How to Recover like a Pro: A Case Study with NormaTec and Humon
The Benefits of Muscle Oxygen on Athletic Performance and Recovery
It’s well known that the ability for your muscles to oxygenate has a direct impact on athletic performance. During endurance exercise your heart rate increases causing more oxygen and blood to flow to the working muscles. This oxygen is used to oxidize any available glucose into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to provide energy during training.
Often overlooked is the effects muscle oxygenation has on your ability to recover after a workout. During recovery, oxygen is used to restore ATP levels in your muscles and to remove lactic acid build up in the liver and kidneys.
Recovery Techniques
There are many ways to improve blood flow and oxygen delivery to your muscles that most of you are very familiar with. Massage therapy, myofascial release, and compression apparel are all used to increase muscle oxygen to help with recovery. In addition, there are many products that incorporate technology used to speed up recovery sessions.
Case Study on Compression Technology for Rapid Recovery
NormaTec is a leader in rapid recovery technology used by some of the most elite athletes on the planet. We spoke with the NormaTec CEO Gilad Jacobs to ask him why NormaTec is so effective at speeding up recovery.
GJ: “NormaTec speeds recovery by applying a dynamic massaging action to the athlete’s limbs that increases blood flow throughout the body. In addition to feeling great, our patented massage pattern mimics normal physiology and enhances vascular functions.”
We decided to monitor a recovery session with NormaTec to show the benefits on muscle oxygen and how to further enhance these sessions with Humon.
Photo credit James White @sweetfeet
Below is the muscle oxygen data from a NormaTec recovery session with 5 compression/decompression intervals.
Humon web dashboard
Muscle oxygen in the quadricep decreases during each compression interval and rebounds as soon as the decompression begins. Over the course of the 40 minute session, you can see an increasing trend in SmO2 of about 10%. Monitoring muscle oxygen with Humon during recovery sessions provides a real-time snapshot of why NormaTec is so effective in speeding up recovery.
We also asked Gilad what his thoughts are on the benefits of monitoring NormaTec sessions with Humon.
GJ: “Having a clear picture of what is going on inside the tissue during the session is incredibly helpful in understanding how to maximize the benefits of the NormaTec.”
Make sure to check out @behumon on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more tips on how to warm-up, train, and recover effectively.
