Float therapy for sports recovery is becoming a popular form of therapy for athletes. Athletes who participate in endurance sports like running, swimming, and cycling have a greater chance of injury than those who do not. These athletes tend to have weak muscles and joints that are overworked and susceptible to injury. Swimming, biking, and running are excellent exercises that keep people fit, but this type of workout requires flexibility and strength to prevent injury. Athletes who push their bodies beyond their limits and sustain an injury often need physical therapy to recover. This article could help you discover why float therapy works well for sports recovery.
Physical Benefits of Floating for Athletes
Athletes are known for their dedication and hard work, but even the best of them can suffer from aches and pains. The good news is that floating could be the solution you’re looking for when it comes to relief from physical pain.
Increased Blood Circulation
Floating has been shown to increase blood circulation, which can benefit athletes. Increased blood circulation allows oxygen and nutrients to reach your muscles more quickly and efficiently, enabling you to recover faster from strenuous exercise. This will also help you maintain optimal energy during training sessions.
Increased Healing Abilities
Floating has been shown to reduce inflammation, which can help you recover from injuries faster and experience less pain during recovery. This is especially beneficial for runners and other athletes prone to injuries because floating can speed up the healing process and help them avoid further injury while recovering from a previous one.
Pain Management
Floating helps relieve chronic pain from injuries, stress, and other conditions and helps the body relax to heal itself. The Epsom salt water reduces inflammation and allows you to float effortlessly in a zero-gravity environment. The buoyancy of the water supports your neck and back, while the Epsom salt water reduces muscle tension, allowing the muscles to relax.
Improved Athletic Performance
The Epsom salt in the water helps draw out toxins from your body, making you feel lighter and more energetic. The buoyancy also helps support your neck, back, and joints, so less pressure is on them when exercising or competing. This allows you to recover faster after an injury or workout, increasing your overall performance!
Magnesium Absorption
Magnesium is a mineral that is essential for over 300 processes in the body, including protein synthesis and energy production. Magnesium deficiency can lead to muscle cramps and spasms, affecting athletes constantly pushing their bodies to the limit.
Mental Benefits of Floating for Athletes
When you’ve spent most of your life playing sports, it’s easy to get stuck in the same routine. The same exercises, the same workouts, and even the same thoughts can become monotonous. Floating allows athletes to break out of their routines and experience something new. Let’s take a look at some of the mental benefits floating has to offer:
Stress relief
Stress is unavoidable in athletic performance, but it can be challenging to deal with when you’re already fatigued from training or playing. Stress relief is one of the most popular reasons athletes choose to float, which helps them stay calm before and after events and competitions. The ability to relax during a stressful time can help athletes perform mentally and physically better because they aren’t distracted by anxiety or worry during competition or practice sessions.
Increased focus & concentration
When floating in a pool full of Epsom salt, it’s impossible to think about anything else but how amazing it feels. The Epsom salt adds magnesium to your body and essential trace minerals like bromide and iodine, which work together to improve blood circulation and increase brain function. In turn, this allows athletes to focus more intently on their training.
Better Sleep
The floating environment lets you completely relax your body and mind, leading to better sleep. Research has shown that floating improves sleep quality and reduces stress levels. This is because floating helps you achieve deep relaxation by lowering your blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen consumption.
Enhanced Creativity
In addition to boosting motivation, floating also helps athletes think outside the box and find new ways of approaching challenges. When stressed or anxious, our minds tend to get stuck in habitual patterns of thought and behavior—this is known as “neural habituation.” When our brains become habituated, we stop making decisions based on logic and reason instead of relying on automatic reactions that have been wired into our brains over time. Floating allows athletes to break free from these neural habits, freeing up their creativity to come up with innovative solutions to problems that would otherwise be blocked by mental stress.
How often should Athletes get float therapy?
If you’re an athlete, the frequency of your float therapy sessions will depend on the sport you play and your goals for recovery. If you’re an athlete training for a competition, you may want to consider getting into the tank more often. On the other hand, if you are an athlete recovering from an injury or illness, one or two sessions per week may be sufficient.
It is important to remember that float therapy is not a cure for injuries but rather a way to get the body back to its natural state. Athletes should get float therapy once or as often as possible.
Athletes should also ensure they are getting enough rest and taking care of their bodies before and after float therapy. It is recommended that athletes do not plan on doing any high-intensity training after using float therapy because it can cause soreness in muscles.
In addition, athletes need to ensure they are correctly hydrating themselves before and after a session in the tank. Dehydrated athletes may experience dizziness or nausea when they come out of the tank due to the change in pressure.
Conclusion
Floating can be a great way for athletes to pursue recovery and stay in top shape. There are numerous mental benefits, including improved sleep, decreased stress levels, and alleviated anxiety among athletes, and these factors all add up to help an athlete perform better. Athletes and other professionals will also benefit from floating to help nurture their bodies after stressful activity and optimize their athlete’s body and functions of their bodies.