Top athletes are using oxygen therapy - try it in Leeds

Earlier this year,The Daily Mail reported that soccer legend Christiano Ronaldo had paid for a £15,000 hyperbaric oxygen therapy machine for his home in Cheshire - a treatment he credited for helping maintain his fitness.

The report said he had first used one in Ibiza in 2016, after picking up a knee injury in the Euro final – and he was so impressed with how it helped his recovery that he had one fitted inside his own home.

And the Manchester United player is not the only professional sportsperson to enjoy the benefits of this oxygen therapy.

Paris St-Germain players Neymar Jr and Mauro Icardi have also been seen to post on Instagram pictures of themselves taking the treatment in their homes.

And Britain’s strongest man Eddie Hall – better known as The Beast – swears by the treatment too. His Facebook page shows he can spend up to an an hour and a half daily breathing in pure oxygen.

Oxygen for fitness

This treatment is available here in Leeds – but you don’t have to be a professional athlete to see the benefits, says Sarah Todd, who runs Oxify, a treatment centre offering hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

When people train hard lactic acid builds up in muscles, and, she says, breathing in pure oxygen has shown that it can help people recover faster from training sessions and injuries and can help in general with fitness and training.

“We have people use it after a hard training session,” she says. “We have one client who has been coming once a week, and he said last week he felt fantastic and was able to train harder than he had before. The treatment can help with both performance and recovery from injury.”

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Referred to as HbOT, the treatment involves breathing in high levels of oxygen. This is delivered via an oxygen mask as people lie inside a hyperbaric chamber, where the pressure around the body is increased, for a session usually lasting an hour.

Usually, the air we take in is made up of 21 per cent oxygen, 78 per cent nitrogen (and the rest of noble gases and carbon dioxide). Inside the chamber, you breathe 95 per cent oxygen – which can significantly increase the amount of oxygen dissolved in the bloodstream. It is thought this extra oxygen stimulates and restores function to damaged cells and organs. The treatment has been found to help the formation of new collagen (connective tissue) and new skin cells by encouraging new blood vessel formation.

There is also some evidence, thanks to a study in Israel, that it can improve emotional, motivational and behavioural symptoms, depression, anxiety, and stress, pain interference symptoms, and fatigue.

Try it for yourself here in Yorkshire

Oxify Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy operates in Leeds (there is also a treatment room in Retford and Manchester). They treat people for a range of ailments and issues, including tissue recovery, stress relief, skin rejuvenation, chronic fatigue, asthma, as well as sports recovery and general fitness.

The procedure is entirely painless and non-invasive, and many clients say they find it highly relaxing. Clients lie fully clothed in the chamber, which is manually operated and has windows, with an oxygen mask placed over the nose and mouth to deliver the oxygen. The host, a trained staff member, will monitor you throughout to ensure you are happy and at ease.

Leeds – Ground floor Woodhead House, Woodhead Road, Birstall WF17 9TD. Call 01135 432750 or email [email protected] to make an appointment. You can also go to www.oxify.co.uk/book-your-appointment/