Are you an athlete? Maybe you’re just a part-time sports enthusiast, or you enjoy training at the gym? What does your recovery strategy look like? Recovery is as important as your training, and if you don’t recover fully between workouts, you’re putting yourself at risk of injury.

Recovery strategies help the body reduce inflammation associated with training stress. After you finish a hard workout, your muscular system needs time to repair the microtears in tissues before the next training session.

The central nervous system (CNS) needs time to reduce the stress and tension placed on it through exercise. Failing to get enough sleep or take enough time off between workouts ends up producing diminishing returns.

Your body can’t handle the stress, and your CNS burns out, forcing you to take time off from training. Understanding how recovery impacts your physical and mental state is important if you want to increase your performance.

There is a bevy of tools you can add to your recovery strategy. This post looks at compression therapy and how it can enhance your recovery, helping you reach peak performance in your training.

What Is Compression Therapy?

Compression therapy involves applying compression to tight, stiff, and sore muscles. Typically, compression therapy is usually for the limbs, but some methods help you compress the entire body.

When you apply compression to a specific body part, it causes an increase in circulation to the affected area. As a result, blood flow improves to the affected muscle group, flooding the tissue with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood that helps repair the damage to the tissues.

Compression therapy is an old practice, and many athletes wear compression sleeves to support joints and muscles, preventing injury.

What are the Benefits of Compression Therapy?

Including compression therapy with your recovery strategy yields impressive results. There are plenty of benefits to compression therapy, and here are our top reasons why you should consider including it in your recovery strategy.

Fast-Track Recovery

Applying compression therapy post-workout reduces the time it takes the muscular and nervous systems to recover from the effects of workout-induced stress. The increase in circulation helps to drive blood to the muscles, fast-tracking your recovery. With regular use of compression therapy, you avoid injury and improve your recovery time.

Remove Lactic Acid

When we train, the muscles start to fill with lactic acid as a byproduct of metabolism and effort to using the muscular system. This lactic acid buildup results in a feeling of stiffness and soreness in the muscles. Compression therapy pushes this lactic acid out of the muscular system, where the lymphatic system clears it from the body.

Improve Healing Time

If you have an injury, compression therapy will accelerate your healing time. Applying compression to a joint or muscle supports it, preventing the worsening of the injury. The compression also improves circulation, speeding up your healing time.

Remove Stiffness and Soreness

If you find yourself needing a wheelchair after your last squat workout, considers signing up for some compression therapy. The compressive effect helps loosen up your muscular system, relieving the pain and stiffness associated with hard exercise. You’ll find you recover faster from hard workouts, allowing you to increase performance and hit that PR in the gym.

How Do I Use Compression Therapy in My Recovery Strategy?

Compression therapy is a must-have element in your recovery strategy. Compression is ideal for use post-workout, as your body is cooling down. It’s sort of like stretching out the muscles, but with extra benefits.

Compression suits use post-workout for supporting joints and muscles after the training session.

Compression also works for coping with injuries, providing support and circulation to the affected areas. Most neoprene compression sleeves are fine for wearing all day.

However, neoprene compression sleeves have limitations on the amount of compression and the type of compression they offer you for your recovery strategy.

If you’re going to try compression therapy, we recommend you look at a session with NormaTec compression systems.

NormaTec – The New Era of Compression Therapy

Typically, athletes will use compression socks and compression sleeves to take advantage of the effects of compression in their recovery. NormaTec compression systems take the concept of athletic compression and step it up a level.

NormaTec compression systems consist of sleeves that fit over your legs and arms. They also have full-body suits for comprehensive, holistic treatment. The NormaTec sleeves apply compression dynamically, squeezing at the bottom of the limb, rolling the pressure up your limb, driving it towards the heart. NormaTec compression systems offer you three compression modes for different therapies designed to improve muscle recovery, enhance circulation, and remove muscle stiffness. Slip-on the sleeves and relax while NormaTec takes care of your tired, stiff, and sore body.

You can use both the leg and arm sleeves simultaneously, giving you a full-body compression session that yields fantastic results with your recovery. The average session lasts around 30-minutes, and you’ll feel tremendous relief after removing the sleeves.

The compressive effect of NormaTec compression systems is far beyond anything a typical compression sleeve can offer you. With NormaTec, you’re getting a compression treatment that improves the range of motion in your joints and muscles while reducing inflammation and improving circulation.

Book Your NormaTec Compression Therapy at Muscle Lab

NormaTec Compression systems are the top choice for professional athletes, but they work for anyone. Whether you enjoy training at the gym, running, cycling, martial arts, or triathlon, NormaTec benefits your recovery, giving you an edge in training and competition.

With compression treatments added to your recovery strategy, you’ll get more out of your training sessions, allowing you to hit your peak days more often in your training cycle.

Muscle Lab has a complete range of NormaTec compression systems for the limbs and hips. Our trained therapists assist you with the entire process for a relaxing and restful compression experience. If you’re in LA and you need a partner in recovery, come and visit Muscle Lab.

We have an experienced, qualified, and friendly team waiting to help you achieve peak performance.