Being a professional athlete is no joke, and when your body is a central part of your job, it needs to be very well taken care of. And even when athletes are doing all the right things to take care of their body, injuries are still very common in professional sports; but it used to be that if an athlete was injured, their career was over. But now, athletes can undergo surgery and pop back up on the court or field months later. How is that possible?
As most athletes know, a large portion of time is dedicated to repairing muscles and alleviating inflammation for the next game. Regardless of the sport, teams spend millions of dollars on professional physical therapists to guarantee their athletes receive the highest standard of physical treatment.
The recovery process for an athlete is essential and a determining factor of how well they’ll perform during their careers. You’ll often hear the words “optimizing performance” when discussing the recovery process for athletes. Today, the recovery process isn’t just to heal an athlete but to naturally enhance their performance as well.
So, how do professional therapists optimize professional athletes' performance and recovery? Well, red light therapy is turning out to be one of the most effective treatments for these high-performing individuals.
Professional trainers are always looking for natural ways to enhance their player’s performance, and with red light has proven to be a lead modality with many trainers and athletes using light therapy to enhance the body’s natural healing process. But how does it work?
When used, natural red light penetrates the skin and cells. When the light reaches the mitochondria, it stimulates the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is a natural energy currency in the human body. With an enhanced ATP production, cells in the muscle are optimized and repaired at a more rapid speed.
Hundreds of peer-reviewed clinical trials have backed up the results athletes are seeing on the courts and fields. In 2015, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials, and the results were astounding. They found that a majority of clinical trials showed "significant improvement for the main measures related to performance," including endurance and speed. And through this meta-analysis it was concluded that "phototherapy (with lasers and LEDs) improves muscular performance and accelerates recovery when applied before exercise."
However, red light therapy does more than recover muscle tissue. It also increases muscle strength, ultimately improving physical performance.
A 2016 study researched red light therapy on elite athletes and trained and untrained athletes. What was found was that red light therapy after training can increase muscle mass. So, not only does red light therapy accelerate the recovery process, but it also improves muscle strength.
But what about endurance? Being strong is only one aspect of being an athlete. Endurance is crucial when competing against an opponent. A triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial published in 2018 studied the effects of red light therapy on men and women undergoing endurance training on treadmills. It was found that red light therapy pre-exercise can "increase the time-to-exhaustion and oxygen uptake and also decrease the body fat in healthy volunteers when compared to placebo."
Another study from 2018 completed by Brazilian researchers found that after their randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial on pro soccer players, those who underwent red light therapy stayed longer on the playing field. It was concluded that light therapy “...had a significant improvement in all the biochemical markers evaluated…pre-exercise [light] therapy can enhance performance and accelerate recovery…”.
Peer-reviewed clinical trials from around the world have all concluded the same thing: red light therapy works for increasing athletic performance levels. Luna's red light therapy device can help professional athletes, and the rest of us who exercise regularly, in recovering from injuries and improving our physical and muscular health.
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