Whole Body Infrared Therapy in St. Louis

Three effects matter clinically. Heat causes local vasodilation, increasing blood flow to the tissue being warmed. It reduces muscle tone, which is why guarded, protective muscle spasm often releases during a session. And it increases the extensibility of connective tissue, meaning collagen stretches further and with less force when it is warm.

That last point is the practical one. Stretching cold, guarded tissue is uncomfortable and largely ineffective. Warming it first changes what physical therapy can accomplish in the same session.

Most often immediately before physical therapy or a procedure, so that treatment is better tolerated and more productive. Also for patients whose widespread muscle guarding is limiting their ability to move at all, where the first task is simply to reduce protective tone enough to begin.

It combines well with whole body vibration for building load tolerance, and with photobiomodulation where inflammation is also a factor.

Sessions are comfortable and passive. You will sweat, and you should drink water afterwards. There is no downtime.

Caution applies where heat is a risk rather than a benefit: impaired sensation, including advanced diabetic neuropathy, because you may not feel excessive heat; acute injury within the first 48 hours, where heat worsens swelling; active infection; and significant cardiovascular disease, where the circulatory demand of whole-body heating matters. Tell us your full history.