Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is emerging as a powerful recovery tool for athletes – here’s how it enhances oxygen delivery, speeds up healing, and helps athletes return to training faster.
If you train hard, you know that recovery can make or break performance. The faster your muscles repair, the sooner you can get back to training – and winning.
The issue is that most recovery options take time… and time is something most elite athletes don’t have.
While ice baths, massages, and physiotherapy are still staples of post-training care, a growing number of elite athletes are turning to something far more high-tech: hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
It is being used by Olympic athletes, professional football teams and others who need to get back to peak performance as quickly as possible.
What Exactly Is HBOT?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) consists of a pressurised chamber where an athlete breathes 100% oxygen.
The pressure level is 2-3 times greater than normal air pressure (or ATA, atmospheres absolutes) and as a result the body absorbs more oxygen, and can transport that oxygen to damaged tissue faster. This extra oxygen saturates your bloodstream, reaching even the smallest capillaries and damaged tissues.
Oxygen is required for tissue repair, and muscle soreness is caused by a lack of oxygen to the muscles, so by forcing more oxygen into the tissues, you can expect a faster recovery time.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy statistics show clear evidence about how the body uses extra oxygen during this therapy. The additional oxygen accelerates and amplifies the body’s natural healing processes, and when the body is pushed to extremes, like during athletic training, these increased healing effects become important for faster recovery.
When athletes train hard, they break down muscle fibers, create micro-tears and cause a lack of oxygen to the muscles. HBOT floods these areas with oxygen, which enables a faster repair than what can normally occur.
HBOT Recovery Can Be Life Saving
Before we get into the ways HBOT can speed up athletic recovery, it’s important to note that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be life saving in some situations.
HBOT can be critical in the case of a sports-related concussion. The faster athletes who sustain a concussion recover, the safer they are and the less likely it is that they will suffer from long term effects or brain damage. In fact, a hyperbaric facility in Colorado Springs is working with the US Army Special Forces Medical Unit on the research and treatment of soldiers suffering from severe head trauma.
The hyperbaric therapy has helped these patients, and they have seen it help Olympic athletes and are working on treating civilian patients as well.
When a head injury occurs, brain tissue may be deprived of oxygen as well. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment for traumatic brain injury works by healing the brain tissue more quickly and repairing or replacing damaged or dead tissue.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Athletic Recovery
So how does hyperbaric oxygen therapy benefit athletic performance recovery?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy speeds up the healing and recovery process after injury in several ways:
Reducing Inflammation in the Short Term
Post-training inflammation can severely limit an athlete’s recovery time, but hyperbaric therapy has the ability to force oxygen-rich plasma into swollen tissues – which reduces this inflammation. The high oxygen environment decreases swelling and oxidative stress, and reduces healing time.
Flushing Out Lactic Acid
Ever experience that burning sensation during an intense workout? The buildup of lactic acid? HBOT helps the body clear metabolic waste faster, flushing lactic acid out of the systems faster.
Speed Up Tissue Repair
HBOT is well known for stimulating angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels) and collagen formation. Both of these actions can help speed up recovery from muscle strains, ligament tears and other tissue damage.
Athletes are able to achieve their best performance results when they are at the top of their game and fresh.
The most important part of achieving this is through good recovery from your training and workouts, but sometimes it just takes too long with traditional methods.
Not only does hyperbaric oxygen therapy allow athletes to recover faster, but it can actually reduce recovery time between training sessions as well, allowing athletes to get back on the field sooner and to their peak performance levels.
HBOT and Performance
A study conducted with middle-aged athletes showed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy significantly increased their maximal oxygen consumption levels – in other words, their bodies were more efficient at using oxygen during extreme levels of exercise.
Not only have Olympic athletes been using HBOT to recover, but during the Nagano Winter Olympics seven of them did, and all reported faster recovery rates from their normal methods.
Another study on professional football players and hyperbaric oxygen therapy had very positive results. A single session of 60 minutes post-match was able to improve recovery better than the traditional recovery protocols being used by the teams.
HBOT helped the players because of:
- Improved oxygen delivery to fatigued muscles
- Reduced time needed to recover between training sessions
- Improved overall performance scores
- Enhanced mitochondrial function
These are not insignificant improvements – they translate to real performance gains.
How to Start With HBOT Training
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for athletes works best in short recovery sessions of 60-90 minutes in the hyperbaric chamber, with a protocol of 5-10 sessions per week for most athletes.
The pressure level is between 2.0-2.5 ATA, and all athletes do is lie down and breathe normally during treatment. Inside the chamber, the experience is calm and passive. One can rest, read, listen to music, or even chat with the therapist of the facility.
HBOT may not be cheap, but when compared to the cost in time it takes athletes to recover, or the money it takes to pay a coach, it is usually considered a worthwhile investment for the competitive advantage it provides.
It takes time to see noticeable results from HBOT, although most patients feel and see improvement after 5-10 consistent sessions. Timing is important as well – patients who take treatment soon after a workout or injury session recover better than those who take treatment at another time of day.
What to Look For
When considering HBOT, do:
- Choose a certified hyperbaric centre accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) or local equivalents. These facilities follow strict safety standards and use medical-grade chambers supervised by trained professionals.
- Seek medical advice before starting, especially if you have existing lung or ear conditions.
- Understand that HBOT is most effective as part of a comprehensive recovery plan, and not to use it as a replacement for physical therapy, nutrition, or rest.
HBOT Recovery for Athletes – The Verdict
For athletes, time is the most valuable resource. Every minute lost to soreness or fatigue is a minute not spent training and perfecting performance.
By improving oxygen delivery, reducing inflammation, and enhancing tissue repair, hyperbaric oxygen therapy offers a measurable edge.
For those serious about staying at the top of their game, it might just be the extra breath they need.
