Performance Lights

USE PHOTOBIOMODULATION TO ENHANCE MUSCLE GAIN, STRENGTH, ENDURANCE, AND RECOVERY 

“In the near future, sport agencies must deal with ‘laser doping’ by at least openly discussing it because the aforementioned beneficial effects and the pre-conditioning achieved by laser and LED irradiation will highly improve athletic performance.” 

– Michael Hamblin, PhD

Red/NIR light with exercise makes a potent combination. Not only does red/NIR light help you recover faster, it seems to amplify everything that happens with exercise – increased muscle gain, fat loss, performance, strength, and endurance.

Muscle tissue has more mitochondria than almost any other tissue or organ in the human body. So muscle tissue is particularly responsive to photobiomodulation. The muscles are packed with mitochondria, because ATP is needed for every muscle twitch and movement, no matter how insignificant.

Through their effect on ATP production and cellular healing mechanisms, red/NIR light help individuals to recover more quickly from strenuous and resistance exercise, and even helps to prevent muscle fatigue during exercise.

Studies provide evidence that near-infrared and red light therapy powerfully help prevent muscle fatigue, enhance muscle strength and endurance, increase fat loss responses from exercise, increase muscle growth responses from exercise, and promote faster recovery.

To get into just a few of the dozens of studies on this topic:

  • One study by Vieira et al. examined levels of fatigue in leg muscles after endurance exercise and found that using light therapy immediately following significantly reduced fatigue scores relative to the control group. The researchers concluded “The results suggest that an endurance training program combined with LLLT leads to a greater reduction in fatigue than an endurance training program without LLLT. This is relevant to everyone involved in sport and rehabilitation.”
  • Leal-Junior et al. performed a review of the relevant research in 2015 to examine the effects of phototherapy on exercise performance and recovery. They compiled data from thirteen randomized control trials and examined the number of repetitions and time until exhaustion for muscle performance, as well as markers of exercise-induced muscle damage. The researchers concluded that pre-conditioning the muscles with red/NIR light (i.e. using the light prior to exercise) significantly improves muscular performance and accelerates recovery.
  • Another study looked at use of LED red/NIR therapy lights in male athletes who performed 3 intense bouts of exercise on a stationary bike. The athletes who were given the LED light therapy prior to the exercise had significantly lower levels of creatine kinase (a marker for muscle damage) compared to the sham light therapy (placebo) group.

 

  • A recent 2016 review of 16 studies by Nampo et al. looked at research using both laser and LED therapy on exercise capacity and muscle performance of people undergoing exercise compared to placebo/sham treatments. They found an average improvement of 3.51 reps, a 4 second delay in time to exhaustion (i.e. people were able to exercise longer before exhaustion), increased peak strength, and a significant reduction in lactic acid production.

 

  • A review of research by Borsa et al. found that studies consistently show that red/NIR light done prior to weight training improved performance and decreased muscle damage.

 

  • Another study compared red/NIR light therapy with LEDs to cold water immersion (e.g. ice baths) as a recovery method after exercise and found that red/NIR light improved recovery more than ice baths.
  • A 2015 study by Baroni et al.  looked at 30 healthy males who were randomized into 3 groups:
  1. Control group – remained sedentary
  2. Training group (TG) – did an 8-week exercise program
  3. Training + light therapy (TLG) – did the same 8-week exercise program plus also did a light treatment using a near-infrared light (810nm wavelength) before each training session.

What happened?

  • The training group improved strength by about an average of 14% while the group that included light therapy improved by nearly 25%.
  • The training group improved muscle size of the quadriceps muscles by about 10% while the group that included light therapy nearly doubled that improvement! 
Muscle size preak torque red light therapy
(Image Source: Suppversity)

As you can see, red and near-infrared light also have the ability to increase your strength and endurance adaptations to exercise, decrease muscle damage from your workouts, help you recover faster, and even increase muscle gains.

 

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