The Recovery Market - Another way the Fitness Industry can Bleed you!
The term "recovery" used to have an unflattering meaning: just a combination of sleep, food, hydration, and time. It used to be seen as a natural process, but now it's become well and truly marketised!
I guess this makes sense.... now that the markets for training plans, gym memberships, and supplements are saturated then 'recovery is the next obvious frontier!
The initial stage of the development was pretty harmless. Sports drinks simply took sugar and salt, gave them a fancy name of "electrolytes" and sold them at a higher price. The rationale was quite logical and easy to understand, even though it was a little exaggerated. However, this in a way allowed the stakeholders to interpret recovery in an even broader and more profitable manner.
Ice Baths, Percussion Guns, and dodgy scientific claims...
The recovery industry of today is mostly about devices and various experiences that come with the use of these devices. Ice baths and cryotherapy chambers are said to restore cells. Percussion guns are presented as capable of removing lactic acid and thus hastening muscle repair. And of course there's now a market in “data-driven” regeneration.
The problem is that this whole phenomenon of 'recovery' lacks any real scientific backing. The fact is that while there might be slight advantages with certain treatments for professional athletes, the companies still target the general public who do fitness as a hobby and sell them the same products, thus giving the public nothing more than placebo effects.
All this does not prevent the prices from going higher. Nike’s £700 compression boot exemplifies the recovery sector where the price is not a matter of quality but rather an indicator of seriousness. Recovery has transformed into a show-off practice: a clear proof of the dedication to the fitness culture, which is conveyed through social media and endorsed by influencers.
Final thoughts...
Some former top athletes have had the grace to come out and call-out many of these products as nonsense, and i say we should be listening to these people.
I mean I like my running, but the truth is i'm not a pro and I can't see much benefit to me from spending a fortune on anything to boost my recovery - a decent night's sleep, hydration and decent nutrition, and a little stretching is good enough for me, and most other people, frankly!
I'm not really buying into that, but we did just just get a cheap massage gun for general use. I expect @run.vince.run has looked more into this stuff as he's very active and may need help with recovery.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/1qdu3e4/consumerism_in_disguise_the_exploitative_world_of/
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Yeah, I've tried so many of these things. I generally limit the amount of money I do pay though. I have found some things that do enhance recovery and cause my training hits about 10 to 15 hours a week, I feel like I need it sometimes. You are definitely correct though, I think sometimes people spend more on the gear than dedicating themselves to the actual training.
I think basically sleep and a balanced diet are what you really need to recover, I defo can't go as hard as often as I used to now in my 50s, which kind of makes sense!
I'll have to show you my recovery protocol one day.
I've come to the conclusion that 85% of everything on the market today is bulls**t.
But with hard work, perseverance, and some savvy marketing, we can drive that up to 90%!
Good read!
Recovery is simple - like you state: sleep, food, hydratation and time.
What you can add to improve is anything that slighly increases blood circulation while not adding any trainingsload - this will help speed up recovery but that doesn’t need to be a product, for me as a frequent marathon runner that just means low heartbeat recovery jogs (or even just walking). All these fancy products/ hypes do (at best) is just that increase blood circulation a tiny bit, which you can all do for free (and better) by just old fashioned walking / cycling or stretching.