle, constant pressure against the skin—right where many lymphatic vessels live.
It’s almost like the environment itself is helping your body do what it already knows how to do.
A lifetime of clear water
As a kid, we spent summers on our family’s cherry farm in Northern Michigan. The farm sat on Michigan’s second-deepest inland lake. The water was cold, deep, and incredibly clear. You could float there for hours, suspended in silence.
Later, I moved to a beach town in Northwest Florida, where the Gulf of Mexico can be stunningly clear. Florida is also dotted with natural springs—deep, cold, crystal-clear water bubbling up from underground. I never get tired of swimming in them.
One of my favorite travel memories was a cruise where the highlight wasn’t the ship at all—it was a day on a small island in the Bahamas. I spent hours swimming in beautiful blue water, floating, treading, moving slowly and continuously.
Deep, clear, chilly water is the absolute best.
Looking back, I didn’t know anything about the lymphatic system at the time—but my body did.
Your brain gets a “carwash” at night
During deep sleep, spaces around blood vessels in the brain expand, allowing fluid to wash through brain tissue and carry away waste. It’s not a perfect analogy, but I love thinking of it as my brain going through a carwash every night.
When sleep is good, that cleanup happens efficiently. When sleep is short or disrupted, waste lingers—and we feel it as brain fog, poor focus, and that “not quite right” feeling the next day.
Yet again, movement during the day and good sleep at night work together to support systems that are always working behind the scenes.
Nothing exotic—just consistent
Walking.
Swimming.
Treading water.
Breathing deeply.
Changing positions.
Sleeping well.
No extremes. No hacks. Just steady, rhythmic input that reminds the body to keep things moving.
A lot of the practices that support lymphatic health are already woven throughout the articles on this site—not because I was targeting the lymphatic system specifically, but because the body is deeply interconnected. When you support movement, recovery, sleep, and consistency, you end up supporting everything.
Including one of the coolest systems we rarely talk about.
