Hyperbaric oxygen therapy – secret weapon of athletes

05.08.2021
Sport

In the last decade, competitive sports have taken on a whole new meaning, where intensity has increased together with the incidence of injuries to the athletes. These sport injuries, ranging from broken bones to disrupted muscles, tendons and ligaments, may be a result of acute impact forces in contact sports or the everyday rigors of training and conditioning.

Therefore, a need has emerged to discover the best and fastest treatments that will allow the injured athlete to return to competition faster than the normal course of rehabilitation, with a low risk of re- injury.

The use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for athletes’ recovery as well as for performance enhancement is becoming a mainstream rehabilitation method in sports.

One of the well know users of HBOT is a superstar golf player Tiger Woods, who had been utilizing HBOT in order to recover faster from a number of injuries that had affected his career. During the 2010 Masters Tournament he told the press: ‘It [hyperbaric therapy] does help you heal faster, and I did everything possible to recover faster’.

HBOT is a safe, effective, and noninvasive treatment that has been applied to treat various conditions. Since quick recovery is extremely important for athletes involved in competitions, the administration of HBOT proves to be an efficient addition to conventional methods, when the purpose is to achieve shorter recovery time. So nowadays HBOT is a well-established adjuvant method among professional and recreational athletes.

Nika Kriznar, Slovenian Ski Jumper, Winner of World Cup 2020/21 and Peter Kokalj, CEO, AHA Hyperbarics

 

Why are athletes turning to HBOT for recovery?

 

For professional athletes, rehabilitation seems like an infinitely long path that they would rather skip. However, everyone is aware that their body is also their main tool for achieving results. Professional athletes have so much at stake, that every second not training or competing, makes a huge difference to them.

The athlete’s achievements are conditioned by his physical and mental readiness. Therefore, athletes are very well aware of the need to take care of their body.

Sports medicine invests heavily in methods that allow safe, fast, and thorough recovery. Great physical condition and early recovery from injury is crucial for elite athletes. Therefore, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is very important for athletes.

 

What is HBOT?

[box type=”info”] Hyperbaric oxygen therapy or HBOT is a therapy that takes place under a higher pressure than atmospheric. During therapy, we do not breathe the usual 21% oxygen, but breathe pure oxygen through the mask. The pressure in the chamber is up to 2 times higher than the ambient pressure, so we breathe twice as much oxygen concentration as we would breathe pure oxygen in the environment or 9.5 times more than we would breathe ordinary air in the environment, so it effects on our health and well-being even better. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a Natural and safe therapy with no side effects. There is no other fitness, endurance & wellness therapy that is so effortless and yet so effective.[/box]

 

Train harder, Recover faster & Endure Longer

 

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been reported to be very beneficial in sports:

 

More energy and power → better performance (faster → stronger → longer)

  • Increased endurance, better reflexes, increased response and speed, beneficial effect on reducing stress and improving mood → better results
  • Increased blood flow (enriched with oxygen) to the brain increases brain capacity and concentration → better focus and strategic planning

Great preventive measure → less injuries and fatigue

  • Strengthens the immune system, reduces tension and fatigue in the body and has a beneficial effect on sleep → less disease
  • Better flexibility of ligaments, joint flexibility, stress and fatigue reduction in the muscles → less injuries

Quicker recovery after every day workouts → regeneration

  • Relaxation of the body
  • Faster establishment of psychophysical condition
  • Reduces muscle tension and fatigue, muscles regain strength
  • Accelerates elimination of waste-products such as lactic acid, which causes muscle tension
  • Eliminates fatigue after hard practice and refreshes you

Faster recovery from injuries → quick comeback

Hyperbaric oxygen stimulates faster recovery (70% shorter recovery period):

  • Faster wound healing
  • Stimulates bone and muscle regeneration
  • Increases the ability of the body to regenerate

 

[button link=”https://aha-hyperbarics.com/hbot-therapy/” color=”silver” newwindow=”yes”] Learn more about HBOT[/button]

 

Nowadays sporting associations or sports clubs have adopted HBOT as an integrative part of their recovery programs for athletes, while some athletes are owners of their very own hyperbaric chamber.

Among famous users of HBOT are also David Beckham, Mark Cavendish, Randy de Puniet, Cristiano Ronaldo, Valentino Rossi, Diamond Dallas Page, … Also, Novak Djoković is known to have used HBOT with the purpose of active recovery. The tennis superstar admits to use this therapy whenever possible, and considers HBOT beneficial due to its healing capabilities.

 

Very enthusiastic long-term users of hyperbaric oxygen therapy are also our Slovenian Ski Jumping teams. Both women and men national teams are regenerating in high pressure inflatable AHA hyperbaric chambers for five years already.

 

 

AHA hyperbaric chambers offer complete solution to our athletes; they enable quicker recovery after every day workouts, give more energy and power, and also serve as a great preventive measure: less injuries and fatigue. And as Domen Prevc, Slovenian Ski Jumper, is saying, “AHA Chambers improve the quality of rest”.

 

 

 

AHA chambers are manufactured by AHA Hyperbarics, the leading manufacturer of high pressure (2.0 bar) medical hyperbaric systems.

[button link=”https://aha-hyperbarics.com/hyperbaric-chambers/” color=”silver” newwindow=”yes”] Explore our HBOT technology[/button]

 

You might also be interested in reading this article: Bio-Hacking: Tap into your health’s full potential with hyperbaric oxygen therapy