Goal — performance

Ten minutes before, or within the hour after. Never both.

Around training, the constraint is not the power of the device: it is the area covered in a single pass. A large format takes several muscle groups at once, which is the only way a routine survives a real training week.

10 min before training, on the groups the session will load

≤ 1 h after training, the window the protocols describe

15–50 cm the distance for a panel, depending on stated irradiance

See the 3 devices All six goals

Depth

Not every wavelength reaches the same place.

Around training, the question is no longer the surface of the skin but what sits underneath it. Visible red stops at the dermis; near-infrared is the part of the spectrum research uses for deep tissue. A device advertising only red therefore does not tell you where it works.

For anyone training three times a week or more who wants a repeatable gesture attached to the session, not added to the day.

How far it reaches

Red stops at the dermis. The rest carries on.

These proportions are relative, not millimetres: penetration depends on tissue, pigmentation, and irradiance. They give the order, not an exact depth — announcing 10 cm would be a made-up figure.

630 nm Upper dermis

660 nm Dermis

810 nm Subcutaneous, muscle

850 nm Muscle, joint

940 nm Rising water absorption

All seven wavelengths in detail

The routine

In order, with nothing left to guess

Pick one side of the session

Before training or within the hour after, not both. Two sessions per workout double the constraint without doubling anything else.

Target what the session loads

Quads before squats, shoulders before pulls; legs after a ride, the knee after a match.

Hold the stated distance

Between 15 and 50 cm for a panel, depending on its irradiance. Received energy drops fast with distance: it is the easiest parameter to get wrong.

The session does not replace the warm-up

It slots into the moment you are already getting ready. The warm-up is still entirely ahead of you.

Protocol — Before training Protocol — After training

The mistakes that cost the most

Comparing two devices on LED count. An LED count on its own tells you nothing: what compares is irradiance at a stated distance, and the area actually covered.
Stretching the session out, assuming more is better. Beyond twenty minutes per area the literature shows no gain, and sometimes the opposite.
Running the session in training kit. A technical tee absorbs and scatters: the dose received no longer resembles the one advertised.
Waiting until tomorrow for the post-training session. That is a different protocol.

Framing

What this goal does not say

A goal is not a medical indication. It names an area of the body and a moment in the week; it points to no condition and implies none. What follows is not stylistic caution: it is the exact boundary of what this page may state.

It is not a warm-up

It raises neither muscle temperature nor heart rate. The two are unrelated.

It treats no injury

Pain that lasts, wakes you at night, or limits a movement is a doctor's business.

It does not offset an excessive load

If training exceeds what the body absorbs, the load is what needs revisiting, not the light that needs adding.

It guarantees no progression

Trials measure group-level trends, in a lab. None of them was run on an Antared device.

Dose, safety and mechanism What the studies do — and do not — say

Another angle