Athletic Recovery
Whether you’re an amateur athlete or a professional, your physical performance and recovery are paramount. Training, workouts, and competitions–whatever your focus, you’ve got a goal, race-day goal, a personal best, a resolution to yourself. Reach your goal with a recovery regimen that supports your body in building strength and endurance. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy supports athletic recovery, and is used by professional athletes around the country. Athletics Performance and Recovery: The Science Behind Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy As sports medicine professionals we treat some of the most physically demanding patients imaginable and understand the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Yet there’s so much we don’t know about how it works and its potential to support athletes of all ages and levels of training and competition who want to perform at their peak during race day, workout after workout, season after season—or even year after year! As physicians, our job is to provide the best care possible for each patient, but what we don’t always realize is just how much more research needs to be done to fully understand HBOT.
HBOT Oxygen Therapy for Sports Injuries
The Science Behind Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy As sports medicine professionals we treat some of the most physically demanding patients imaginable and understand the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Yet there’s so much we don’t know about how it works and its potential to support athletes of all ages and levels of training and competition who want to perform at their peak during race day, workout after workout, season after season—or even year after year!
For more than a decade now, Drs Matthew Gladden and Robert Antal have been conducting research into HBOT that has helped us learn what makes this treatment so effective for supporting athletic performance in both trained and untrained individuals as well as those with chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and stroke damage or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Through countless hours of lab work and patient studies, the duo has uncovered evidence that HBOT is an incredibly useful tool for enhancing muscle growth, strength and power, as well as improving overall physical function.
- Bone tissue strain.
- Body hypoxia and brain hypoxia.
- Acute injury of
muscle and tendon, ligament and
Joint
There is a contradiction between oxygen demand and oxygen intake during exercise, and hypoxia and oxygen debt are indispensable physiological processes in sports and are the main factors of exercise-induced fatigue. Athletes use micro-pressure oxygen therapy to eliminate fatigue. After treatment, the content of malondialdehyde in the blood is lower than that of the control group, and the activity of Na + -K + ATP enzyme on the cell membrane can be quickly restored, indicating that microbaric oxygen therapy can reduce the damage of free radicals to the cell membrane and protect the body cell structure after exercise. the integrity of cells, thereby maintaining the normal function of cells. This is of great significance for eliminating sports fatigue and reducing sports injuries.
Principle of action – HBOT micro-pressure oxygen therapy
The micro-pressure oxygen chamber uses the principle of regulating air pressure, so that oxygen is quickly dissolved in the body fluids of the human body, so that the tissues and cells of the whole body are in an oxygen-rich internal environment, which can quickly relieve post-exercise stress. Fatigue, repairs some minor tissue damage during strenuous exercise. Improving athletic performance makes exercise significantly more effective.
- Micro-pressure oxygen therapy can relieve muscle soreness after strenuous exercise. During
intense exercise, muscle tissue produces lactic acid due to anaerobic metabolism, resulting in muscle soreness. Micro-pressure oxygen therapy can quickly decompose the lactic acid produced to relieve muscle soreness. Improves lactate clearance, and good lactate clearance is beneficial for lactate clearance and post-exercise recovery.
- Micro-pressure oxygen therapy after strenuous exercise can eliminate the feeling of fatigue in the human body. During
intense exercise, a large amount of blood flows to the muscles, heart and other organs, and the blood flowing into the brain is relatively reduced, causing ischemia and hypoxia in the brain tissue to produce fatigue and lethargy. Subjective feeling of fatigue . At this time, the use of micro-pressure oxygen therapy can quickly supplement the brain with oxygen and improve the excitability of the central nervous system, so that fatigue is swept away.
- During strenuous exercise, some muscle cells will be ruptured, tiny trabecular bone will be broken, some small capillaries will be broken, cardiomyocytes will be dissolved, and alveoli will be ruptured. Therefore, the human body needs to repair itself after strenuous exercise. If the repair is not good, various sports injuries may occur. Protein and oxygen are the most important raw materials for repairing these tissues. Micro-pressure oxygen therapy can infiltrate all tissues of the body in oxygen-filled body fluids so that damaged tissues can be repaired quickly.
- When using micro-pressure oxygen for long-term oxygen therapy, the oxygen content in the body is much higher than that of ordinary people. At this time, if you perform physical exercise, in addition to the oxygen supplied by the lungs to the exercise and circulatory system, the oxygen stored in the body can provide additional oxygen and energy, allowing the human body to burst into infinite sports vitality. Long-term oxygen therapy can improve the function of the nervous system, so that the body has a better sense of balance and a faster and more sensitive response when exercising.
Fact Sheet: HBOT for Athletic Recovery
Whether you’re an amateur athlete or a professional, your physical performance and recovery are paramount to your success. By reducing inflammation and increasing circulation all over the body, HBOT provides an optimal environment for bodies to repair and strengthen, supporting athletic recovery from the inside out. It’s no wonder HBOT is used by professional athletes around the world. Get the competitive edge with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
What is athletic recovery?
Athletic recovery (also known as post-exercise recovery) consists of the biological processes that restore homeostasis to many of the body’s physiological systems. Recovery is a time for the body to replenish fuel, repair damaged tissue, and regain strength for the next performance.
How does HBOT help Athletic Recovery?
As several studies have shown, HBOT is a successful recovery tool because it:
- Reduces post-injury swelling (5)
- Decreases fatigue by promoting the metabolism of fatigue substances in the body (5)
- Speeds & deepens healing of injuries (6)
- Promotes circulation & stem cell growth, which reduces inflammation & supports the immune system (3)
- Promotes tissue repair & stimulates collagen growth (5)
- Reduces lactic acid, which contributes to muscle soreness (5)
- Quickens healing of muscular fatigue, enabling athletes to recover faster for their next game or competition (5)
- Reduces myoglobin (MB), an iron- & oxygen-binding protein in muscle tissue; high levels of MB indicate muscle damage (7)
More and more professional athletes are turning to HBOT to quicken their body’s healing after training, workouts, and competition. Some of these athletes even have a personal hyperbaric chamber in their homes so they can use HBOT as often as possible.
At Holistic Hyperbarics, we have successfully treated world class athletes, from the NFL to the NBA, as well as weekend warriors.
Give us a call for more details about our HBOT protocol for athletic recovery, and to book your first treatment. Our state-of-the art spa features knowledgeable staff, a relaxing environment, and comfortable hyperbaric chambers. We’d love to answer your questions, and look forward to working with you.
Photo source: OC Athletic Massage & Training
RELATED STUDIES
Staff, Encyclopedia. “Exercise Recovery.” Encyclopedia.com, Dec. 2020, https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports/sports-fitness-recreation-and-leisure-magazines/exercise-recovery.
Peake, Jonathan M. “Recovery after exercise: what is the current state of play?” ScienceDirect, Current Opinion in Physiology, Aug. 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867319300379.
Staff, Mayo Clinic. “Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 12 Jan. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy/about/pac-20394380.
Staff, IHAUSA. “Anti Aging.” International Hyperbarics Association, International Hyperbarics Association, 2020, www.ihausa.org/anti-aging.html.
Ishii, Y., Deie, M., Adachi, N., et al. “Hyperbaric Oxygen as an Adjuvant for Athletes.” Springer Link, Sports Medicine, Feb. 2005, https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200535090-00001.
Barata, Pedro, et al. “Hyperbaric Oxygen Effects on Sports Injuries.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disease, Apr. 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3382683/.
Chen, Chen-Yu, et al. “Early Recovery of Exercise-Related Muscular Injury by HBOT.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, BioMed Research International, 29 May 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6560326/.