Can Red Light Therapy Enhance Muscle Mass and Performance?

A 2016 review and meta analysis by Brazilian researchers looked at all existing studies on the ability of light therapy to increase muscle performance and overall exercise capacity. Sixteen studies involving 297 participants were included.

Exercise capacity parameters included number of repetitions, time to exhaustion, blood lactate concentration and lactate dehydrogenase activity.

Muscle performance parameters included torque, power and strength.

The study found that when laser therapy was applied, lactate levels were reduced, peak torque increased, number of reps increased by 3.51, and time to exhaustion increased by 4.01s.