4 Potential Benefits Of Phototherapy On Your Workout Routine

The usefulness of phototherapy in fitness is an ongoing study for sports scientists who have since proved that it does offer benefits to athletes and active people. Light therapy treatment has traditionally been used as a therapeutic treatment for skin conditions until its healing properties were discovered to promote cellular regeneration, among other effects on other parts of the body. 

You can incorporate light therapy into your exercise regimen to assist your muscles when you train. The best results of the therapy can be seen with consistent use while being combined with an adequate amount of rest time during each session. 

Here are four potential benefits of phototherapy for your workout routine: 

1. Increased Performance And Endurance

While research continues in this field, testing has shown that phototherapy can enhance athletic performance, potential, and endurance. Red light therapy can be used before or after working out as its benefits can be effective at any stage of your workout routine. The deep penetrating wavelengths of the light can stimulate the cells and mitochondria into producing more energy. 

This can also lead to an increase in blood flow which is associated with higher levels of oxygen and the production of collagen provided to your cells. All these factors can contribute to assisting you to do more reps using heavy strength training equipment and allow you to work out for a longer time with lessened fatigue. 

2. Improves Muscle Recovery 

One of the earliest identified potential benefits of photo or light therapy is the role it plays in muscle recovery. Depending on the intensity of your workout and fitness level, during exercise, your muscles undergo strain and stretch that results in microscopic tears. The recovery process after your workout is necessary to build muscle. 

As such, your muscles need to improve significantly for you to resume your workout without soreness. Recent studies conducted on athletes have shown promising outcomes that red light therapy could improve post-workout muscle recovery. It reduced the duration of stiffness and muscle fatigue, allowing athletes to resume their training quicker. For your workouts, this could mean that you won’t have to take as much time off after exercising to minimize injury risk. 

3. Faster Injury Healing Time 

In many cases, sports and training injuries are inevitable or could happen with the overuse of muscles over time. Due to this, injuries are common for athletes and exercise enthusiasts alike which could lead to chronic pain in the nerves, muscles, joints, and connective tissue. It could also result in having to quit exercising altogether. 

Fortunately, phototherapy is known to increase the rate of healing time after an injury. These include repairing wounds inflicted on the musculoskeletal system and bone injuries. This is why it was first developed as a treatment for soldiers and veterans who needed quickened healing and alleviating pain and inflammation. In terms of your own workout schedule, phototherapy can be the solution to your need for getting back to exercising as soon as you can when you’re injured or suffer from muscle pain and spasms.

4. Prepares Muscles For Training 

The testing done using infrared lighting has an improved effect on preparing muscles for workouts when compared to regular warm-ups. It increased muscle strength and performance, allowing the fitness enthusiasts to do more repetitions and intensive training with greater speed and reduced muscle fatigue.

 

In addition to this, infrared light therapy during your pre-workout routine can lower the oxidative stress released into your body when you exercise. This stress is related to experiencing malaise, fatigue, depression, and body pain that may put you out of the right mood to work out. Thus, phototherapy can stimulate your body’s antioxidant functions to prevent the onset of those unwanted effects. Instead, you may find that the therapy helps keep you motivated and improves your strength when you train. 

Conclusion: 

The potential benefits of light therapy for your workout mainly encompass stimulating and repairing your muscle cells before and after a workout. This can lead to faster healing time, enhanced energy, boosted endurance, and improved performance when you train. Thus, this therapy is worth trying out, especially if you’re working out to bolster your strength or doing intense exercises that need heavy workout equipment. 

In the long term, light therapy can assist your body in reducing chronic pain, muscle fatigue, and soreness after you train by better preparing your body to handle the wear and tear of future workouts. To maximize the advantages this therapy could provide you, integrate it into your routine before or after your workout, and make sure to use it frequently.