Acupuncture can improve athletic performance

Athletes are always looking at ways to improve endurance, increase strength, and decrease recovery times. Unfortunately, many techniques such as dopants have severe negative health side-effects and are consequently banned in competition. Acupuncture is wonderful technique that has been proven to lower stress (see article at top of page), and increase endurance. A study compared maximum heart rate, oxygen consumption, and lactic acid amount at 3 different times of rest after hard exercise among professional basketball players. These players received acupuncture BEFORE the workouts. In comparison to a non-treated group, and a group that received acupuncture in fake points, the group that received acupuncture in real points showed a significant decrease in all three factors at 30 minutes after exercise.