When Jennifer Aniston reveals one of her health secrets, the world listens.
In a picture gallery posted to Instagram in September titled ‘Summertime Photo Dump’, the 54-year-old Friends star uploaded a photo in strange-looking inflatable pants with strings coming out of them.
It’s the Body Balancer – a lymphatic drainage treatment that’s becoming a growing favorite among celebrities including Paris Hilton, Chrissy Teigen and Dame Kelly Holmes.
Part of the immune system, the lymphatic system is thin tubes and lymph nodes that run throughout the body. Lymphatic drainage massage helps drain excess fluid and encourage the movement of lymphatic fluid around the body.
This isn’t a new concept – you can do it at home with a dry body brush (as Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow was particularly fond of) and celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Anne Hathaway are said to enjoy lymphatic massage. Let’s take.
And this celebrity wellness goes beyond fashion — Gua Sha massage is an ancient Chinese technique, where a targeted tool shapes your face and encourages lymphatic drainage.
Body Balancer is the high-tech version of this and promises a lot of benefits.
A major benefit of lymphatic drainage treatments is helping to keep your immune system firing on all cylinders, says Libby Ross, health and skin care aesthetic specialist at PHI Clinic.
“If your lymphatic system is pumping and working properly, your immunity will be significantly higher – so it’s directly proportional to a healthy immune system,” she suggested.
But high-tech usually means high prices, and that’s certainly the case with the Body Balancer. The price of a treatment starts at £70 at the clinic, and if you want to follow the celebrity trend of treating yourself at home, the Body Balancer Gold will set you back more than £8,500.
According to Ruiz, it has become a favorite of celebrities as they want to get rid of excess fluid before going on the Red Cap. She claimed: “If you have it at home and you use it daily or at least five times a week, you will see a reduction in cellulite – there’s no doubt about it.”
How about trying?
The Body Balancer comes in two parts – a leg suit and a jacket – I try the same one as Aniston, which is basically a big pair of inflatable trousers zipped over your stomach.
The suit is plugged into a larger machine and it gets to work – essentially compressing different areas of your body.
It’s a slightly strange feeling, your legs are clenched – and as I chose the deep tissue mode on the highest setting. It was not for the faint of heart, and sometimes it felt like my eyes were going to pop out, which sounds unpleasant, but it wasn’t – I could actually feel my muscles relaxing as it was working. Was.
Ross, who used to be a triathlete, said that if you exercise a lot it’s great for recovery.
“It’ll get all the lactic acid out of your system, help the muscles, relax the muscles,” she said — one of her trainers “insisted on it for recovery.”
It definitely felt like it to me – I lifted weights that morning, and afterward my legs felt instantly lighter, and the DOMS was significantly reduced the next day.
It also takes advantage of the current health craze for all things related to your gut, as it also gives you a belly massage. Ross suggested it’s beneficial for gut health because it’s “actively working on your colon,” which is “very important, especially as we get older” — and especially for women. .
“(If) we get pregnant our gut health is completely messed up because the baby’s on your colon, and then perimenopause, menopause – the hormones sometimes block your gut.”
As for other benefits? One try isn’t really enough to tell if it will help me avoid all the colds and flu at the moment. Ross said ideally you should use it three times a week, which he acknowledged is “a bit of a stretch” for most people.
In the realm of celebrity wellness trends — ranging from the sublime (like meditation or cold therapy) to the ridiculous (looking at you, jade eggs), this one is definitely on the most pleasurable end of the spectrum, making my body feel like I’m . I just had a deep tissue massage.
If I had double the luxury of time and money, I’d probably go for regular lymphatic drainage treatments – just to see if it’s really all it’s cracked up to be. But for now, I’ll eat a few more oranges and hope my immune system recovers this winter.