Floatation for Athletes and Sports Recovery

It is well known that floatation is great at helping with injuries, anxiety and relaxation. But it is also used by many athletes to aid in sports recovery after training.

many world famous athletes and sports teams float in an Epsom salt solution to help treat many sports related conditions, optimise the effects of training and help accelerate recovery.

If you workout or play a sport then a float pod can give you that extra competitive edge!

"If you workout or play a sport then floatation can give you that extra competitive edge!"

Our body has a built in ‘flight or fight’ mechanism which produces adrenaline and cortisol when we are in a stressful situation such as being attacked by an assailant or a wild animal. While this fight or flight response is a good defence against sudden attacks, if the body is stuck in this state for a long time, it becomes a major cause of stress and anxiety.

With further levels of stress, the levels of cortisols and adrenaline continue to build up in the body, further weakening the immune system. The long-term activation of the stress response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones that follows can disrupt almost all your body’s processes. This puts you at increased risk of many health problems, including:

Anxiety & Depression
Lack of sleep
Heart disease, heart
attack, high blood
pressure and stroke
Digestive problems
Headaches
Muscle tension and pain
Weight gain
Memory and concentration impairment

Which athletes and sports people can benefit from floatation therapy?

In a word – Anyone and Everyone, including:-

Long distance runners
Gym users
Yoga
Weight lifters
Cross fit athletes
Boxers
MMA fighters
Jujitsu

Floatation therapy has amazing physical benefits for athletes including:-

Relieve pain, including from arthritis, migraines and injuries
Reduce blood pressure, pulse, heart rate and oxygen consumption
Boost immune system,
Improve circulation and the distribution of oxygen and nutrients
Decrease the production of cortisol, ACTH, lactic acid and adrenaline
Increases the production of endorphins
Speed up rehabilitation and recovery from injury
Improve athletic performance
Prevent sports injuries and speed up the healing process
Increases energy (ATP)
Visualisation and mind setting.
Aids in facilitated rest, improving athletes exposure to fatigue.
Reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
Accelerates recovery from injury by releasing large quantities of the body’s natural pain relief (endorphins)

You can physically rest your body up to four times faster in a floatation tank than laying in bed. When working out you usually need a 2 day or 48 hour rest before its beneficial to train the same muscles again. But you can simply float after a workout, and then workout the next day!

Why athletes swear by floating

Floating helps with a wide range of health benefits. Brain-imaging studies have indicated that floating can help regulate over-activity in the amygdala, which induces feelings of fear and anxiety. These exciting findings have led some therapists to speculate that floating can be an effective treatment for people with anxiety.

But floating is particularly popular among athletes because it can have a massive impact on recovery and performance. According to Brandon Marcello, PhD, a former director of sports performance at Stanford University and high-performance consultant who has worked with professional sports teams such as the Atlanta Braves and the San Jose Sharks.

Marcello says that floating helps to calm down the sympathetic nervous system, which otherwise releases the stress-inducing hormone cortisol into the body and regulates “fight-or-flight” mode. High levels of cortisol can help inhibit recovery, says Marcello. “Floating can create a cascade of physiological events which can help increase parasympathetic activity and down-regulate the nervous system,” he says.

He claims that floating can create a kind of positive feedback loop. When athletes recover faster, they can perform better, too.

Epsom Salt Benefits for training

Our tanks contain over 500kg of epsom salts (magnesium sulphate), which is a muscle relaxant and a protein builder for your joints. Not only do you decompress whilst floating, you absorb the minerals whilst you float. This effect is direct into your muscles, allowing you to be less tense as soon as you get up.
Recovery Time Frame – When an athlete is floating, they improve their actual rate of recovery. After physical exercise the body is fatigued. Floating enhances recovery time beyond recognition.
With such high concentrations of epsom salt in the float tank, the weightlessness experienced removes the pressure of gravity. In turn, with the weight and pressure removed from strained muscles, joints and bones, the body relaxes. This increases the efficiency of the blood circulation right through the body.
It also improves the recovery time from injury.

Because there is no gravity in our float pods the complete relaxation that it provides, allows every single muscle in the body to get the rest it needs and the time to recover. Floatation reduces injury risk during training and has amazing benefits!