Athletes who emphasise recovery notice overall improved performance as they are able to do higher intensity workouts more frequently and compete at their highest ability.
A popular form of recovery aid are sports massages, which increase blood flow to the required areas. This results in waste products such as lactic acid being removed quicker. Compression boots mimic these key massage techniques to optimally reduce muscle soreness and speed up recovery time.
We’ll discuss what recovery boots are, why removing waste products from the blood is important for recovery, and delve into why athletes choose NormaTec compression boots specifically.
How Do Compression Boots Work?
Compression boots are inflatable garments that can zip up and cover the entire leg. The boots are connected to a remote control that sequentially inflates and deflates sections of the boots. This compressed air uses pulse technology to massage your limbs like a massage therapist would, to stimulate and enhance the body’s blood flow.
Athletes train at high intensity for an extended time, resulting in cellular level exercise-induced muscle damage. As your body uses energy, it generates metabolic waste that circulates through your blood. The increase of fluid to the cells leads to swelling.
Intermittent pneumatic compression, where the air is compressed under pressure periodically, physically forces the unwelcome fluid back out of the cells and takes the by-products of the muscle damage along with it. Our legs are below the heart, so it’s more difficult for the heart to pump the waste from your legs to your lymph system to be excreted.
If you increase circulation of blood in the body and excrete the metabolic waste faster, it reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) symptoms and speeds up recovery. DOMS influences athletes’ ability to recover and perform subsequent workouts, so reducing it can prove highly beneficial.
Increased blood circulation also means that fresh oxygen and nutrients are brought to the cells faster. The more nutrients your muscles receive, the faster they can repair and rebuild.
Therefore, optimised blood circulation is important for recovery to rid the cells of metabolic waste taking up space and replace it with nutrients.
How Does the Sequential Pulse Technology Work?
Compression technology using recovery boots begins in the foot and moves upwards zone by zone as it massages the limb using air pulses and mobilises the fluid away from the extremities.
1. Pulsing
Compression boots use dynamic compression rather than static. Instead of squeezing, the air is pulsed through the boots, mimicking the legs’ muscle pump. The dynamic action increases the movement of fluid.
2. Gradients
Lymphatic vessels and veins in your legs have one-way valves to stop fluid from flowing backwards. Compression boots do the same thing by using hold-pressures to ensure the waste fluids travel away from the muscles.
3. Distal Release
Sequential pulse technology releases the hold-pressures as soon as they have prevented the necessary backflow, so it doesn’t cause static pressure which can have a negative effect on the body’s circulatory flow if maintained for too long.
Why Athletes Use Compression Technology to Reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
LeBron James and Kevin Durant are some of the many famous athletes benefiting from compression boots, and Good Morning America called the devices “the best-kept secret for star athletes.”
LeBron James said, “My legs started feeling better, and I didn’t stop. I started taking it on the road and everything. I mean, I think it’s awesome.” His trainer, Mike Mancias, believes the use of compression boots helped the Miami Heat win the championship by allowing him to perform at a peak level.
From professional athletes to an average person who works on their feet all day, compression boots boast a wide variety of benefits:
- Decreases swelling: excreting toxins and waste products like lactic acid decrease inflammation.
- Quicker muscle healing: muscle tears that occur from exercising heal faster.
- Avoid injuries: as muscles heal faster, injuries are less likely to happen.
- Minimises recovery time: reduced soreness and swelling means athletes need to rest to recover less and can get back to training again sooner.
- Heals scar tissue: athletes who have sports-related injuries can use compression technology to massage new scar tissue to prevent dark and raised marks.
- Increased flexibility: a better range of motion reduces the chance of injury.
Why NormaTec?
Professional athletes use NormaTec for rehabilitation and recovery across a broad spectrum of sports, including Ironman competitors and Olympic athletes.
The NormaTec PULSE Series pneumatic compression devices use specialised technology founded by a physician and bioengineer as a medical technique to improve blood flow to help treat circulatory conditions.
The compression boots use a sophisticated massage pattern to enhance recovery and reduce pain and soreness. The boots inflate and mould to the user’s exact body shape. Each part of the attachment will compress, pulse, and then release – as done during a massage. This will continue as the compression pattern works its way up the limb.
This compression works with the body’s circulatory system to mobilise fluid from the extremities and back up towards the heart. The more training you do, the more recovery is needed, and the more metabolites and waste is needed to be cleared from cells.
NormaTec compression boots are beneficial when athletes have two strenuous efforts back to back.
Key Takeaways
The benefit of compression technology makes it easy to see why so many pros are obsessed.
Decreased muscle fatigue and increased recovery speed mean more training sessions and, ultimately, better overall performance.
Compression boots take exactly what happens naturally but just enhance and optimise that process. This method can target specific areas with no discomfort or any negative effect whatsoever.
These days, compression boots are becoming more and more popular among athletes and novices and are readily available on the market.
Try NormaTec’s patented pulse technology for yourself with our pay as you go option from Feel Good Nation at $40 per treatment.
DISCLAIMER
The information on this website is for informational purposes only. No material is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions you have regarding a medical condition or treatment before undertaking a new health regimen. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
