Your coach, trainer, and physical therapist have all been saying it for years: You need to stretch after every workout. Then came the uber popularity of foam rolling, and those same fitness experts praised the hurt-so-good pain that happens when you intentionally dig into self-myofascial release.
Now, it seems like stretching and foam rolling just isn’t enough—especially when you're scrolling through Instagram. You wouldn't be out of line if you think that nearly everyone you know is using next-level recovery techniques, whether they're strapping on compression boots from Normatec and Rapid Reboot, shooting up with vibrational therapy (think Theragun and Hyperice), or putting on portable e-stim (we see you, PowerDot). Even hour-long infrared sauna sessions and cryotherapy are a thing these days.
It makes sense for people who get paid to work out all the time. If they’re not sweating, they’re not bringing in bank, so they need their bodies to perform. But for those of us who only work out once a day—heck, maybe only three to five times a week—are these treatments necessary? Or is smart marketing enticing us to spend more money than ever before? (No, seriously—a recent study suggests that millennials are now, on average, spending more money on fitness than they do on college tuition.)
Is Spending So Much Money on Recovery Worth It?
The answer: a little bit of both.
On one hand, these souped-up tools are just proof that the industry is moving forward as we learn more about the body and how to care for it properly. “The point of innovation in any industry is to allow us to function in a more efficient matter, or to build on top of and add to things that already exist,” Alain Saint-Dic, CPT, performance enhancement specialist and trainer at Stretch Relief in New York City, tells Mens Health. “Fitness professionals utilize these techniques for the very same reason that people use Uber or Seamless—there’s nothing wrong with hailing a yellow cab, or calling in an order for food, however innovation has made these processes more efficient.”
Now, it seems like stretching and foam rolling just isn’t enough—especially when you're scrolling through Instagram. You wouldn't be out of line if you think that nearly everyone you know is using next-level recovery techniques, whether they're strapping on compression boots from Normatec and Rapid Reboot, shooting up with vibrational therapy (think Theragun and Hyperice), or putting on portable e-stim (we see you, PowerDot). Even hour-long infrared sauna sessions and cryotherapy are a thing these days.
It makes sense for people who get paid to work out all the time. If they’re not sweating, they’re not bringing in bank, so they need their bodies to perform. But for those of us who only work out once a day—heck, maybe only three to five times a week—are these treatments necessary? Or is smart marketing enticing us to spend more money than ever before? (No, seriously—a recent study suggests that millennials are now, on average, spending more money on fitness than they do on college tuition.)
Is Spending So Much Money on Recovery Worth It?
The answer: a little bit of both.
On one hand, these souped-up tools are just proof that the industry is moving forward as we learn more about the body and how to care for it properly. “The point of innovation in any industry is to allow us to function in a more efficient matter, or to build on top of and add to things that already exist,” Alain Saint-Dic, CPT, performance enhancement specialist and trainer at Stretch Relief in New York City, tells Mens Health. “Fitness professionals utilize these techniques for the very same reason that people use Uber or Seamless—there’s nothing wrong with hailing a yellow cab, or calling in an order for food, however innovation has made these processes more efficient.”
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