We all know that oxygen is critical to our body’s survival. But do you know how oxygen makes
its way to your muscles to help promote blood flow and quick muscle recovery?
To understand the role of oxygen in muscle recovery, we must first understand what happens
during training or workout. During exercise, your muscles use ATP (Adenosine triphosphate),
which is stored in the body as an energy source. Once your oxygen levels get low, myoglobin is
used to fill the void. At this point, your blood vessels begin to expand, which allows blood to
flow quicker to your muscles, which in turn increases your heart rate. When the glycogen in the
tissues is depleted, your body begins to lose energy without anything left to keep it going.
When you’re done exercising, your body is in a state of oxygen debt because you’ve used up the
stores of ATP, glycogen and myoglobin. Oxygen is the only thing that can refill all these
deficiencies, which is why it is very crucial for muscle recovery.
This recovery period includes four stages.
1. Firstly, when your breathing becomes steady, oxygen in your body begins to replenish,
leading to the refilling of myoglobin oxygen stores in your muscles.
2. Secondly, this oxygen is used to convert your post-workout meal into glucose, thereby
gradually refilling your body’s glycogen levels.
3. Thirdly, with a combination of glycogen and oxygen, the depleted ATP levels in your body are
restored.
4. Finally, you’ve got all of the built-up lactic acids in the kidneys and liver to deal with. Oxygen
is required to break this acid down to convert it to pyruvic acid, which is then broken down into
ATP.
All of these four main stages of recovery require plenty of oxygen, which is why using gO2
therapy after a workout can work wonders. While the air we breathe is only about 21% oxygen
or less, gO2 therapy can increase your oxygen intake up to 4 1⁄2 times, which can help you restore
your body’s oxygen supplies in less time.
So next time, after a strenuous workout session, take a few puffs of gO2 therapy to eliminate
muscle fatigue and accelerate muscle recovery, so that muscle soreness doesn’t become an
excuse for you to skip the next day’s session
