We know that salt therapy (also known as Halotherapy) is one of the fastest growing trends in holistic therapy today, offering profound health benefits for patients with various respiratory and skin conditions, and these benefits are backed by medical science and clinical trials.

Halotherapy sessions have also been shown to help alleviate anxiety and depression — and many patrons report improved mood, cognitive ability, deeper sleep, and lower levels of stress.

Today we are going to look into whether salt therapy can offer an athletic performance boost.

Can Salt Therapy Boost Athletic Performance?

In our article, Halotherapy: An Athlete’s Best Friend we provided some examples of professional athletes using halotherapy as part of their physical fitness regimen, in order to aid recovery and boost performance.

The logic behind halotherapy as a performance boost is simple:

Halotherapy improves breathing — which in turn increases our oxygen uptake, which logically results in increased oxygen delivery to our muscle cells for energy production.

Halotherapy: The Athlete’s Secret Weapon

According to new research and clinical evidence, halotherapy has been shown to:

  1. Improve the flow rate of oxygen to the muscles
  2. Increase aerobic and anaerobic capacity
  3. Improve heart strength
  4. Lower resting blood pressure

This is a profound discovery, and verifies that salt therapy is beneficial not only towards healing physical ailments, but also directly improves our physical athletic performance.

All cardiovascular and respiratory indices improved, after salt therapy: Vital Capacity (VC), Maximum Expiratory Volume per Second (MEVs), Maximum Ventilation (MV), Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF), resting blood pressure (BP) and resting heart rate (HR)
All cardiovascular and respiratory indices improved, after salt therapy: Vital Capacity (VC), Maximum Expiratory Volume per Second (MEVs), Maximum Ventilation (MV), Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF), resting blood pressure (BP) and resting heart rate (HR)
The 2012 study published in Science Direct, Impact Assessment of Saline Aerosols on Exercise Capacity of Athletes studied the following factors of athletic performance:

Respiratory Indices:

  • Vital Capacity (VC)
  • Maximum Expiratory Volume per Second (MEVS)
  • Maximum Ventilation (V max)
  • Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF)

Cardiovascular Indices:

  • Blood Pressure at Rest (BP)
  • Heart Rate at Rest (HR)

The study was performed on 12 middle distance runners, from the ages of 14 to 16, for a total period of 21 days.

Halotherapy sessions were provided daily within a controlled air-proof chamber, where the atmosphere contained dry sodium chloride aerosol (negatively charged ions), at a comfortable temperature and humidity, for an average of 60 minutes per day.

Results of Halotherapy on Athletic Performance

The results were remarkable.

There was a significant increase in all respiratory indices measured: Vital Capacity (VC), Maximum Expiratory Volume per Second (MEVs), Maximum Ventilation (MV), Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF).

There was also a significant decrease in both cardiovascular indices: resting blood pressure (BP) and resting heart rate (HR).

Halotherapy results showed performance boosting effects
Halotherapy results showed performance boosting effects
Concerning breathing and respiration efficiency: there was a measured increase in oxygen saturation of arterial blood, and also a resistance to apnea and hypoxia.

Concerning cardiovascular efficiency: the body adaptation of each subject showed improved efficiency in blood pressure and flow, indicating improved heart health and strength.

Both results are indicators of the vast improvement in physical capacity and performance by all test subjects, as a direct result of halotherapy.

Conclusion

This is a significant finding, as most athletes looking to boost athletic performance often resort to the use of sports supplements, or performance enhancing drugs. Performance supplement sales are a $60-billion-per-year industry, and many products are gimmicks — which result in little to no performance gains at all.

We now have evidence to support that a natural alternative — halotherapy — can provide a significant boost in physical performance.

If you’re an athlete, a competitor, or just looking to improve your physical performance, Halotherapy is now a proven method to give you that performance edge.


We hope you found the information above useful. Leave a comment below, or contact us if you have any questions.

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