In the sports world, red light therapy is increasingly used. Infrared light has many advantages for athletes. But which ones exactly, and how can you make optimal use of it as an athlete or sportsperson? We will discuss it below!

What is red light therapy?

Red light therapy is, as the name suggests, a form of therapy that uses infrared light. Infrared light creates heat, which stimulates the energy production of your cells.

This in turn provides many health benefits that athletes can use, such as better sleep, faster muscle recovery and greater endurance.

Infrared light and sleep

Whether you are an athlete or not, you need a good night's sleep to perform. When you are in dreamland, your body has time to restore all the systems you need during the day. The immune system, endocrine system (takes care of your hormone balance) and nervous system are examples of this.

The longer and better you sleep, the better these systems can be restored and the better rested you are. However, sleeping well and for a long time is often easier said than done. However, there are a few things that can help, namely: exercise and red light therapy.

You probably already knew that exercising during the day ensures a better and longer night's sleep. However, if you exercise too intensively, you can suffer from overtraining syndrome, which, in addition to your sleep quality, also decreases your mood and hormone production.

Infrared reduces the risk of overtraining syndrome and improves sleep

As athletes continue to push their limits, the sports world has been looking for a way to engage in high-intensity sports without suffering from overtraining syndrome and its disadvantages. Experts soon discovered the benefits of infrared in avoiding overtraining syndrome and improving sleep.

Research using a group of Chinese female basketball players as test subjects shows that red light stimulates the secretion of melatonin (the sleep-inducing hormone) and therefore also a better night's sleep. The research also shows that the positive effects of infrared on your sleep are greatest if you use infrared therapy in the evening.

Red light therapy against sleep inertia

However, those who get up early to exercise can also use red light therapy in the morning. In the early hours, infrared ensures that you suffer less from sleep inertia.

The latter is the name for the condition in which certain parts of your brain are still 'asleep'.

If you wake up in the middle of the night, it is nice to have sleep inertia because it will help you fall asleep right away. However, if you want to exercise, it is a completely different story; sleep inertia will then make you less alert and have weaker athletic performances.

Now you know how to counteract this; use infrared therapy before your workout!

Red light therapy and sports performance

You already know that infrared helps you sleep better and fights early morning drowsiness. But that’s not all infrared can do for athletes.

Research is also showing promising and exciting results in other areas. For example, research shows that the endurance of athletes who use red light therapy increases three times faster than that of athletes who do not.

In addition, research also shows that athletes who use infrared therapy have a higher resistance to fatigue, in other words, they can go deeper during intensive and prolonged efforts.

From these same studies we can also glean important information about when you should use infrared light to optimally improve your performance.

Is your goal to become stronger? Then you can do red light therapy before your strength training. Do you want to train your endurance? Then it is a good idea to lie under an infrared sauna blanket or infrared lamp both before and after your workout.

We can hear you thinking: "How long does that have to be each time?" The answer to that question is: no longer than 20 minutes.

 

Infrared and muscle recovery

Red light therapy could help your muscles recover faster, although there is some debate about this. According to some studies, infrared therapy could reduce the time your muscles are stiff and sore after exercise.

Other studies find less positive results and call for more research into this topic before we can say that infrared significantly affects your muscle recovery.

In any case, infrared is never detrimental to muscle recovery, so the following applies: if it doesn't help, it doesn't hurt.

Furthermore, we are certain that infrared therapy positively influences the quality of your sleep and that sleep in turn ensures fast and good muscle recovery. If infrared does not directly simulate muscle recovery, it does so indirectly by improving your night's sleep.

Conclusion

Infrared therapy is an excellent way to improve athletic performance. By using it, an athlete can experience benefits in sleep, athletic performance, and possibly muscle recovery.