Can Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Help Athletes Recover Faster?
The world of medicine is a fascinating one. However, the question is, could an inflatable balloon worn in the lower half of your body help prevent fluid retention in athletes and hasten the recovery process?
Training makes you worse and recovery makes you better and locks in the hard-earned gains, so Recovery after exercise is an essential part of building a strong athlete. The rate of recovery should match the amount of work the athlete puts in if recovery is to be effective. While Natural remedies to curb fluid retention are available, nothing works better than intermittent pneumatic compression recovery sleeves.
Endurance athletes and performers suffer from changes in their lower half due to excess strain and stress. Studies show that the Achilles tendon expands in size, bone lesion, fluid retention, and swelling occurs, causing grievous pains in the feet, ankle, and legs. In some instances, the training shoes of the athlete had to be cut off to enable their feet to breathe. It is a common thing for athletes to suffer from severe leg cramps, lactic build up, lower oxygen and fluid retention in the legs.
While recovery is available, choosing the right one can be a tad bit overwhelming. Most athletes have their own way of relaxing and returning their bodies back to normal and are not really open to new methods like Intermittent Pneumatic Compression. This process involves the application of pressure from a gentle squeeze to a more intense pressure to aid recovery.
What causes pain in athletes?
High intensity training by athletes especially professionals can cause serious strain and disorder to the surrounding skeletal muscles of the leg. This includes damage to the sarcolemma and connective tissues causing pain and fluid retention in the leg.
In an athlete, any defect to the connective tissues around the leg means weak muscle strength, low oxygen flow, lactic build up and severe soreness that might last for weeks without a solid means of recovery.
Even though studies are still ongoing to ascertain how it works so well, the magic of intermittent pneumatic compression therapy is quite different to compression socks which due to their static nature have limited effectiveness.
Intermittent pneumatic compression works in a unique way. The pressure is applied at stipulated intervals of squeeze and release to boost blood flow, increase oxygen levels to the legs, to pump out the waste and delivery fresh nutrients to the muscles faster to speed healing recovery and gains as well as prevent DVT, and reduce fluid retention.
Whether trained or untrained muscles, eccentric exercises are known to produce muscle injuries such as swelling, soreness, tenderness around the pain area, strength loss, and stiffness. It is thought that this pain leads to a disruption of calcium homeostasis, which results in fluid retention in the legs, causing swelling and a rubbery feel around the region. Although the pain and symptoms associated with muscle fatigue will go down, it takes longer using natural remedies.
In some cases, this process takes 4 to 10 days, which is not necessarily bad but could cause more damage if not checked. One therapeutic measure that is helping athletes recover faster and returns limbs back to normal is intermittent pneumatic compression or IPC.
How efficient is Intermittent Pneumatic compression?
Intermittent pneumatic compression is a process employed to aid athletes to recover fully after an intense or long-duration exercise. This therapy has been very effective in reducing fluid retention in legs. This compression therapy is shown to increase blood flow, increase motion to the painful joints, eliminate stiffness, and restore strength to the joint. Unlike the usual compression methods, athletes now have access to Recovery Systems pneumatic compression designs that air pressure around the limb to improve blood circulation and fluid retention.
How does the Recovery System compression work?
Generally, the idea of intermittent pneumatic compression is using a wearable inflatable device that goes along the length of the legs encasing it totally. The sleeves are then inflated with air and in a squeeze and release mechanism from the foot upwards to induces healing. This applied pressure causes oxygenated blood to flow faster to the leg and deoxygenated blood back to the heart, improving circulation and healing.
The IPC system also assists in removing toxins build up in the extremities and introducing fresh nutrients and electrolytes to hasten the healing process. Although Recovery systems intermittent pneumatic compression work for athletes, the science behind it does not qualify it as a tool for improving blood circulation in non-athletes or in individuals with the circulatory/vein disorder.
Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Accelerates Warm Up
Muscle Oxygen sensor date has proved that 8 to 10 mins on Recovery Systems brings muscle oxygen (SMO) up to a point that would normally take an athlete 30 to 40 mins of manual warm up. This has proved to be a great Bio hack and efficiency gain for time poor athletes. (notice the huge SMO ramp in the first 8 to 10 mins of the graph below)
Benefits of Intermittent Pneumatic Compression for athletes
Recovery Systems has been helping athletes heal, recovery, and become better at what they do. However, do not take out word for it. The following are why you should have one today.
Accelerated and Coordinated Recovery
A natural remedy for fluid retention is raising your legs above your heart to relieve swelling in the legs. Although that is good, it does not tackle all the issues resulting from strenuous exercises, a compression sleeves does.
As mentioned throughout the article, the primary purpose of this product is to improve blood circulation in the extremities – arms or legs. The blood vessels around the extremes are usually much smaller than other parts of the body. During exercise, the body sends more blood to these regions to combat the shortage of oxygen, which leads to swelling veins. Furthermore, minute tears also occur while these will heal gradually, they first get inflamed and accumulate metabolic wastes during your training. This result in soreness, pains, muscle strength reduction, and puts a damper on your performance level.
Now you can recovery from home or anywhere with our many portable options which is a luxury formerly reserved for the professional athletes but is now available for the everyday heroes.
Relieves Tired and Achy Legs
Another problem athletes deal with is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness -thinking they are healed when they are not. Accumulated injuries can take an athlete out of the playing field longer than anticipated, which is the worst nightmare is for any professional. Little injuries like runner’s knee, splints, and tender Achilles are common injuries, but if not healed, it can cause more damage to your body. The pneumatic compression ensures that not only does your body recover from a current soreness, but any underlying injuries are also treated. Furthermore, using the Recovery Systems compression sleeves daily or multiple times a day for warm up and recovery is a convenient way to recover faster and be ready to go again with the additional benefit of reducing the chance of an injury in the future.
Practice, they say, makes perfect, not in the life of an injuries athlete. If your body has not recovered completely, more training is stressing and tearing your system apart. Instead of building up, you may be setting yourself up for failure when you need a win. Soreness plus more training does not take the pain away. IPC recovery does. Get your Recovery System sleeves today and be a better you anywhere you are – training or performing.
Prevents Deep Vein Thrombosis
DVT usually occurs in elderly people over 60, but it is now a common phenomenon in endurance athletes. This is the formation of a blood clot deep in the veins of the lower body. DVT occurs when there is damage in the valve that returns blood to the heart. This results in a leaky valve that causes blood to gather in your legs. Swelling and tenderness in the region are signs of DVT. Intermittent pneumatic compression relives this condition by loosening the blood clot and increasing flow to the heart,
Do athletes really need these compression sleeves?
For an athlete, your health is a topmost priority. If you take it for granted, you will be off the field when you are needed most. Intermittent Pneumatic compression therapy is improving your health for rainy days. Whether you are using it to recover or boost your performance on the track, your most valuable option starts with a Compression product.
Fluid retention in the legs, lactic buildup in the muscles, achy bones, joint and fatigue will always be part of an athlete life. However, Intermittent Pneumatic Compression are proving to be
a good recovery measure for post training blues.