The Influence of Phototherapy on Recovery From Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage.

The study included 16 phototherapy and 17 control participants, all healthy college-aged adults, so trained athletes, older adults, children, and people with chronic musculoskeletal injuries may respond differently. The muscle damage came from a repeated sprint and deceleration protocol, so the results may not apply to soreness from other forms of exercise. The phototherapy protocol was specific to this study, and no standard method, duration, or frequency of phototherapy exists. The paper describes counter-balanced assignment but does not state that participants were randomly allocated. Dropout numbers are not reported. At 24 hours, control reported 2.3 and phototherapy reported 1.0 on a 0-10 scale, and the authors say it is unclear whether this would meaningfully benefit an athlete. The study did not include physiological assessments, so it cannot explain how phototherapy might work.

No funding source is reported. An author has served as a consultant or received honoraria from Richmar/Compass Health Brands, DJO, Zimmer MedizinSysteme, and Dynatronics Corporation. The phototherapy device used was a Richmar Theratouch LX2.

Do not read the calf soreness result as evidence that phototherapy improves recovery. It lowered calf soreness on an algometer measure, but vertical jump, agility, hamstring soreness, quadriceps soreness, and overall lower-body soreness did not differ between groups.