Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)

After my initially ecstatic but ultimately short and unhelpful experience with meditative breathing with oxygen, I went back to the drawing board.  If my theory that certain muscle groups were under-oxygenated was correct, then targeting blood flow to those muscles while breathing oxygen was a logical next step.  My weapon of choice... a foam roller.

I set up my oxygen generator to use while performing self-massage on a foam roller, targeting tight hips, quadriceps, and my IT (iliotibial) band.  After the very first treatment, I felt a difference - an ache in the hips, quads, and IT band on the right side of my body that wasn't usual after a session with the foam roller.  My left side felt normal.  I immediately (whether correctly or not) attributed the disparity between to the relative tightness of the muscles in each leg.  The muscles in my right quad have been tight for years, whereas the muscles in my left quad have been relatively limber.  What did it mean?  I don't know.  I wanted to believe that my right leg muscles were finally getting the oxygen that they needed to repair and relax.  

The aches and soreness lasted for two or three days.  After a few more days, I tried massaging with oxygen again, targeting the same muscle groups, with much the same result.  Achy right leg muscles, three day recovery.  I kept up with this routine for a few more weeks.  However, nothing changed.  I observed no relief in muscle tightness attributable to the addition of oxygen or any other effect from the oxygen therapy.

The massage experiment was a relatively short trial, with interesting observations but no conclusions.  After a month of these interesting but inconclusive observations, I was eager to move on to the next promising experiment...exercising with oxygen.

Click the links below to read other posts in the Oxygen Therapy Series:

Oxygen Therapy - A Plausible Theory (Part I)
Oxygen Therapy - Finding an Oxygen Source (Part II)
Oxygen Therapy - Trials and Tribulations (Part III)
Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)
Oxygen Therapy - Cardio for a Day (Part V)
Oxygen Therapy - Strength Training (Part VI)