Introduction
Mike (00:00)
Okay. Thank you for joining us on episode number two for the red light therapy podcast. We're continuing on with our foundations and performance series. And yet again, our cohost today is longevity and sports performance specialist from West Texas, Dr. Alan Inman. Welcome to the show. Dr. Alan.
Dr Alan Inman (00:01)
Okay.
series. ⁓
Hello everyone great to be here again and talk about one of my favorite topics. ⁓
Mike (00:22)
That's right. Dr. Inman again, like I mentioned last time, has two clinics
in Costa Rica. He's a medical director of a stem cell clinic as well. And he is a red light therapy expert. So today we're going to fire a few questions at him to get the most out of your red light therapy device. And we're going to keep this under 15 minutes so you can listen on your way to the work, on the way to the gym or even during one of your red light therapy sessions.
Dr Alan Inman (00:42)
Chill.
Recovery Optimization & Performance
Mike (00:46)
Foundation and performance today we're going to be talking about cutting recovery time and as much as 50%. my first question to you, Dr. Allen is can I really spend less time at the gym and see more results with red light therapy?
Dr Alan Inman (00:46)
I'll let you know.
Yes, that what we have is recovery is optimized. Now, what do I mean by this? If at the end of the day, training isn't where adaptation happens, okay? It's during our recovery. So if during our recovery it's inefficient,
then what we're going to end up having is an accumulation of fatigue faster than what we can accumulate in progress. So what am I trying to say here? For any athlete, it's important that there is not any fatigue the very next day because that output in performance will be less and less and less. Because what happens is if you're not recovering well, then at the end of the day, you're not going to have
sufficient amount of protein synthesis, you're going to have an accumulation of inflammation, and then the neuromuscular, the nervous system with the muscles, they won't be recovering and having the signal as they need ⁓ adequately. So it's important more because of this recovery than it is thinking, you know, it's in time frame. Okay? Yeah, I mean, I guess that's it.
When to Use Red Light Therapy
Mike (02:20)
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I guess with that said, is it
better to use a red light therapy before the lift or after the lift of a workout session?
Dr Alan Inman (02:28)
It depends on what you're trying to achieve. So let's just say this is a sports athlete and they're looking at it like, you know, I've got a game today and I need to give my best. Then what I would say is do it before because what it'll do is prepare the mitochondria for that moment and have the appropriate output of energy to have better performance. But
If you do it after you work out, what it's gonna do is it's gonna help you with recovery, it's gonna help decrease inflammation, and it's gonna help with this neuromuscular signals to work appropriately. And so it's gonna help us with recovery much faster. It just depends on what you're looking at and what you're trying to achieve.
How Red Light Affects Muscles
Mike (03:21)
Doing it right then, because I usually do red light therapy after my workouts, but before my tennis, I'm a competitive tennis player. So before the match is about two or three hours, I'll hit up a session. So I think I'm doing it right. ⁓ What exactly is happening to my muscles under the red light?
Dr Alan Inman (03:36)
Well, as we spoke of in the last ⁓ episode, it was important to be able to see how red light and infrared light ⁓ work. So what it does is reach on a cellular level, what is the mitochondria? And by reaching the mitochondria, it's going to reach an enzyme that I had mentioned before called cytochrome C oxidase, which when it is absorbed by, you know, it absorbs this red light therapy.
you're going to have this output of energy and what it's going to do is help so that we utilize the oxygen at its best and by having this energy then you're going to be able to have better output of your muscle function.
Muscle Soreness & Recovery
Mike (04:25)
That makes sense. Thank you for putting that in layman's so can red light therapy prevent the second day muscle soreness? You know, sometimes when I get a really good workout or a really good cardio, my muscles are sore for days. Can, can red light therapy help with the second or more day of soreness?
Dr Alan Inman (04:26)
sense thank you for putting out the
Well, yes, particularly ⁓ it's called delayed onset muscle soreness. And so what's happening is on a microstructural level, there is damage and there's more inflammation. And ⁓ what's happening is ⁓ you'll end up having that pain come along with it. And so whenever we have this photo modulation, it's going to decrease the inflammation. It's going to
provide that energy to be able to regenerate these tissues, it's gonna help the lymphatic and venous flow, which is meaning our lymphatic system is gonna be able to grab all that has been accumulated, proteins and toxins and things, and remove them. And it's gonna help also that flow of blood that's returning to the blood to improve.
And then it's gonna normalize what is oxidative stress. So that's like the inflammation side of it. And it won't be ⁓ one of those pushing it far end of antioxidant type of look to it. It's just gonna help that there's better adaptation.
Muscle Growth vs Repair
Mike (05:54)
Okay, great. So does this help with muscle growth or is it just repair?
Dr Alan Inman (05:55)
Okay, great. So does this help with muscle growth or it just for repair?
It's gonna help both. So whenever it comes to repair, as we were talking about before, it's gonna decrease the inflammation, it's gonna help ⁓ improve collagen production, and it enhances local circulation of the blood. And then if we're looking at the component of growth, what we're going to find is
It improves consistency by reducing what is ⁓ recovery that could bottleneck. It also is going to help these ⁓ by optimizing what is the mitochondrial health. And so it's going to help ⁓ with the growth of muscles because if you have better output of energy, you're going to be able to do more in those workouts and you're going to be able to grow more muscle.
Distance & Proper Usage
Mike (06:55)
You know, I've been doing red light therapy for probably six years now. I'm just still amazed that light can do so much. It's just incredible. And with that said though, there's a lot of different ways to utilize the benefits of red light therapy, right? You've got skin rejuvenation, you've got deep tissue work. How close should I stand to the panel for say deep muscle work like this?
Dr Alan Inman (06:55)
You know, I've been doing red light therapy for probably six years now. I'm still amazed that I can do so.
Yeah, with that said, one, two, two,
to the panel.
Well, it would be between 6 and 12 inches because distance ⁓ Matters completely. I mean if you if you get too close ⁓ Then you're not gonna have you know ⁓ the effect that you're looking for ⁓ Because it'll be too much and then if you go too far Then you won't get the effect that you're expecting. It was kind of like what we spoke of before with the orange salt Schultz ⁓
Mike (07:22)
Mm-hmm.
Dr Alan Inman (07:43)
law where if you don't have enough red light therapy you won't get the effect and then there's that moment where you'll get the optimized effect and then you can have too much. So getting too close is not going to give you the effect that you're looking for because you know it's going to give you too much and if you're too far then obviously you're not going to get any effect and you know the idea is that you can optimize
how you're using this red light therapy. You don't want to just waste your time and money, correct?
Targeted vs Full-Body Treatment
Mike (08:17)
Yeah,
like all good things, you don't want to overdo it. So is it better to treat the specific muscle that I worked at the gym that day or the muscle that I'm trying to repair or the whole body at once?
Dr Alan Inman (08:29)
It's, we can look at it like this. You can target an area and that would be great. The important thing is that at the end of the day, you're getting sufficient amount of red light therapy and time and energy. So whenever we look at the fact that you just want to be able to help an area, so I hurt my shoulder. So do 10 minutes and 10 minutes.
and I'm helping the shoulder out. But if you just want to do the whole body, it's still going to reach the shoulder and help it out. So it's not like ⁓ I'd rather pick A over B. ⁓ I would say you're going to end up getting the same effect. It's just something that I'd rather just do the whole body because you might as well get the benefit for the rest of the tissues in your body while you're at
Mike (09:21)
That's true.
Closing Remarks
Dr. Allen, those are all the questions I had for you today. Thank you so much again for your wisdom. I look forward to the next episode where we're going to continue on with our foundations ⁓ and performance series. in the meantime, any of you listeners that have questions, please go to redlighttherapypodcast.com and submit your question. Thank you so much, Dr. Allen.
Dr Alan Inman (09:41)
and hope you guys have a blessed day.
