How Red Light Therapy Helps Maintain Strength & Muscle

There's a lot of news from us this week!

Red light therapy for cataracts, combining PEMF and light therapy, and 3 different reviews by Alex:

PlatinumLED BioMAX Go
Helio Cure Glow
Kala Restore Wrap

All of that content is listed below.

But, just as important, we've got a new study showing red light therapy can help you stay in shape even if you quit training for a while.

Fascinating:

Dec 2025 Study: How Red Light Therapy Helps You Stop Exercising For A While

This study was published a while ago - December 2025. Here, 48 different healthy men were included.

I'll start with the conclusion of the study:

"[Red light therapy and static magnetic fields] significantly preserved muscle strength [(Maximum Voluntary Contraction and 1 Repetition Maximum) ]and structural features (volume and anatomical cross-sectional area) during detraining compared with placebo (p<0.05). The group that received [red light therapy and static magnetic fields] during both the training and detraining phases demonstrated the greatest preservation across all outcomes."

All participants completed 12 weeks of exercise training. The participants then rested (detrained) for 4 weeks.

There were 4 different groups of 12 participants. The groups differed in whether they received red light therapy and static magnetic fields during the 12-week and 4-week periods.

It's 4 options there, such as, no red light therapy & magnetic fields during the 12 week period, but receiving it during the 4 week period, etc.

The researchers used leg presses and leg extensions during training. Leg presses target the thigh muscles overall. Leg extensions focus more on the quadriceps muscle in front of your upper leg.

The researchers also describe the treatment protocol very well, with the current description:

"The treatment was delivered [to both legs]. A cluster probe comprising 12 diodes, manufactured by Multi Radiance Medical (Solon, Ohio, USA), was used to accommodate the large treatment area. The device incorporated four super-pulsed laser diodes (905 nm and 12.5 W peak power each), four infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) (875 nm and 17.5 mW average power), four red LEDs (640 nm and 15 mW average power) and a static magnetic field of 35 mT. Each irradiation site received a dose of 30 J, resulting in a total of 180 J per thigh. For the placebo treatment, the 905 nm lasers, 875 nm infrared LEDs and the magnetic field were deactivated. "

In plain English, that means:

Lasers of 905 nm, near-infrared LEDs at 875 nm, and red LEDs at 640 nm, were applied to both legs.
The static magnetic field was also applied to both legs - I'll say more about this later.

The full study contains the exercise protocol in more detail. But simply put, it's exercising your legs hard twice per week for 12 weeks.

Below, in Figure 1, you can see the differences between the 4 groups in outcomes for both legs, for the Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC):

Here, the red light therapy and static magnetic field groups (PBMT-sMF) generally does best.

Even the group that receives a placebo during the 12 week training period, does better with less detraining during the 4-week rest period. The groups that don't receive any red light therapy during the 4-week rest period, do less poorly and decline more quickly.

The same is true for 1RM strength - a repetition with maximal weight on the leg press and leg extension:

So that's all great.

And there's more. Even muscle mass is maintained better with the group receiving light therapy and static magnetic fields:

The lesson? If you're not training for a while, due to travel, sickness, stress, just being busy, or any other reason, you may want to use red light therapy during that period to keep more of your gains!

An issue that I have with the study, however, is the combination of the static magnetic fields and red light therapy together. The researchers do mention this in the study:

"Another limitation is the inability to fully separate the specific contributions of [red light therapy] and [Static Magnetic Fields] to the observed outcomes. However, previous evidence suggests that the combination of [red light therapy] and [Static Magnetic Fields] can produce synergistic biological effects, potentially enhancing cellular metabolism and redox balance compared with photobiomodulation alone."

I agree there. I would have preferred just using red light therapy in the study, even if there's a synergy, as I want to know the effects of red light therapy alone, as most people use it in that way!

Well, anyway, it's good news. Hopefully soon the same or a similar study without static magnetic fields. But yeah, likely, red light therapy helps you maintain strength and muscle mass if you stop training for a while.

The numbers? The scientists measured knee-extension strength, and that fell by 12–14% with placebo, for example, and only by 2% with continuous treatment. So it's a big win!

Want to know more about exercise and red light therapy? Check my recent update on the topic:

Here Are Our Latest Light Therapy Insiders' Articles:

Every single article that we've published recently - you can find the videos in the article itself:

Red Light Therapy For Cataracts: Finally Some Exciting Science In 2026! - We get this question a lot, about red light therapy for cataracts. Now, in 2026, new studies have emerged, and Bart analyzed all of the science here.
PlatinumLED BioMax Go: They Finally Made a Handheld. Is It Any Good? - Yes, PlatinumLED have their first handheld device released and Alex reviews it in detail. There are some really unique benefits/features to this handheld device.
Combining Red Light Therapy And PEMF: 2-3X Your Results?! - Here's a great exploratory interview on combining PEMF and red light therapy - mostly based on anecdotal evidence even though both therapies have lots of science behind them. Bart interviews Andy Smith, the founder of CELLER8, which combines the two therapies.
Helio Cure Glow Review: They Actually Fixed the Problems! - So here's an upgraded panel, with a new review by Alex.
This Back Pain Wrap Has Red Light, Heat & Vibration—But Does It Work? - new wrap combining light, heat and vibration. Alex reviews this interesting combination of products for the back!

Also, Check Out Some Of Our Other Content:

Below you'll find some of our best content that you shouldn't miss:

Light Therapy Insiders Science Tool

Search for different health conditions and benefits to get Bart's breakdown of the science on that topic, plus recommended devices and light therapy routines.

We've been trying to simplify our message as much as possible: