Red Light Therapy Before or After a Workout : Does Timing Matter?

Red light therapy has become a pretty normal part of a lot of training routines these days, and one question comes up more than most : should you do your session before you train, or after?

It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is that timing does matter, just not in a way that means one is “right” and the other “wrong.” It really comes down to what you’re actually trying to get out of it that day.

Before a Workout : A Bit of an Energiser

Using red light therapy before you train tends to work well if your focus is performance, whether that’s a heavy lifting session, a long run, or anything where you want to feel switched on and ready to go.

A session beforehand is thought to support your muscles’ energy supply and encourage better blood flow, a bit like an extended, more thorough warm-up.

Some people also find it helps them feel more resilient during a tough session, holding up a little better as fatigue sets in.

After a Workout : Leaning Into Recovery

Using it after training shifts the focus toward recovery rather than performance.

Once you’ve finished a hard session, your muscles are in genuine need of repair, and a session afterwards is thought to support that process, helping ease the soreness that tends to show up over the following day or two and generally speeding up how quickly you bounce back.

It also tends to help you properly switch off after a hard session. Moving from an intense workout into a calm, quiet red light session gives your body a clear signal to shift out of “go” mode and into recovery mode, which a lot of clients find genuinely helpful for winding down, particularly after an evening training session.

Comparing the Two

Can You Do Both?

It’s tempting to think doing a session before and after the same workout would double the benefit, but that’s not really how it works. Your cells can only make good use of so much light exposure in a given window, and stacking two sessions too close together tends to be less effective than doing one properly, rather than more effective. If you want the benefit of both, a better approach is spacing them out, a quick session in the morning before training, for instance, and a separate one later in the day or evening, rather than back to back around the same workout.

What a Session Actually Looks Like

A red light session at BE SUPERHUMAN is a full-body panel treatment, so there’s no need to worry about positioning yourself at a particular distance or angle the way you might with a small home device. You simply relax in front of the panels for around fifteen minutes, with as much bare skin exposed as you’re comfortable with, since light doesn’t pass through clothing effectively. It’s genuinely one of the easier treatments to fit around a training schedule, whether that’s before you head to the gym or straight after.

The Simple Version

There’s no single correct time to use red light therapy. If today’s about performance, a session beforehand tends to suit that goal. If today’s about recovery, a session afterwards tends to suit that better. Let what you actually need that day decide the timing, rather than sticking rigidly to one pattern regardless of how you’re training.