Athletes who are serious about sports training use hot tub and spa hydrotherapy to avoid interrupted training schedules and train more effectively.
To train effectively you must train consistently.
Both professional and amateur athletes and sportsmen share the same fear of an interrupted training schedule.
The benefits that are gained from months of hard work are easily lost by even a minor injury that interrupts a training schedule.
Pulled muscles and strained joints can take weeks or even months to recover and not everyone can use a sports masseur or sport physiotherapist to help them to recover from their injuries as quickly as possible.
Many sports therapists use hydrotherapy as part of their regime and, fortunately, the warmth, buoyancy and jet pressure that they utilise in a professional capacity is available to everyone in the form of a good quality, domestic hot tub.
Hot tubs aid recovery from sports injuries.
Hot tub aficionados have believed in the restorative and recuperative power of a hot tub bathing session for many, many years but with limited scientific evidence to back that up.
It wasn’t so much that the evidence or support wasn’t there, it was simply that scientific research and testing hadn’t been done.
As sports have become more competitive and have attracted more attention and funding, trainers, coaches and team physiotherapists have had the backing to seek out the best methods available to them.
Athletes have to deal with psychological as well as physiological fatigue and it has become apparent that hot tub hydrotherapy can be an important part of addressing both.
The mind and the body need time to recover from any intensive training session yet the pressure to push limits and excel often mitigates against this.
So what can a hot tub bathing session do to help an athlete achieve peak performance?
Training schedules punish the body.
Any athlete works their body hard in training. Joints are stretched in order to gain flexibility; muscle tissue is actually damaged in order to achieve bulk and strength.
The positive results of training come about in how the body recovers from these stresses.
The first benefit of hot tub hydrotherapy comes about from the buoyancy that water provides. The warm, bubbling water of the spa supports the body and takes the weight off joints and limbs.
This is more than simply ‘lying down’ after exercise; the body is supported in all directions and yet still able to freely move and re-align itself.
The warmth of the spa waters causes vasodilation. The blood vessels expand and allow an increase in oxygen supply to the muscles as well as the supply of antibodies to affected areas.
The warmth reduces and eases muscle spasm and helps to clear metabolites.
Thirdly, the massage jets in a spa also have an important part to play.
A Finnish study showed that 20 minutes of warm hydro-massage in a hot tub after training helped athletes maintain the explosive power of their muscles the following day.
The combination of warmth, support and massage help lactic acid return to resting levels more quickly.
A final benefit, but no less important than any of the above, is the mental relaxation that comes from a hot tub bathing session.
Peak performance is as much about mental stamina as it is physical prowess. Floating in a hot tub after a arduous training session refreshes the mind and spirit and a healthy mind in a healthy body is the key to success.
We hope this article has been of use to you and given you worthwhile information on how hot tub hydrotherapy can assist your training regime.
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