Why Drainage and Muscle Work Belong in the Same Session
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, PT, DPT
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) | Licensed Physical Therapist (PT) | CEO and Founder, Xtreem Pulse LLC
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Dr. Andrew Conrad Barile is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the CEO and Founder of Xtreem Pulse LLC, the engineering company behind PureLift. He earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Daemen College and is a licensed physical therapist.
He brings over two decades of clinical and entrepreneurial experience across physical therapy, craniosacral therapy and medical device innovation, built on a working knowledge of human anatomy and muscle physiology.
For PureLift LAB he reviews how current is delivered across all ten levels, from sub-sensory nanocurrent and skin-level microcurrent to motor-level EMS, and how the Infuse pass fits into the same ten-minute routine.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Board-Certified Physician, Dartmouth Medical School | Medical Director, Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic
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Dr. Bertica M. Rubio is a board-certified physician and Medical Director of the Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic in Redlands, California. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and completed her pediatrics residency at UC Irvine Medical Center.
With decades of clinical experience, she specialises in age management medicine, regenerative medicine, wound healing and growth factor therapies, and her practice integrates evidence-based medical science with advanced aesthetic treatment.
For PureLift LAB she reviews articles for medical accuracy across the whole dial, from the gentle nanocurrent and microcurrent settings through to muscle-level EMS and the Infuse pass.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Board-Certified Otolaryngologist | Head and Neck Surgeon | Fellow, American College of Surgeons | Mount Sinai
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Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS is a board-certified otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at ENT and Allergy Associates in West Nyack, New York. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He completed his otolaryngology residency at New York University Medical Center, serves as Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
For PureLift LAB he brings a wider clinical lens, connecting at-home facial stimulation from microcurrent to EMS to the anatomy underneath, with the same rigour we apply to every device specification.
Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann
Chair of Angiology, Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg | Clinic Director, University Clinic for Angiology
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Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann is Chair of Angiology at the Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane and Clinic Director of the University Clinic for Angiology at the Brandenburg University Hospital.
He trained at the University of Hamburg, was a Max Planck Society Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, and held senior consultant posts at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin before his appointment as Chair in 2016.
One of Europe's leading authorities on arteriogenesis, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications and US and EU patents, he reviews for PureLift LAB how the evidence on electrical stimulation is read and where its limits lie.
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Drainage clears fluid that is there today; muscle work changes structure over months, and the two operate on completely different timescales.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- Two jobs, two clocks
- Why they reinforce each other
- They also share a direction
- How to sequence one session
- Judging each on its own terms
and many more!
So a session that works the muscle is already draining, and a session that drains is already positioning you to work the muscle.
Key Points:
Lymph moves through muscle contraction, breathing and external pressure, and a device session supplies two of the three.
Drainage pays out the same day; muscle work pays out across a season.
Both follow the same direction of travel, upward and outward and then down the neck.
Drain first, work the muscle second, finish down the neck.
The immediate result you see after a session is mostly the drainage half.
Two jobs, two clocks
Drainage moves fluid that has collected because you spent the night horizontal. It works within minutes, the effect is visible in the mirror before you have put the device down, and it is gone by tomorrow morning because tonight you will lie down again.
Muscle work is the opposite in every respect. Nothing visible happens today, and the change accumulates over weeks. Kavanagh and colleagues measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness across 108 women over a 12-week protocol (10.1111/jocd.12007).
Confusing the two is the most common mistake people make with a facial device: the immediate effect is the drainage, and when it fades by lunchtime they conclude the device has stopped working, while the part that actually accumulates is proceeding invisibly.
Why they reinforce each other
The lymphatic system has no pump. It moves through three mechanisms: muscle contraction squeezing the vessels, the movement of breathing, and pressure applied from outside.
A device session supplies two of the three at once. Moving the probe over the skin with serum is external pressure, which is a massage stroke whether or not current is flowing, and at EMS levels the muscle is contracting underneath, which is the body's own drainage mechanism rather than an imitation of it.
Running them separately means doing the same strokes twice; running them together is simply efficient.
They also share a direction
Lymph drains toward nodes near the ear and down the neck, so drainage strokes go from the centre of the face outward and then down.
Muscle work follows the direction the tissue has drifted away from, which is upward and outward, from the jaw toward the ear and from the corner of the mouth toward the cheekbone.
Those are the same path. Neither job ever calls for dragging downward along the jawline, which is worth knowing because it is the instinctive stroke and it is wrong for both purposes.
How to sequence one session
Start at a low level, or with no current at all, and do a minute of light drainage strokes to clear the fluid sitting there from overnight. Light pressure; the vessels are shallow and pressing hard closes them.
Move up to your working level and do the muscle work, watching for visible contraction in the mirror as the check that you are above the motor threshold. On PureLift, levels 1 and 2 are nanocurrent and microcurrent, and level 3 is where the crossover happens.
Finish by drawing everything down the neck, which clears what the contractions have just moved.
Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model, and the ten minute session ends on its own.
Judging each on its own terms
Judge the drainage the same morning, an hour after the session, and expect it to have faded by the following day.
Judge the muscle work by monthly photographs in consistent light, at the same distance with the same expression. Twelve weeks is the horizon the research used and three weeks tells you nothing.
Keeping the two assessments separate is what stops a good routine being abandoned in week four because the wrong measurement was being taken.
For the mechanism behind the fluid, see the science behind facial depuffing, and for the full technology breakdown, how the nine PureLift technologies work.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: which muscles a session actually reaches, and why a twelve pound stone does much of the same job.