PEMF therapy benefits in Sports Medicine

Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) has huge benefits in sports medicine due to its regenerative and performance enhancement effects for the entire body as well as improving brain function and cognitive abilities. Altogether, PEMF has a variety of uses in sports psychology, athletic training, sports physical therapy, kinesiology, sports nutrition and bodybuilding.

Let us learn how PEMF therapy works as sports medicine for each of the above disciplines.

Sports Psychology & Neurology

Sports psychologists are constantly working to improve the mental performance of clients. Playing sports in itself has great health benefits (Applied Performance Psychology) but in professional sports, players can experience psychological effects that are different than the average player. In professional sports, the focus shifts towards delivering high level performance in a competitive environment rather than simply enjoying the sport or the benefits of the sport. Coaches and sports psychologists alike regularly use sports psychology principles to motivate and improve performance. No championship can be won without superior mental performance.

PEMF therapy has been found to be effective for treating major depression^​1​ and anxiety and therefore improves mental health and performance. Thus, PEMFs can be used for professional athletes who regularly have additional stress factors such as hectic schedules and frequent travel, and the competitiveness of sports. Often times, players spend long hours training, practicing, and playing, usually with little work-life balance, which can decrease the quality of life.

Adequate sleep is essential for efficient and effective function. Sleep issues are common in the professional sports setting. PEMFs have also been found through brain entrainment effects to improve sleep and hence optimal mental and cognitive functioning. Regular application of PEMF therapy has been shown to improve sleep^​​2​. Deeper sleep has a great impact on physical and mental performance. This is another great way that PEMFs can be used to support athletic training, by ensuring players get proper sleep and thus better performance, naturally.

PEMF therapy has been shown to improve brain function even in Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, stroke, and concussion.

PEMFs not only balance brain chemistry, but they also stabilize and improve neurological reflexes, which combined, improve reaction time. Standing balance tests have shown magnetic fields decrease sway, indicating enhanced homeostatic neurologic muscular control mechanisms.

“Brain zapping” using tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) electrotherapy applications has shown some positive results. tDCS or tPCS (transcranial pulse current stimulation) is quite limited by the flow of current along the path of least resistance. Neither of these penetrate into the brain because of this natural resistance to charge. So, they produce their effects on the brain through indirect mechanisms.

PEMF therapy application is contact-less as it’s electromagnetic, allowing deeper penetration and stimulation of the brain directly, and provides not only excitatory brain stimulation but also enhancing circulation in the brain, tissue repair, neurotransmitter release and neuro-hormonal production. Thus PEMF therapy in sports medicine will provide sufficient and more efficient athletic brain stimulation with added benefits of hormone balancing, faster recovery from injury and more!

Pulsed electromagnetic fields provide stronger stimulation over a larger tissue area, and with almost no sensation, unlike tDCS. So, if you’re considering brain zapping, you don’t have to wear “brain stims” on your head before and during practice. PEMF therapy is easier by only having to lay on a mat at home or your gym or clinic. 

To sum it up, PEMF therapy has great benefits for sports psychology and neurology, such as enhanced hand-eye-motor coordination and reaction time, and enhanced mental health performance leading to happier, better rested and better performing players.

Athletic Training

If you are a high performance consultant, applied sport scientist/technologist, or strength & conditioning specialist, PEMFs have a multitude of benefits for your practice and clients.

High level athletes have great compensation abilities, being physiologically efficient at maintaining homeostasis (balancing performance levels) through allostatic mechanisms (compensations). Having the ability to compensate does not mean athletes are preventing themselves from potentially suffering from an injury. Applying PEMFs is an important rapidly acting, homeostasis strategy and keeps the athletes in a  better regulatory condition to avoid injury. 

Applied sports technologists should be able to measure the effectiveness of PEMFs using various methods, such as heart rate variability (HRV) tests, as well as assessments of strength improvements through modern analytical methods such as pressure mapping. HRV testing is not a single snapshot and it has a great value in sports performance only when analyzed as a trend over time. Autonomic balance depends on the stress-recovery ratio and the type of training dose, keeping in mind that high parasympathetic states are NOT always positive and autonomic patterns and outputs are highly related to the type of sport.

Besides improving cardiovascular HRV efficiency, PEMF therapy for athletic training also provides improved blood circulation^​3​ and, therefore, tissue oxygenation, allowing for more efficient muscle activity and faster recovery after muscle activity^​4​. PEMFs also improve tissue energy production of ATP by between 100 and 600%. In addition, the strength and condition of bone tissues can be improved using PEMFs because of their bone tissue engineering^​5​ effects too.

They also improve recovery time after injury, including reducing delayed onset muscle soreness. This happens due to a natural phenomena due to improved cellular oxygen carrying capacity^​4​.

Performance testing and monitoring by athletes using PEMF therapy as sports medicine reveals that the combined neurological and physical recovery effects could improve strength and stamina by more than 20% in most players within a month of daily, high intensity treatments.

PEMF therapy in Sports Physical Therapy, Sports Chiropractic and Kinesiology

These disciplines aim to enhance bones, joints and muscle recovery, and improve flexibility, endurance and energy.  PEMF therapy has tremendous use as rehabilitation medicine and has great benefits after orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery too. That would explain why sports medicine practitioners started adopting PEMF therapy in sports medicine. Certainly, we can apply these principles for sports physical therapy, chiropractic and kinesiology applications.

While we can control the training process in order to mitigate injury risk, there’s no sure way to completely prevent injury. In fact, injury risk mitigation should be the most appropriate way to define the efforts of “preventing” injury. Similarly, injury can be different from person to person, and instance to instance, so it’s not only multifactorial, it’s also hard to predict individual outcome.

PEMF therapy has rapid effects to improve bone regeneration^​6​ as well as has the ability to reverse brain concussion. Flexibility should improve in the short-term^​7​ due to effects of PEMFs on collagen, softening of any scars or adhesions and improved circulation. Most users will see that they are able to stretch more and feel looser within a few sessions of PEMF therapy. Thus kinesiologists will find better movements, and chiropractors and physiotherapists will see improved bone, muscle and soft tissue health and more rapid and better recovery from sports injuries.

Tendinopathy is increasing in prevalence and accounts for a substantial part of all sports injuries^​8​​ and occupational disorders. Quite recently in 2019, more than a dozen scientists from PMU Spinal Cord Injury & Tissue Regeneration Center (Austria) found that PEMF therapy can help to optimize treatment protocols for the non-invasive therapy of tendinopathies.

It’s important for sports chiropractors, physical therapists or kinesiologists to have tools that help regenerate neurons^​9​ as well as tissues, , and using PEMF therapy can help regenerate both. With stronger bones and joints, the need for supplements may decrease, although, regular use of PEMFs can make any supplement use even more effective. The investment in a PEMF machine will pay itself off multiple times over the years. Sports physical therapist education should certainly include an introduction to PEMF therapy, as it can have such a big impact on the discipline. 

PEMF for Sports Nutrition

Sports medicine also includes consideration of nutrition. Peak performance, gained through training and competition, must also include ensuring that the energy derived from food is optimal.

Most sports nutritionists consulting Olympics players and world championship players will have clients expecting more than just nutrition consulting, they are looking for  supplementation and energy enhancing strategies. PEMF therapy complements both objectives.

PEMF therapy in sports medicine also has a great role to play in sports nutrition, since  PEMFs have a regenerative effect on gut health^​10,11​ and nutrient absorption. Most sports nutritionists consulting Olympics players and world championship players will have clients expecting more than just nutrition consulting, they are looking for supplementation and energy enhancing strategies.

PEMF also has a healing effect on diabetes^​12​. This should be very useful in improving the function and performance and extending careers of athletes with such health issues.

PEMF for Body Building & Strength Training

PEMF therapy for body building and strength training is the secret of many weightlifters and bodybuilders. While nutrition, schedule and supplementation are all important aspects of training, a balanced bioelectric/bioenergetic system plays an equally important role in the outcomes. PEMF therapy for body building shows results by improving muscle function, energy production, circulation and tissue oxygenation. These actions all result in massive gains in performance and decreases in recovery time after workouts and injuries. 

PEMFs help muscles work harder, longer and recover faster. PEMF therapy has been around in Eastern Europe for over 50 years. In the past, when the Eastern Europeans dominated the Olympics consistently, PEMF therapy was frequently used, even during the Olympics.

Muscle strength soars^​13​ in studies using PEMF therapy for parkinson’s disease functional force improvement. The particular study referenced here used a powerline frequency of 50 Hz, while we propose even better benefits with the more natural and effective frequency of 10 Hz.

Using PEMF can also help to regain joint strength^​14​ , leading to quicker recovery, and improved performance. While all physical sports require excellent joint strength, it is a huge factor of physical superiority and therefore especially important for lifters and bodybuilders. 

It’s been shown with bodybuilders, strongmen and weightlifters that the recovery period can be reduced by half with regular PEMF use. These results come from at-home or night-before use of a PEMF machine.

These same results were not found with use of the PEMF therapy in sports medicine as a warm up to physical activity, or immediately before activity. While brain stimulation using tDCS applications is commonly used today to enhance performance, it would require use immediately before a session, because of their short acting and limited physiologic effects, and there is a significant discomfort level. Pulsed electromagnetic field stimulation on the other hand, has many other benefits compared to electrical stimulation. That’s another reason that PEMF therapy is a better, more efficient therapeutic modality, producing longer-lasting effects and impacting and strengthening the entire neurological and physical tissue system.

Conclusions

Altogether, the above discussion did not go into all possible sports. The general principles and benefits presented can be applied to virtually all sports. Gyms, sports rehab centers or clinics, and athletes should all consider using PEMF therapy in sports medicine.

Good exercise science should include knowledge about our cells’ electromagnetic functions, and this knowledge should be used to provide improvement in sports performance.

Certainly, rehabilitation and injury mitigation can go hand-in-hand with faster recovery and sharper mental performance. Sports professionals should learn more about this exciting, innovative approach to enhancing the human experience and apply it to increase the length of professional careers of their clients and themselves.

PEMF in sports medicine bibliography