NormaTec compression therapy has combined thousands of years of scientific innovations to promote a new way of healing. The NormaTec compression suit yields several restoring benefits to the body. These benefits include the following: increased circulation, enhanced range of motion, faster and stronger recovery, and reduction of pain sensitivity.
The History of Compression Therapy
Building upon several thousand years of scientific and medical evolution compression therapy is in a new era. Forms of compression therapy can date back to 460-377 B.C. during the time of Hippocrates. This Greek physician is known as of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. Moreover, ancient civilizations such as Roman and Egypt used garments similar to modern day compression socks to bind and treat injuries. However, it wasn’t until the wake of WWII when compression therapy improved wound healing and promoted blood circulation, reduced poor circulation and decreased swelling.
The New Age of NormaTec
The NormaTec brand started as a way to alleviate excessive swelling from the medical condition known as lymphedema. Now its main focus is athletic recovery. NormaTec uses biomimicry to increase blood flow and muscle recovery. The three key techniques of NormaTec’s recovery system involve pulsing, distal release and gradients.
- Pulsing mimics the legs and arms’ muscle contractions resulting in enhanced fluid movement.
- Distal release holds the pressure in a specific zone so that each portion of the limb receives a specific rest time between compression stages.
- Gradients prevent fluid back-flow and utilizes hold pressures ensuring that fluids cannot flow in the wrong direction.
Why Athletes Should Invest in NormaTec Compression
So why should you invest in NormaTec Compression? The health benefits from the NormaTec compression suit are endless and provide immense healing systems for athletes. Increased blood flow is probably the most significant benefit yielding from this type of compression therapy. Athletes have to deal with muscle fatigue and exercise-induced inflammation on a daily basis; however, with an increase in blood flow the body is encouraged to deliver more oxygen and thus more nutrients into specific parts of the body. An enhanced circulatory output leads to faster recovery, pain relief and improved athletic performance. Our body’s circulatory system is also responsible for removing metabolic waste and toxins making healing easier for our bodies.
The Sport Science in NormaTec
A study through the East Tennessee State University’s Department of Exercise and Sport Science sought to assess compression therapy, or peristaltic pulse dynamic compression (PPDC), in reducing short-term pressure-to-pain threshold (PPT) among athletes after extensive training. The study showed that the experimental group’s PPT threshold improved after compression treatment and stayed at that new increased point. However, the control group’s threshold did not change. After the compression therapy it was evident that muscle tenderness was reduced and PPT remained enhanced for several hours after the initial treatment and throughout the following day’s training. The experimenters agreed that PPDC and similar compression therapy methods were reliable in accelerating and enhancing recovery in athletes to relieve fatigue and muscle soreness.
