Red Light Therapy for Injury - 7 Soft Tissue Studies

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Nothing is more disappointing to an athlete than losing playtime to injuries. Red light therapy can help with soft tissue injuries, sometimes profoundly.

Red light therapy for muscle injury can speed up your return to the field. It prevents soft tissue injury and speeds healing when athletic injuries occur. The mechanisms include inflammation reduction, increased blood flow, and collagen production. It’s also excellent for pain relief.

Key Takeaways:

Athletic benefits of red light therapy for muscle injury include that it:

Reduces chronic inflammation
Maintains strength longer, resulting in fewer sports injuries
Triggers therapeutic mechanisms resulting in faster healing times
Increases VO2 max allowing for longer athletic endurance
Reduces pain perception during exercise and injury recovery
Protects cells from exercise-induced oxidative stress damage
Heals injuries faster, reducing bench time for injured players

Red Light Therapy for Muscle Injury

Studies show that red light therapy helps athletes run faster and lift more weight while reducing inflammation and oxidative stress biological markers[1]. Proven red light therapy effects you’ll learn about in this article include:

stronger muscles
less inflamed muscles
ability to do more contractions before exhaustion
less exercise-induced muscle injury
greater exercise duration
less muscle soreness
faster exercise recovery
reduced oxidative stress
reduced oxidative damage
more exercise completed before failure
reduced perception of pain
more suppression of inflammatory markers than NSAIDs
less bruising

Soft tissue injuries include sprains, strains, and bruises. Soft tissues include ligaments, tendons, muscles, and bursa. These studies show how red light therapy reduces pain and inflammation of soft tissue injury and speeds healing from sprains, strains, and bursitis.

Study #1: Exercise Inflammation

A 2010 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows that red light therapy reduces muscle damage and inflammation and increases strength after excessive muscle contractions [2]. Inflammation is a healing response that backfires when allowed to fester for too long. Chronic inflammation damages the tissue it is designed to heal and is a source of discomfort and pain.

Hand holding device to woman's shoulder — Red light therapy helps with shoulder tendinitis.

Athletic injuries almost universally result in inflammation that can damage performance if left unchecked. Red light therapy in the form of red and infrared light treatments reduces chronic inflammation and relieves associated pain. Researchers showed that pre-conditioning with 655 nm red light reduced the quantity and quality of muscle damage from excessive contractions..

Those rats that received tibial anterior muscle light therapy had more leg power and less inflammation than those in the control group. Rats treated with red light therapy were stronger and less inflamed. The red light therapy increased the number of muscle contractions performed before injury and exhaustion.

Study #2: Muscle Failure

Red light therapy increases muscle strength and reduces muscle fatigue and injury, in amateur soccer players, according to a 2019 study published in Lasers in Medicine and Science [3]. One common soft tissue injury scenario is athletes continuing to play after muscle exhaustion. Red light therapy delays muscle exhaustion and maintains a greater muscle oxygen supply.

This effect decreases the chance of injury due to lack of stamina. Amateur soccer players experienced up to 75% less hamstring fatigue when preconditioned with red light therapy. In this randomized and placebo-controlled study, researchers delivered 300 joules of 880 nm infrared light to both thighs before a soccer match.

Soccer player's muscular leg fielding a soccer ball — Red light therapy helps with soft tissue injuries, including those to muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

Players treated with infrared light had greater hamstring strength than players in the control group. The treated players were 53% to 75% stronger than the controls, based on hamstring eccentric peak torque, hamstring-to-quadriceps torque ratio, and countermovement jump tests. Their legs were less fatigued and less likely to fail. Researchers concluded that red light therapy is “a promising tool to prevent hamstring strain injury in soccer players.”

The players treated with infrared light spent more of the game closer to peak strength than the control group. They were less likely to injure themselves due to muscle failure.

Study #3: Soreness and Recovery

According to a 2019 study published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity [4], red light therapy reduces cell (and soft tissue) damage, increases oxygen, reduces oxidative damage, reduces soreness, and encourages faster exercise recovery, In this study, red light therapy significantly reduced several exercise injury markers in professional soccer players.

Hand holding device to man's neck as he lies face down in a pillow — Red light therapy helps with soft tissue injuries.

Players receiving 275 J/cm^2 dose of 810 nm infrared to their legs had less cell damage and more oxygen than the control group members. Pre-exercise infrared correlated with these results in the treatment group:

Red Light Therapy Effect	Significant to Athletes Because:
less cell damage	less soft tissue (muscle) injury
higher VO2 max	greater exercise duration
lower creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase	less delayed onset muscle soreness, faster exercise recovery
lower carbonylated proteins	indicates less oxidative damage
increased superoxidase dismutase and catalase	prevents oxidative damage

Researchers found that both pre-conditioning and post-conditioning produced good results. For those players who did experience soccer-related injuries, red light therapy reduced muscle injury and faster exercise recovery. Athletes who improve oxygen metabolism have longer endurance during play. The VO2 max measures how much oxygen the body uses during the most intense exercise.

Runners on a competition track — Red light therapy helps with exercise-induced soft tissue injury

Red light therapy increases the VO2 max, translating to longer field endurance. This increase in oxygen metabolism gave their muscles more oxygen during play. They took longer to tire out and were less likely to experience exhaustion-related injury.

Study #4: Muscle Pain

A 2013 study published in Photochemistry and Photobiology found that red light therapy reduces muscle inflammation and pain more effectively than NSAIDs [5].

Red light therapy reduced muscle injury faster than diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory treatment. NSAIDs reduce inflammation by suppressing mRNA expression of COX-1, COX-2, and prostaglandin E2. Investigators compared red light therapy to topical and intramuscular diclofenac therapy. The researchers overloaded the rats’ anterior tibialis, a muscle stretching from the knee to the foot.

Racing bicyclists in a row on a road all tilted at the same angle to their right sides — Red light therapy helps with oxygen VO2 max and muscle oxygenation

One hour after the strain, they treated the muscle with topical diclofenac, intramuscular diclofenac, or 3 joules of 810 nm infrared red light therapy. Red light therapy suppressed COX-1 and COX-2 as much as either type of diclofenac therapy. Red light suppressed prostaglandin E2 more than the NSAID therapy.

Walking track analyses confirmed the results. The group treated with red light therapy had healthier gaits after treatment. The authors wrote: “We can conclude that LLLT has more efficacy than topical and intramuscular diclofenac in treating muscle strain injury in the acute stage.” Another study showed that red light therapy reduced the pain of ankle sprains by as much as 30.81%.

Study #5: Muscle Pain and Bruising

Red light therapy reduced ankle sprain pain by 30.06% and 30.81%, based on improvements in the McGill and Visualized Analog Scale (VAS) pain assessment tests[6].

This study used 10 joules/cm^2 of 627 nm red light on 40 volunteers with acute ankle sprains. All volunteers received protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Then, twenty received red light therapy, and twenty received a sham treatment for the next six days. In addition to reducing pain perception by about 31%, the treatment group experienced significantly less bruising after 6 days of red light therapy.

Study #6: Muscle Damage

Red light therapy counteracts exercise-induced muscle damage, according to a 2018 study [6]. Exercise causes oxidative stress and inflammation, which damage muscles. Red light therapy helps reduce exercise-induced cell damage in the muscles. Oxidative stress is a natural result of the inflammatory process but causes damage. Antioxidants counter the damage. Red light therapy triggers the production of several antioxidant processes that stop oxidative damage.

Soccer player in red running into a yellow soccer ball with referee behind him — Soccer players receiving red light therapy pre- and post-play had longer duration before exercise exhaustion.

Soccer players receiving red light therapy had more natural antioxidants and less carbonylated proteins in their blood. Those players had increased levels of superoxidase dismutase, a group of enzymes that turn free radicals into oxygen. Free radical damage results in damaged “carbonylated” proteins, which lose their ability to function normally and are implicated in several diseases[7]. Soccer players who received the therapy had fewer damaged proteins than the controls. This study showed that red light therapy halted tissue damage at the cellular level.

Study #7: Return to Field

Infrared light speeds athletic injury recovery time by up to 50%, according to a 2016 study published in Laser Therapy[8]. Soft tissue damage, including injuries resulting in sprains, strains, ligament damage, tendonitis, and contusions, healed faster with red light therapy.

Injured players receiving red light therapy returned to the field sooner than those who received traditional injury treatment alone. The study followed 395 university athletes who had experienced a range of injuries, including:

sprains
strains
ligament damage
tendonitis
contusions
soft tissue injuries

Football player flying horizontally over touchdown line with football in gloved hands — Red light therapy helps with muscle exertion and post-exercise recovery

While control group athletes returned to the field in an average of 19.23 days, athletes using red light therapy returned in 9.6 days. For athletes who want to get back to playing, red light therapy speeds up healing and reduces bench time.

Conclusion

Red light therapy can help athletes recover from muscle injuries faster. Many studies show it reduces inflammation, muscle soreness, and damage. It also increases muscle strength and delays fatigue. This helps prevent injuries in the first place.

Red light therapy speeds up the healing of sprains, strains, and other soft tissue injuries. Athletes who used it could return to playing much sooner than those who didn’t. With benefits like reduced pain, less bruising, and faster recovery times, red light therapy is a valuable tool for athletes. It can limit time spent on the sidelines and get them back in the game quicker after an injury.

References

[1] Lopes-Martins RA, Marcos RL, Leonardo PS, Prianti AC Jr, Muscar¡ MN, Aimbire F, Frigo L, Iversen VV, Bjordal JM. Effect of low-level laser (Ga-Al-As 655 nm) on skeletal muscle fatigue induced by electrical stimulation in rats. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2006 Jul;101(1):283-8. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01318.2005. Epub 2006 Apr 20. PMID: 16627677.
[2] Leal Junior EC, Lopes-Martins RA, Frigo L, De Marchi T, Rossi RP, de Godoi V, Tomazoni SS, Silva DP, Basso M, Filho PL, de Valls Corsetti F, Iversen VV, Bjordal JM. Effects of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) in the development of exercise-induced skeletal muscle fatigue and changes in biochemical markers related to postexercise recovery. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010 Aug;40(8):524-32. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2010.3294. PMID: 20436237.
[1] Hamblin MR. Mechanisms and applications of the anti-inflammatory effects of photobiomodulation. AIMS Biophys. 2017;4(3):337-361. doi: 10.3934/biophy.2017.3.337. Epub 2017 May 19. PMID: 28748217; PMCID: PMC5523874.
[3] Dornelles MP, Fritsch CG, Sonda FC, Johnson DS, Leal-Junior ECP, Vaz MA, Baroni BM. Photobiomodulation therapy as a tool to prevent hamstring strain injuries by reducing soccer-induced fatigue on hamstring muscles. Lasers Med Sci. 2019 Aug;34(6):1177-1184. doi: 10.1007/s10103-018-02709-w. Epub 2019 Jan 3. PMID: 30607719.
[4] Tomazoni SS, Machado CDSM, De Marchi T, Casalechi HL, Bjordal JM, de Carvalho PTC, Leal-Junior ECP. Infrared Low-Level Laser Therapy (Photobiomodulation Therapy) before Intense Progressive Running Test of High-Level Soccer Players: Effects on Functional, Muscle Damage, Inflammatory, and Oxidative Stress Markers-A Randomized Controlled Trial. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2019 Nov 16;2019:6239058. doi: 10.1155/2019/6239058. PMID: 31827687; PMCID: PMC6885272.
[4a] de Paiva Carvalho RL, Leal-Junior EC, Petrellis MC, Marcos RL, de Carvalho MH, De Nucci G, Lopes-Martins RA. Effects of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) and diclofenac (topical and intramuscular) as single and combined therapy in experimental model of controlled muscle strain in rats. Photochem Photobiol. 2013 Mar-Apr;89(2):508-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-1097.2012.01236.x. Epub 2012 Nov 8. PMID: 22989160.
[5] de Moraes Prianti B, Novello GF, de Souza Moreira Prianti T, Costa DR, Pessoa DR, Nicolau RA. Evaluation of the therapeutic effects of led on the initial phase of ankle sprain treatment: a randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial. Lasers Med Sci. 2018 Jul;33(5):1031-1038. doi: 10.1007/s10103-018-2460-6. Epub 2018 Feb 8. PMID: 29423840.
[6] Younus H. Therapeutic potentials of superoxide dismutase. Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2018 May-Jun;12(3):88-93. PMID: 29896077; PMCID: PMC5969776.
[7] Suzuki YJ, Carini M, Butterfield DA. Protein carbonylation. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2010 Mar;12(3):323-5. doi: 10.1089/ars.2009.2887. PMID: 19743917; PMCID: PMC2821144.
[8] Foley J, Vasily DB, Bradle J, Rudio C, Calderhead RG. 830 nm light-emitting diode (led) phototherapy significantly reduced return-to-play in injured university athletes: a pilot study. Laser Ther. 2016 Mar 31;25(1):35-42. doi: 10.5978/islsm.16-OR-03. PMID: 27141153; PMCID: PMC4846838.

Red Light Therapy for Injury – 7 Soft Tissue Studies