Float Benefits for Runners and Athletes

The Incredible Benefits of Float Therapy for Runners and Athletes

Floatation therapy in Perth is in hot demand among professional athletes and enthusiasts, as a safe, performance-enhancing recovery tool, in which they’re finding benefits beyond the gym.

Across the globe, float therapy is now a common part of a successful training program, endorsed by high-level trainers and sport scientists, including our own Australian Institute for Sport, who have long been advocating its use for regeneration, restoration, and mental clarity.

What is Float Therapy?

During float therapy, you step into a private pod of magnesium-rich, body temperature water, usually for one hour at a time. Housed in a controlled environment, or float room, it’s specially designed to calibrate light, sound, and temperature with 500kg’s of epsom salt in the water so you float effortlessly, eliminating the impact of gravity to switch off muscle tension.

Floating is Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST), with clinically proven benefits that include easing anxiety and depression, headaches, insomnia, and chronic muscle tension.

How Can Float Therapy Help Athletes?

Many athletes are so focused on upping the intensity of their performance and training for advancement, recovery can often take second place, overtaken by the pressures of everyday, family, or work life. But we all need balance for optimal function.

When you fail to plan recovery, you could be missing out on a performance edge, clear mental focus, or be setting yourself up for injury.

Healing is fast-tracked in the float pod, by the combination of magnesium, decompression, and relaxation, and can help anyone from runners to swimmers, yogis to MMA fighters, on the track, on the field, and more.

Major benefits include:

• – Faster processing of lactic acid for reduced DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
• – Enhanced recovery as rest builds resilience against fatigue
• – Immune system and energy (ATP) boost
• – Mindfulness for goal setting and visualisation

It’s believed that one-hour floating is the equivalent of several hours of good quality sleep!

Optimal Use of Float Therapy

Switch off to up-level performance.

One of the best times to use float tank therapy as part of your training program is when you’ve hit a wall – your training isn’t giving you the results you’re hoping for, you’re feeling more fatigue, strength has plateaued.

Instead of crashing through the wall, the easy, pleasurable answer may be floating!

Swap the massage for float therapy.

After a big event, try putting a float first on the list – it can be a gentler and more restorative alternative for a stressed our body and mind following that major peak, helping with fluid, fatigue, and soreness. Save the massage for a follow-up, as it could be too bruising on a sore body straight away.

Schedule floating into your training program.

Everyone is different, so experiment with the timing of your floats. Some suggestions are:

• – Taper weeks, leading up – to an event
• – Before a big event to increase energy and performance
• – Immediately after an event
• – Recovery weeks
• – When you’ve hit an injury snag
• – When you need to shake up your mental game for extra clarity

Practice for perfection.

Any athlete knows, that practice improves performance, and floating is no different. We recommend trying three float sessions before you really make your mind up.

It can often be hard for your brain and fight or flight response to calm down enough to gain full benefit until it’s comfortable in the new, sensory deprivation pod.

Also, the benefits of floating are cumulative – the more you do it, the more you gain.

Let the Benefits Float On

If you care about balance and performance enhancement, treat yourself to a float and see the benefits for yourself.

Find that sweet spot by experimenting with timing and frequency, to pinpoint that part of your program where it works best.

You can book online now at one of our three locations across Perth – Wembley, Currambine, or North Beach, or contact our friendly team to chat more about float therapy today.