RECOVERY: WHAT’S SCIENCE VS. WHAT’S MARKETING (+ HYPE)
Recovery has gotten…fancy. It’s one element of the $6.8 trillion wellness industry – an industry that grew 7.9% last year and is forecasted to continue to grow on the same, if not steeper, trajectory. Recovery is an element that is beginning to merge with gyms and nutrition into hybrid facilities, which can honestly sort of blur the lines between a gym and a spa, and trends that we’ve seen over the past couple of years range from recovery hardware to light therapy to longevity services. While a single standalone “recovery” sector metric (that could isolate modalities like cold plunges and saunas and IV drips) is rarely decoupled from the general fitness and wellness economy (and also because you likely came here to learn from a nutrition coach, not an economist), it does bring up the question of what is science and what is hype.
So what actually is recovery? What do our bodies need after exercise? And how much of the recovery industry is supported by science versus really good marketing?
FIRST: WHAT ARE WE RECOVERING FROM?
Exercise is stress, and that’s not a bad thing – it’s actually kind of the whole point. When we exercise (strength training, running, cycling, playing a sport, etc.) we are temporarily disrupting our body’s normal state. Depending on the type, duration, and intensity, you may deplete glycogen (the carbohydrates that we store for later use), create microscopic muscle damage, accumulate fatigue, alter fluid balance and temporarily reduce your ability to produce force or perform at your usual level.
So then we recover. Our body replenishes fuel stores, repairs muscle tissue, restores fluid balance, and adapts to the training stimulus. Over time, this cycle of stress to recovery to adaptation is part of how we get stronger, build muscle, improve endurance, and become better at what we’re training for.
A misconception that I hear often is that recovery (or the idea of “being recovered”) is about eliminating all soreness, fatigue, or inflammation as quickly and completely as possible; some of the responses to exercise that we perceive as needing to “fix” are actually part of the signaling and adaptation process that follows training. So I think that a better way to think about recovery is as a process that lets us restore capacity to perform while also allowing our bodies to adapt to the work that we did or are doing. AND – I also think this is where things get interesting, because something that makes us feel more recovered isn’t always doing the same thing physiologically. For example, something that decreases muscle soreness isn’t always necessarily accelerating muscle repair. Or something that helps us feel more ready for tomorrow’s workout doesn’t necessarily improve the long-term adaptation from today’s workout. These are all potentially valuable! But they are not interchangeable.
THE BORING STUFF WORKS REALLY, REALLY WELL
If you want to support recovery, there are a few places I’d look before checking out gadgets or devices or memberships.
SLEEP
Groundbreaking, I know! Sleep is one of our most important opportunities for physical and neurological recovery, and inadequate sleep has been associated with weakened athletic performance, slower reaction time, altered mood, and impaired decision making. That doesn’t mean everyone needs over eight hours a night or that you should let a less-than-stellar-sleep score dictate your day BUT if you’re consistently sleeping five or six hours a night and trying to “hack” your recovery somewhere else, sleep is likely the best place to start.
EATING ENOUGH
One of the most common analogies is true: our bodies are like machines, and those machines require energy in order to run. A car can’t drive on an empty tank of gas, and our bodies can’t repair tissue, replenish fuel stores, or adapt to training if we don’t feed it (literally). Consistently underfueling while asking our bodies to train hard is like thinking we can go on a road trip without ever stopping for gas or to charge our vehicle. (That’s in for my car comparisons…for now.)
This is a big reason that I do not recommend reducing food intake on rest days or days that we are training less intensely. A workout might be complete, but the work our body is doing in response to it is not, and consistently eating enough is a big part of this.
PROTEIN + CARBOHYDRATES
It’s about eating enough in general, yes, but it’s also about understanding how eating certain things (specifically focusing on two macronutrients) can benefit our recovery. Protein provides amino acids needed to repair and remodel/build muscle after training. And while there is plennnty of conversation about the perfect post-workout protein window, our overall intake and distribution throughout the day matter quite a bit. Yes, a post-workout meal containing protein is useful – so is breakfast, and lunch, and dinner. For most people, regularly including meaningful sources of protein throughout the day is going to matter so much more than a perfectly timed protein shake.
And let’s not forget the carbs – they deserve a spot in the recovery conversation, too. Carbohydrates help replenish muscle glycogen, the stored carbohydrate we use as an important fuel source during exercise. The urgency with which we replenish that glycogen depends on what we’re doing. Someone who went to a 45-minute strength workout and isn't training again until tomorrow probably doesn't need an elaborate carbohydrate-replacement protocol. An athlete competing twice in one day or a runner who has another demanding session later is a different story. (It depends! Context!) But in general, adequate carb intake is part of supporting both training and recovery, particularly as training volume and intensity increase – and modality of exercise does play a role here, too.
HYDRATION
Exercise can mean losing fluid and electrolytes through sweat, so replacing meaningful losses is another component of recovery. Again, though: context matters. You probably don’t need an aggressively marketed electrolyte concoction after every 30-minute workout. Your individual sweat rate, workout duration and intensity, temperature, and how soon you need to perform again all influence what you actually need. (Read: sometimes recovery hydration looks like water and your next meal; sometimes more intentional fluid and electrolyte replacement makes sense. There isn't one recovery drink that everyone needs simply because they exercised.)
THE “FUN” RECOVERY STUFF
Here’s where I think we need more nuance than either “this will change your life!!!” or “this is completely useless!!!”
A recovery modality can have some benefit without being necessary. It can make you feel better without meaningfully accelerating every biological component of recovery. It can be helpful in a very specific context without becoming something every recreational exerciser needs to add to their routine.
And perhaps most importantly, whether something is useful depends on what you're actually trying to accomplish with it.
Cold-water immersion is probably one of the best examples of why asking “does it work?” isn’t a particularly useful question. Work for what?
Research suggests that cold-water immersion can reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness and improve some perceptions of recovery after strenuous exercise. If you're an athlete competing in a tournament and need to perform again tomorrow (or even later that same day) feeling less sore and restoring performance quickly may be really valuable.
But there’s another side to that story. Regularly jumping into very cold water immediately after resistance training may blunt some of the signaling involved in muscular adaptation, and research suggests frequent post-lifting cold-water immersion may modestly interfere with hypertrophy. That doesn’t mean taking one cold plunge is going to erase your gains. It means that reducing the body’s response to exercise isn’t automatically synonymous with improving the adaptation you're trying to create.
Massage and massage guns are another good example. Massage can reduce perceptions of soreness and may improve flexibility, but research hasn’t consistently shown meaningful improvements in things like strength, sprinting, endurance, or fatigue after exercise. In other words, your legs might feel better without necessarily having physiologically recovered faster. Feeling better is still something! But again: context matters.
Compression garments and compression boots fall into a similar category. There is some evidence of small improvements in certain recovery outcomes, but the research isn’t strong enough to suggest that compression is some sort of recovery requirement. If you enjoy sitting in compression boots, your legs feel better afterward and you have the time and money to use them? Cool! But I wouldn't put them above sleeping, eating enough, or appropriately managing your training load on the recovery priority list
Saunas are interesting because heat exposure has been studied for potential effects beyond simply “recovering from today’s workout,” including cardiovascular adaptations, heat acclimation, and endurance performance. There may be legitimate benefits to sauna use, particularly in specific athletic contexts, but that doesn’t mean everyone needs to sit in a sauna after every workout to recover properly. Again: if you enjoy it, find it relaxing and tolerate heat well, great. We just don’t need to turn potentially beneficial into necessary for recovery.
Another recovery strategy that is very popular at the moment is red light therapy. It’s another recovery modality with some promising research behind it. Studies have explored its potential effects on soreness, muscle damage and performance recovery, but results depend on factors like wavelength, dose, timing and the specific outcome being measured. That’s a pretty important caveat when the consumer version of the message often becomes something closer to “red light = better recovery.”
There is a BIG gap between “there is a physiological mechanism and some promising evidence here” and “you need to buy this expensive device for your home.” And that gap is where marketing tends to have a whole lot of fun.
“FEELING” RECOVERED MATTERS, TOO
I don’t want the recovery conversation to become so centered around physiology that we dismiss subjective recovery entirely. If sitting in a sauna makes you feel relaxed, that matters. If using a massage gun makes your legs feel less stiff, that matters. If 20 minutes in compression boots forces you to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing instead of running around doing 17 other things, that might matter too. There’s also a psychological component to feeling ready to train. If a recovery ritual helps you relax, makes your body feel better or increases your confidence that you’re ready for your next session, I don’t think we have to dismiss that simply because we can’t point to a dramatic change in a blood marker or performance test.
The distinction I do think is important is understanding what you’re actually getting from the tool. “My legs feel better after I use this” is a perfectly legitimate reason to keep using something. And “this dramatically accelerates muscle repair and I need it in order to recover” is a much bigger claim. They can both be true, but the nuance of why is important (and, quite frankly, isn’t always part of the marketing pitch that comes with the influence of many of these claimed essentials for recovery).
But because I’m on the topic of the marketing industry (awful segue, bear with me!), for the average person who wants to lift a few days per week, run, take fitness classes, play recreational sports, or generally be active, most of it is unnecessary. I do think there’s a useful hierarchy here. (If you’ve been here awhile, this list of really boring stuff is going to sound very familiar.) Start with whether you’re eating enough to support what you’re asking your body to do. Look at protein and carbohydrate intake. Hydrate. Sleep as well as your life reasonably allows. Make sure your training program actually contains an appropriate amount of recovery instead of trying to recover your way out of doing too much. Get fresh air and let sunshine touch your face. Spend time around loved ones. Move a little more. And then we can talk about all the other recovery tactics.
If you love your sauna, use your sauna. If your massage gun makes your legs feel great after a long run, massage away. If you enjoy cold plunging, understand what you’re using it for and consider when you do it. If you’re interested in red light therapy and have the disposable income for a device, cool.
The extra stuff isn’t a magic pill. And it in no way takes the place of (nor should be prioritized over) the basics that serve as your foundations
SO…
You don’t necessarily need to do more to recover better. Sometimes recovery looks a whole lot more like eating dinner, drinking some water, getting into bed without your phone, and giving your body enough time to do what it already knows how to do.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Does this blog post resonate with you? At Front Porch Nutrition, I coach real people through real-life nutrition — thinking through what your wants, needs, and goals are, and working together to make changes that last not just in the moment, but for the long haul. Get started with 1:1 nutrition coaching today!
