A group of Spanish professional cyclists were recently interviewed by our International Sales Manager, Alberto Hernando, to discuss the benefit of using a hot tub after exercise.
It is just as important for cyclists to plan for training and competing as well as recovery and maintenance of your body and mind. Ziortza Villa, ultra-cycling champion, Adrian Garcia, semi-professional cyclist and Alvaro Robredo, ex professional cyclist visited the Reyman Electrobombas showroom in Gordexola, Spain to put hot tubs to the test.
The spa session was led by Ziorzta Villa, who apart from being an ultra-distance cycling champion, is a physiotherapist by profession. Muscle recovery and optimal muscle maintenance is vital to get you back on the bike to compete. The balance between body and mind is fundamental for wellbeing and there are various therapies that help to achieve this; one of them is hydrotherapy.
The warm water and the massage focus on the muscular recovery treatment. It provides an elimination of toxins after exercise as well as a shock treatment for the muscles after physical activity. Professional cycling is one of the hardest sports for the human body due to the length of its stages or the physical demands of its races. Combining cycling and hot tubs makes perfect sense with the aim being to provide muscle recovery therapy, elimination of toxins and mental relaxation after a long period of stress to which the body has been subjected to.
The three cyclists took a dip in one of the Platinum Spas hot tubs at the Spanish showroom, discussing their findings:
Ziorzta Villa talked about the benefits of a hydrotherapy massage and said: “The key parts of the body to work on are the feet and legs as they are exposed to muscular overload. The hot tub really helps to relieve and strengthen the muscle tone and will also prevent overloads and injuries.”
Adrian Garcia, a young cyclist with a large following on his You Tube channel said: “Massage is not only necessary for competition but also essential if you want to perform on a daily basis and avoid injuries. Being in the warm water was the perfect muscle recovery therapy. I felt recharged and renewed.
“The hot tub is great for recovery. It felt like a reset; which your body needs to keep going.”
After seven seasons in professional cycling Alvaro Robredo knows the importance of recovery and how massage can aid this.
He said: “There are many types of massage, but with water is one of the best. Apart from the contrasts with the temperature of the water, hot or cold, water always relaxes your muscles and sometimes something that you can’t do with your hands, you relax more with water.”
“When you first start in sport you don’t realise the benefits that hydrotherapy can bring. You then realise you should have started much earlier. There are differences with the manual massage, there is physical friction because it squeezes you and you suffer a little bit and I think that with water you get a more relaxing point.”
Other benefits from hydrotherapy provided by a spa includes relief of pain, swelling and stiffness, strengthens, maintains and restores muscle tissue and relaxation of the body and mind which can provide help in falling asleep.
The hot tub used for the session was the Platinum Spas Arizona hot tub. The team had 20 minutes of massage applied by 43 jets with two x 2HP pumps which is enough to massage all muscles in the body. Alternating between the two loungers and the seated position the jets focused on the feet, legs, lumbar, back, shoulders and neck.
After their training session, in the vicinity of Gordexola, the cyclists got their reward with the long-awaited massage and unanimously recommended the use of hot tubs after cycling.