All about the fitness and health lifestyle
All about the fitness and health lifestyle

How Red Light Therapy Helps Muscle Recovery

Last Updated:
August 22, 2023
Author:
Kimmy

How Red Light Therapy Helps Muscle Recovery

Red light therapy is a modern recovery treatment that can help aid in skin and muscle recovery. While primarily used by professional athletes, anyone can benefit from this therapy option. Below we look at the benefits and how red light therapy helps with muscle recovery.

How Does Red Light Therapy Work?

Red light therapy uses wavelengths of light to stimulate mitochondria cells. This helps the human body to produce more energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) at the cellular level. ATP is what provides your cells with the fuel they need to regenerate or heal.

The muscle tissue contains more mitochondria than any other part of the human body. The mitochondria help to power movement and are very responsive to ATP. Thus, by stimulating your muscle with red light therapy, you can increase the production of ATP and boost the performance of the mitochondria. This not only helps aid in muscle recovery but can reduce inflammation and increase muscle performance.

Why Use Red Light Therapy on Muscles

Red light therapy stimulates the natural healing process of the human body. It does this by increasing blood flow and stimulating cell regeneration. This speeds up the recovery process after a workout or injury. Furthermore, many athletes find using red light therapy before a workout helps to increase their strength.

Clinical studies show that red light therapy helps repair muscles faster, thus, aids in the recovery process following an injury. It can also help the body gain more from a workout, with participants seeing an increase in muscle gain and fat loss.

New research also shows that red light therapy can help to combat the natural muscle loss that occurs as we age.

How to UseRed Light Therapy

Red light therapy can be performed before or after a workout. However, sessions should not exceed 20 minutes, today per day. For best results try using red light therapy for 5 minutes before your workout, then 10-15 minutes afterward for the best benefits.

Benefits of Red Light Therapy

Some of the main benefits users have seen from red light therapy include:

Reduces muscle fatigue

Muscle fatigue occurs when you are pushing your body too hard, or frequently training at a high level. Over time your muscles become more fatigued as they do not have adequate recovery time. Recovery time is crucial to reduce the build-up of toxins in the body and to help ease soreness, pain, and cramping. Red light therapy combats muscle fatigue by stimulating the cells and improving oxygenation.

Boosts endurance and strength

Muscle stamina and strength are crucial for anyone looking to improve their fitness. Red light therapy helps energize your cells, which helps to target fatigue, allowing you to boost endurance. Furthermore, red light stimulates your cells to increase growth and reduce recovery.

Speeds up recovery

This is the most popular use of red light therapy and is important for anyone regularly working out. Red light therapy supports and aids your body through the recovery stage and reduces your downtime.

Helps encourage weight loss

Studies show that red light therapy can stimulate your cells and increase the amount of calories you burn. As both cellular growth and healing require energy, the extra stimulation from red light demands more energy, thus, burns more calories. This in turn increases fat loss.

Red light therapy helps with muscle recovery and is becoming increasingly popular for lower-level and endurance athletes. This therapy option can help to reduce inflammation, aid in muscle recovery, and rejuvenate your skin. Just make sure to purchase a device from a trusted source and follow all instructions.

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