A July 12 feature article in The New York Times was titled “How to Recover Like an Elite Athlete” and described a hot new lifestyle trend. The writer visited a place called Recover, “which bills itself as New York’s first recovery studio.” Ahem.
I just want to say, Welcome New York Times to the concept of recovery as a lifestyle. Nashua, New Hampshire has been waiting for you several months.
During recovery after exercise your breathing, blood flow, and body temperature return to normal levels. That’s when your joint function improves, your bone density increases, your metabolism adjusts, the toxins leave your cells, and your cardiac function increases. It’s when your parasympathetic nervous system consolidates what it learned during the fight or flight activities of exercise. In short, recovery is when your fitness improves. While most people assume that they recover in order to work out, I’d like to suggest looking at the other way: work out in order to recover.
Recovery is something more than just putting your feet up and resting (although that might be an important part of it). Recovery is too important to leave to chance. Plan it, and take advantage of all the technologies available, the way you take advantage of advanced engineering when you buy new running shoes or a wetsuit, or a bicycle. At Peak Recovery & Health Center, we offer five of these technologies:
1. Cryotherapy rejuvenates muscles at the cellular level by reducing inflammation and has been shown to enhance recovery during a program of high-intensity intermittent exercise.
2. Photobiomodulation relieves oxidative stress and promotes the cellular production of ATP and has been shown to reduce blood lactate levels and perceived fatigue.
3. Compression therapy flushes toxins from the blood and prevents blood pooling and has been shown to accelerate and enhance recovery after the kind of training sessions performed by Olympic athletes.
4. Infrared sauna, which cleanses at a cellular level by melting the fat bound to toxins and has been shown to help the neuromuscular system to recover from maximal endurance performance.
5. Float pod increases mental focus by temporarily restricting mental and physical stimulation, and it also happens to be one of the most profound and deepest forms of rest you can enjoy above ground.
If you’re an athlete, taking advantage of these technologies will lead to performance improvements, allowing you to train harder, more often, and injury free. Even if you aren’t an athlete at all, we are confident that investing in your recovery from the daily stresses of life will reward you with longevity, happiness, and better overall health. Your increased energy and joie de vivre will allow you to perform better in every aspect of life.
If you stop in at Peak Recovery & Health Center, you will probably encounter a staff member wearing a tee shirt that says “Recovery Is a Lifestyle.” We think recovery is more than just the dessert at the end of a workout meal. We think recovery is the point.
