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The exercise "recovery" industry is largely bogus - Printable Version

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The exercise "recovery" industry is largely bogus - C C - Feb 23, 2019

https://www.vox.com/2019/2/9/18215958/exercise-recovery-bogus-cupping-ice-bath

INTRO: When health journalist Christie Aschwanden was traveling the world as a competitive ski racer in the 1990s and 2000s, recovery between training sessions basically meant doing nothing — taking a day to sleep in or lie around with a good book. About a decade ago, she noticed something had changed: recovery became a thing athletes actively performed — with foam rollers, cryotherapy, or cupping — as part of their training routines. These recovery tools were heavily marketed to athletes, including amateur ones, as a means to boost performance and bust muscle aches.

In a new book, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, Aschwanden walks through all the biggest recovery fads of the past decade — and exposes the shoddy science backing most of them.

It’s an intelligent and entertaining tour of fitness research for anyone who exercises, with clear advice on what actually works to aid recovery. I won’t give away all the juicy details in the book, but I did ask Aschwanden to walk me through three of the most dubious recovery methods she uncovered. Here’s what she told me.

(COVERED: Athletes should be more concerned about overhydration than dehydration ... Cold therapy after exercising can hamper recovery ... There’s no good evidence that cupping therapy works ... So what actually works to speed recovery?)

MORE: https://www.vox.com/2019/2/9/18215958/exercise-recovery-bogus-cupping-ice-bath