Why You Don’t Actually Want To Speed Up Muscle Recovery

When you’re hurting after a tough workout and wanting to get to your next one—or, a minimum of, to have the ability to get away from bed without groaning—anything that guarantees to make you are feeling higher, faster has some appeal.

And lately, there’s no shortage of products and experiences making that very promise, or a minimum of something prefer it, from compression boots to massage tools to cryotherapy to infrared saunas.

While those “recovery” tools may feel good, the reality is that they probably aren’t actually helping to hurry up muscle recovery. And in line with physical therapist and run coach Victoria Sekely, DPT, CSCS, that isn’t even necessarily an end result price pursuing. “Why do we’d like to hurry that up?” she says. “Our body must undergo the technique of recovering, and you wish that to be done properly, and that’s going to take time.”

It isn’t hard to attract the connection between our desire to get better faster—and due to this fact get to our next hard workout faster—and the hustle culture mentality that tells us that resting is for the weak. “It’s very linked to that concept that we needs to be working on a regular basis and continually doing hard efforts, and that’s how we’re going to enhance,” Dr. Sekely says. “But in point of fact, it’s best to very much be taking your recovery days.”

And by recovery days, she means those that come naturally to your body. “Our bodies are ridiculously good at doing what they do,” says Tom Holland, MS, CSCS, CISSN, an exercise physiologist and trainer. “They often just should be fed well and rested when appropriate, and we get lots out of that.”

Is it even possible to hurry up your recovery?

The actual, physiological process that your body goes through after a difficult workout—your cells rebuild the microscopic tears in your muscles, eventually making them stronger—can’t be sped up by a massage gun or an ice bath. “It has to occur in the best way it’s going to occur,” says Dr. Sekely. “Your muscle doesn’t reply to a massage gun hammering at it—your muscle responds to blood flow, the nutrients you’re giving it, the way you’re sleeping. There’s no amount of massage gun that’s going to assist the fibers physically get back together.”

But, it’s price considering what the word “recovery” has come to indicate in fitness and wellness spaces—and if it has turn out to be overly conflated with “self-care.” Can recovery tools like massage guns, infrared saunas, and compression boots provide a discount in pain or soreness (not to say a calming experience)? Sure. But they won’t change the proven fact that your body needs time to literally rebuild after a tough workout. “The results that you just’re getting are short-term,” says Dr. Sekely. “So that they’re not harmful, but they’re also not doing much.”

The actual keys to recovery

While there’s nothing fallacious with using recovery tools in the event that they feel good after a tough workout, each Holland and Dr. Sekely say their concern is that they distract from what we really must get better: rest, sleep, refueling, and rehydrating.

“Until you get those things happening consistently, I don’t care what number of ice baths you’re taking—it’s not going to make a difference,” says Holland. “In case you are training accurately and you’re fueling, sure, let’s talk in regards to the boots—going out for a 20-mile run after which putting those on does feel good. But if you happen to come right home and jump within the ice bath or placed on the boots and also you don’t refuel and also you don’t rehydrate, then it’s diminishing returns.”

Dr. Sekely says we’d like to recollect there’s no true need to drop $500 for a elaborate piece of kit to get better—our bodies will do that each one on their very own if we just give them time.

Do you have to use recovery tools in any respect?

So long as your recovery product of alternative isn’t breaking your bank, go ahead and use it if it makes you are feeling good—just make certain you’re also listening to your sleep, fuel, and hydration, and taking ample rest before your next hard effort.

Your favorite recovery tools may even be helping in the remaining and sleep departments. A study (funded by Theragun, admittedly) found that using a massage gun before bed helped people go to sleep faster and get up fewer times at night. And compression boots might help our muscles more fully loosen up, in line with exercise physiologist Sharon Gam, PhD, CSCS. “The boots are…supplying you with a bit of little bit of structure and support to permit even those tiny, tiny little muscles…to let go,” she previously told Well+Good about why compression boots can offer you a fair greater sense of release than you possibly can get from just lying on the couch.

One other potential profit: Knowing you’ve got a reward at the top of your workout may encourage you to get movin’ more often. Plus, says Holland, “The placebo effect is probably the most powerful tool in sports psychology,” he says. “So I’m all for that—I’m just not okay with people wasting their money and time.”