Do you find yourself feeling sore after a run, workout, or even just from your daily routine? While it’s important to consult your primary care physician before beginning any treatments to ensure safety, many times aches and pains can be treated effectively at home.
One of the most effective remedies for aches and pains in your muscles, lower back, neck, and legs may be heat therapy. Heat therapy is aimed to help relax the body and facilitate faster bodily healing. Today we’re discussing the benefits of heat therapy and ways to implement it that may help get you back to feeling you best in no time!
What is Heat Therapy?
Before we jump into the benefits of heat therapy, what is it? Heat therapy is any method of applying heat to the body. Sounds simple, right? It can be over one particular area from an injury or experiencing muscle tightness or it can be applied along your entire body for an all-over relaxing effect. For a more full body experience, tools like massage chairs with heat therapy along the back as well as knees and calves are ideal!
Benefits of Dry Heat Therapy vs Moist Heat Therapy
Heat therapy can be broken into two categories: dry heat and moist heat. Dry heat therapy includes tools like heating pads, heat lamps, and luxury massage chairs with heat therapy features. Moist heat therapy, then, is made up of heat therapy options like a warm bath, a sauna/hot tub, gel packs, or using warm damp towels.
Some benefits of dry heat therapy are that they tend to be able to be used for longer periods of time (for example, you don’t need to reheat a dry heating pad periodically), have easier application, heat up more quickly, and are less of a potential mess. Conversely, they may dry your skin out faster, so it’s important to keep an eye on that to avoid potential skin irritation from dry heat therapy tools.
Then what are the benefits of moist heat therapy? Some professionals argue that moist heat therapy may penetrate more deeply at the same temperature. Additionally, they don’t dehydrate the skin which may be a concern for older heat therapy users.
Regardless of whether you use dry heat therapy or moist heat therapy tools, both can provide relief and muscle relaxation to get you back to feeling your best!
Several Benefits of Heat Therapy
Now that you’ve got a better understanding of what heat therapy is as well as the differences between moist vs dry heat therapy treatments, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of heat therapy. Heat therapy works by increasing the temperature of the application area. The benefits of heat therapy help in a variety of ways including:
- Improving blood circulation for faster healing
- Fighting inflammation and swelling
- Alleviating back pain relief
- Loosening muscles and preventing stiffness
- Benefiting sleep quality, elevating mood, and treating sciatica symptoms
Improving Blood Circulation With Heat Therapy
First, the increase in temperature from heat therapy application helps improve blood circulation. This helps blood deliver oxygen and nutrients more effectively to muscles and tissue, resulting in faster healing and pain relief.
Using Heat Therapy for Inflammation and Swelling
Another one of the benefits of heat therapy stemming from better blood circulation is how it may help fight inflammation and reduce swelling. As the temperature rises at the application site, liquid buildups in tissue that cause swelling (called edema) are able to flow more freely and blood vessels dilate. This inflammation and swelling can be a prime cause of pain, as well, showing another consistent benefit of heat therapy: pain relief.
Heat Therapy for Back Pain Relief
Heat therapy is a common treatment for back pain, as well. If you use a heated massage chair for back pain to treat a larger application area at once, choose one with heated lumbar support! Having proper lumbar support helps alleviate pressure on the spine and pelvic areas, a common cause of back pain. It also helps you improve your posture on a regular basis. Using a massage chair with heated lumbar support can be beneficial in preventing back pain commonly found in office workers, those working from home, and others who may find themselves sitting for long periods of time.
Applying Heat Therapy for Muscles to Relax
Applying heat therapy for muscles to relax is another benefit you won’t want to miss. The heat helps loosen muscles that may be tight after physical activity such as working out or playing sports.
Heated massage chair benefits for athletes and those with active lifestyles include the ability to experience heat therapy over a larger area at once, making them perfect for post workout recovery to avoid Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). The heat therapy features of luxury massage chairs keep muscles loose and prevent stiffness that can occur even up to 36 hours later.
Other Heat Therapy Benefits
Other benefits of heat therapy may also include better sleep quality, reduced anxiety or depression symptoms, and muscle spasm treatment (a common sciatica symptom). Once you experience heat therapy (especially if you’re combining it with other benefits of massage chairs for health) you may feel a noticeable difference in how you recover and how you feel!
We hope this guide has helped you learn the benefits of heat therapy and ways to implement it. Whether you choose dry heat or moist heat therapy treatment, it may provide muscle relaxation, faster bodily healing, pain relief, and many other health boosts. Choose a massage chair to experience heat therapy benefits and get back to feeling your best every day! As always, consult your primary care physician before you begin any form of treatment to ensure it’s safe for you to do so.
Interested in learning more about the benefits of luxury massage chairs? Take a look at these resources and see how they fit your needs:
