Find Your Fit - Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at CPASE
Health and fitness expert, Clare Stobart shares her 1 month experience trialling the new Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at CPASE
Supercharge Your Health and Wellbeing
As homo-sapiens, we need oxygen to survive, as do most living things. Oxygen, in its simplest form, helps organisms grow, reproduce and convert food into energy. It makes up approximately 65% of the human body and acts as an energy source for our cells. As you know, we get our oxygen through breathing. The air we breathe is approximately 21% oxygen.
If you think of the vital part oxygen plays in our lives, that figure is seemingly low. Within the medical and fitness industry, decades of research have taken place to find a way for us to be able to breathe in more O2 and less nitrogen, which makes up for more than 70% of what we breathe in each and every day. Many factors such as stress, lifestyle and medical conditions can inhibit our body’s ability to utilise the oxygen we intake efficiently.
With a lifelong invested interest in fitness, health and wellbeing, I have visited conventions all over the world. A few years ago, at Elevate Fitness Convention in London, I learnt about Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy or HBOT for short. It is widely used within the medical field and has recently been cleared by the FDA in America for multiple uses, including wound healing, assisting in curing soft tissue infections, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns and post-surgical incisions.
By definition, Hyperbaric Oxygen is oxygen that is given at a pressure that is higher than the pressure of the atmosphere at sea level. It is well known for its use to treat scuba and deep-sea divers affected by the rapid change in pressure around them.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) involves sitting in an air-compressed chamber and breathing through an oxygen mask throughout the hour-long session. The compressed environment created by the chamber enables your lungs to absorb much more oxygen whilst breathing. This increase in pressure allows more oxygen to be dissolved into the plasma of the blood. Essentially, you are breathing close to 100% pure oxygen, which up-regulates the body’s recovery and regeneration processes. The wellbeing and anti-ageing effects of absorbing such an incredible amount of oxygen are second to none, so in the name of research, I began looking into this a little further to see if it lives up to the “hype”.
My 1 Month Trial Experiencing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at CPASE
HBOT is a truly unique experience, affording you huge health benefits all while simply relaxing and watching TV. You leave your phone and devices at the door to give you the opportunity to truly relax and switch off from the outside world for an hour. I have been using the chamber for the past month, up to 5 sessions per week to really see and feel the benefits.
It is recommended to wear comfortable clothing, ideally cotton material. The chamber is temperature controlled so you will feel comfortable at all times. As you enter the chamber, breathing with the oxygen mask on can take some time to get used to, but after a few sessions it does begin to feel more natural and comfortable.
As the hyperbaric oxygen chamber compresses, your ears may begin to pop, for me, this was usually within the first 10 minutes. This is perfectly normal and due to the change in pressure. As the chamber begins to decompress, you have the same sensation, which I found was around 15 minutes before the session was due to end. It is similar to the sensation you get whilst flying and has no side effects. Throughout the sessions, I feel very relaxed and almost sleepy plus the time passes quickly when you are able to watch your favourite series on Netflix!
Over the last month, using HBOT has certainly helped me to feel more alert, less stressed and more energetic. Even after a full day’s work I have felt really motivated to train and I also achieved my personal best on deadlifts this week, so I have been very pleased with my progress in the gym too.
My skin is glowing and I feel like I don’t need to put make-up on, which ordinarily I wear most days. I am also sleeping much better at night. Overall, the increase in my wellbeing and physical health has been exponential and that is why we have decided to invest in a HBOT at CPASE.
Benefits
Breathing in a surplus of oxygen over time stimulates angiogenesis, which is new blood vessel formation within your body tissue. Not only does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy build and repair damaged blood vessels, but it also triggers collagen growth, leading to increased healing. Research has also shown that there are amazing anti-ageing benefits with regular HBOT use.
As we all strive to live as healthy as possible, the chamber is certainly a great choice to elevate your wellbeing and boost your immunity. Numerous elite athletes and celebrities are already huge fans of the therapy such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Phelps and supermodel Kendall Jenner.
Now that I have experienced the chamber for myself, I can understand why these incredible athletes are rotating Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy into their training programmes.
Using HBOT
Generally, sessions are recommended blocks of 10, 20 or 40 which are tailored to the individual depending on your goal. It’s important to take into consideration whether you want to give your body a quick health and vitality boost, hit your personal best in the gym or even help combat major health challenges or aid in slowing the progression of degenerative diseases.
Research shows that most improvement is seen in the 4 to 6 weeks after Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy sessions. This is because there are still physiological benefits taking place as your body goes into rest repair mode. The experience and results are really impressive and it is certainly a therapy that I would recommend trying.
We have opened our chamber at CPASE Health Club to both members and non-members, which can be booked using our website or app. By opening up the treatment to all, we hope it can be of benefit to as many people as possible.
My experience of HBOT has been overwhelmingly positive, and it is something I will continue to do going forward, I hope to see you there too!
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