Aiming for a healthy life can be challenging. It involves devoting yourself to regular exercise, eating mindfully, and following a consistent path to good physical health. Sometimes, when we push ourselves too hard, too quickly, an injury can occur, and it can take a toll on our mental and physical health. 

If you are a fitness enthusiast or an athlete suffering from a sports injury, it will also hamper your emotional well-being.  

A study on the rehabilitation of athletes was conducted to explore insight into how athletes undergo psychosocial changes and how it takes time to return to their previous workouts and performances. 

To help address all these concerns, oxygen is a healer in all forms. It helps produce more energy in the body by becoming a defensive layer and helping encourage healthy cell growth.

This blog serves as a guide to understanding the use of oxygen therapy for injury recovery and many other aspects of its benefits.

Understanding Oxygen Therapy

We understand that oxygen makes the most of our body and optimizes our cells to work at their full potential. Our lungs are an essential organ that requires clean and fresh air to function optimally. 

The American Lung Association recommends oxygen therapy as a supplement therapy that adds clean air to the body and helps enhance organ functionality.  

The role of EWOT, or Exercise With Oxygen Therapy, is considered one of the types of therapy, apart from hyperbaric oxygen therapy and topical oxygen therapy for injury recovery. It enhances the body's oxygen levels and helps athletes recover and perform better. 

It involves muscle energy, decreases lactic acid and damaging inflammation, promotes recovery naturally, and aids a support system that elevates athletes back to their performances. 

How does EWOT work?

EWOT (Exercising with Oxygen therapy) combines physical activity with breathing concentrated oxygen to boost the amount of oxygen intake your body uses during exercises. 

EWOT works impeccably for injury, combining long inhalations of concentrated oxygen with low-intensity exercises to improve blood circulation, tissue recovery, and better performance. During physical training, the body requires oxygen to boost energy to cells, which helps with muscle functioning and supports rehabilitation.  

Inhaling concentrated oxygen ensures that the oxygen is delivered to damaged tissues and expedites recovery. It works for sports recovery, training, and chronic fatigue caused by CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome).

The whole process through which EWOT works gets exciting as it is not a chamber with many complicated machines. It is one mask that can be put on along with your favorite form of exercise and is absolutely fun. This is how it works:

• Start your exercise, be it paddling a stationary cycle, a treadmill, or your favorite piece of cardio equipment and attach a mask to your face connected to a reservoir filled with oxygen.

• Slowly start moving your body, and while you increase the flow, breathe concentrated oxygen. This helps complete blood flow as it pumps concentrated oxygen to all the injured areas of your body. 

• Doing EWOT for 15 minutes and accelerating the blood flow in your body allows oxygen to reach your cells, helping them rejuvenate and heal. It boosts recovery by speeding up the healing of damaged tissue. 

• The recovery is fast, with less swelling involved and less pain. There is a visible change in mobility, and your body starts healing naturally.  

How Can Oxygen Therapy be Utilized for Injury Recovery?

Like hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), EWOT is also an accessible procedure for recovering from any injury caused by long endurance and high-intensity activities. 

You can understand the difference between HBOT and EWOT and analyze its potential forms that help you recover from an injury.  

Another important aspect is understanding how oxygen therapy is utilized. As an exercise performed under the therapy only takes 15 minutes per session, during an injury, one can begin with a 5-10 minute session and work up as the body allows to provide excellent results.  

Advantages of using EWOT for Rehabilitation

With the increasing popularity that it has gained due to its unique ways of supporting cell growth, it has numerous advantages. Some of them are listed below:  

• Better oxygen circulation in the body

It is usually done three to five times a week and can be done without the guidance of a practitioner, keeping in mind the optimum condition required by each individual and their circumstances. For an injury, you can perform it once in under 10 days and boost cell growth for recovery. 

• Improves blood flow

Increasing the oxygen concentration you breathe during exercise increases the amount of oxygen circulating in your blood.  An increase in oxygen in the body fights injuries and supports your recovery phase. 

• Improved Immunity

With oxygen therapy for injury, you can improve overall immunity by restoring rich oxygen blood that keeps the body healthy and fights infections.  

• Reduces risk of future diseases

Immunity is boosted through healthy cells that heal the injury naturally and reduce the risks of future illnesses. Although oxygen therapy reduces the risk of various diseases, it is also important to know the science and its benefits for individuals, including athletes.  

• Smooth flow of energy

An injury can disrupt the body flow and hamper your psychosocial ability. EWOT, through its steady flow, can boost lost energy and confidence.  

Rehabilitation: Is EWOT effective for recovering from Injuries?

Yes, EWOT has great effects on healing injuries. It has the potential to boost blood flow within the body, improve stamina, and gradually impact your performance, which helps create an efficient exercise routine. 

Inhaling oxygen-rich air during your recovery in an EWOT session will help with your healing and boost your confidence. Since the therapy is highly effective and can be performed independently, you will feel more energized and less pain from inflammation.  

Breathing in concentrated oxygen while recovering accelerates the healing and gets you back to doing all the activities you love.

Final Thoughts

Injuries are part of an athlete's fitness journey; going through them makes your body more assertive. Training and exercise with this therapy is imperative during your recovery period to improve your health and overall blood flow capacity. 

It is not just oxygen therapy; it is more than that, as incorporating it will help in training and improve performance and recovery.