Before commencing an Earthing regimen, engaging with your healthcare provider is advisable, particularly if you're under their supervision. Earthing may influence your emotional state and medical assessments, potentially necessitating adjustments to your medication regimen. If you're on medication, seeking advice from your healthcare professional before initiating and during your earthing practice is highly recommended.
It's important to note that the information provided on this platform is intended solely for educational purposes and should not be construed as medical advice.
Performance is a learning curve. Whether you're a fitness fanatic like me or a high-performance athlete, you'll constantly search for new ways to improve your performance and recovery. Better muscle fibre growth, superior injury healing, and deeper sleep are just a few of the things that can make or break your performance.
However, one key factor that can massively impact healing, muscle gains, and recovery is earthing, which many athletes and gym bunnies need to include. If you haven't heard of Earthing, you're not alone. So, here's a brief summary!
The term "Earthing" does a good job of describing the process, which is also sometimes called "grounding." Basically, Earthing is when you connect to the earth by touching the ground with bare skin, walking barefoot, or making contact with specially designed socks, mats, or pads.
What Does Earthing Do, Exactly?
When your body makes contact with the earth without any barriers, your atoms exchange free electrons with the earth's atoms. These electrons are negatively charged particles that act like antioxidants in your body.
Antioxidants help you by protecting your body against harmful processes caused by atoms called "free radicals." Neutralising free radicals with antioxidants can:
- Reduce levels of inflammation naturally
- Help to heal diseases in the body
- Decrease the risk of cancer
- Protect against heart disease
- Slow down ageing
What Are The Benefits Of Earthing For Athletes?
Along with the health benefits of those antioxidant electrons, earthing has a range of benefits that are crucial to athletes and fitness fanatics. Without optimal muscle recovery, all of that hard work in the gym or on the trail will be for nothing. A good night's sleep and the right conditions for muscle recovery allow us to make the gains in strength and muscle mass that we strive for every day.
The benefits of Earthing for athletes and sports enthusiasts include:
- Faster muscle recovery from intense exercise
- Less muscle pain (DOMS) after workouts
- Reduced blood thickness after exercise
- Improved sleep quality
Is Earthing Scientifically Proven?
For all you sceptics out there…yes, there is heaps of high-quality scientific evidence showing that Earthing positively impacts muscle recovery and healing!
A 2015 study at the University of Oregon showed that athletes who used Earthing as a part of their recovery routine from intense weightlifting sessions recovered faster than their non-Earthing counterparts. The study participants who did Earthing were less sore during the recovery period, had lower levels of inflammation, and showed faster healing of the muscle micro-tears caused by heavy lifting.
Another study in 2019 at the University of Salzburg investigated how muscle recovery was impacted by Earthing during sleep, after an intense session of downhill running designed to cause muscle fatigue and pain in the participants. In all of the participants who spent the night Earthing after their run, there were fewer signs of muscle damage, lower inflammation levels, and overall faster recovery.
How To Get Started
Suppose you don't want to walk around barefoot all day. In that case, there's an easy solution to get your Earthing fix - an underlay kit or Earthing pillow cover for your bed to connect to the earth. At the same time, you sleep and enjoy all the benefits of Earthing when you wake up in the morning and get ready for your next workout.
Happy Earthing,
Blake